Dr Segun Aina, founding President of the Africa Fintech Network (AFN), and Board Chairman, FintechNGR has urged financial technology service providers in the country to embrace and pay a lot of attention to good and well-established corporate governance practices as they expand to new markets beyond the country and continent.

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the 42nd Annual General Meeting of Odu’a Investment Company Limited held in Lagos recently, he said: “We have issues about lack of acceptable corporate governance in startup businesses who are largely small businesses without the desired structures when starting, but over time they will grow and require sound corporate governance practices to scale.

“This is why stakeholders in the industry including the organizations I belong to are now focusing and putting a lot of emphasis on corporate governance.

“The first set of Fintechs are now becoming big institutions. As they move into new markets the demand and need for acceptable, compliant and tested governance structures and practices becomes very imperative.

“That is desirable for the next stage of growth in the Fintech space, and with that in place, Nigeria Fintechs can operate without regulatory hiccups and compete anywhere in the world”.

Dr Aina who is the immediate past chairman of Odu’a Investment Co Ltd who together with other Board members and management rejuvenated the company of companies and set it on the path of sustainable growth and profitability urged regulators and the government to formulate policies that are friendly towards advancing innovation in the country.

“Innovation related to creating non-existing solutions, these are things that were not in existence before and there is no way the government or regulators would have regulated what does not exist. Therefore, when it comes to existence, they will have to come up with how to regulate those innovative outcomes in a way to ensure in most cases the public interest.

“This may create encumbrances for some startup founders and entrepreneurs who were not in breach of any rules on commencement but now have to follow new guidelines and policies put in place to regulate their activities and operations.

“What is important is that policies have to be business friendly and must recognize that there is a need to innovate and the process ought to carry along all the stakeholders.  Regulatory policies should not stifle innovation but be seen as supportive of and advancing creativity. The good news is that things are changing now for the better with the financial services regulators, especially in the fintech space, he added.

Dr Aina expressed his belief in bequeathing Nigerian youths with digital skills to solve unemployment and create many new businesses that provide solutions to societal challenges.

This is why he founded Opolo Global Innovation Ltd, an organization that has with the support of BoI established Innovation Hubs in ten University campuses in the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria as one of the platforms to emplace skilling, innovation and enterprise among students and researchers. Also during his tenure as Odua Investment Board Chairman, the company created the South-West Innovation and Technology Company Ltd (SWIT).

He said, “Today, the emphasis is on technology, as we have a large youth population in Nigeria, many of them with University degrees but without the needed skills to enter today’s workplace, hence most of the graduates in the past few years remain unemployed.

“So, we have to provide them with those skills, create the system that encourages them to become entrepreneurs and job creators, provide them with the seed capital, the funding needed to enable them to set up their own business so that a lot of them that are involved in other negative things will be able to focus on positive things that develop the society. Nigerian youths are very, very intelligent, they just need to be supported.

“It is against this backdrop that Odua Investment Co Ltd set up South West Innovation and Technology Co Ltd (SWIT), as a new subsidiary to be the driver of the changes that we want in the innovation and digital space, in solving problems, in doing new things and improving on the ways existing things are done.

“If things go the way it is envisioned, I’m sure in the next five years that company will have produced a lot of new enterprises who will be challenging global players, creating exciting solutions and products. That’s why we added the word innovation-doing new things that will solve the way we are going in our strategy”.