Digital banking platform PalmPay has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the financial inclusion initiative of the federal government to ensure that banking services are extended to every Nigerian in the country’s hinterland.
Mr. Chika Nwosu, the Managing Director of PalmPay Nigeria, stated this when he appeared as a guest on the Channels TV Business Roundtable programme recently. He said, PalmPay supports the government’s financial inclusion initiatives through its Agency banking system that is located in almost all the local government areas of the country.
“In addition, PalmPay has walk-in offices in locations across 25 states in Nigeria. We also add value to the economy through our payment system as well as our offer to Nigerians of 20% interest on their savings with our platform,” Mr. Nwosu said.
On building trust in Nigeria’s digital banking ecosystem, he added: “Initially when we started, there was an issue of trust. However, I can tell you now that in the last one year after the cashless policy, has seen the trust start to grow.
“There is no day you won’t see on our app boldly written that we are licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and our deposits are insured by the Nigeria Deposits Insurance Corporation (NDIC). PalmPay is here to stay,” Mr. Nwosu said, adding that Nigerians are massively embracing the PalmPay App and digital payment services.
He reiterated his company’s support to regulators of the industry aimed at making their operations better and to offer more services to Nigerians. “Whatever that is happening with regulation is for the good of the FinTech space in Nigeria. All the regulators want to do is make the services of strong players in the FinTech space, such as PalmPay, better”.
On the recent onboarding policy by the regulator, he stated that PalmPay agreed with the regulators on some grey areas that need to be put in place.
He reassured customers that there was no issue with using PalmPay, and emphasized, “If PalmPay completes their own today, we will start onboarding today”.
He noted that: “As of the time of this interview, no fintech platform has completed any of the requirements set out by the regulators. So, no onboarding is currently taking place in the entire ecosystem”.
Responding to the question of failed transactions, an issue that is more prevalent with money deposit banks than with digital banking platforms, Mr. Nwosu said: “Every institution has its business strategy and infrastructure. For us and the majority of Fintechs, we have a structure that makes transactions seamless”.