The wait is over! Today marks the latest edition of the Nigerian Fintech Week, and stakeholders and various industry players worldwide were in attendance. The event, which was held at Landmark Event Center in Lagos, had dignitaries from various Fintech companies in Nigeria and Africa at large in attendance. It was a no-brainer that Remita, a leading Fintech company in Nigeria with a l
ong legacy of building for everyone, would be in attendance.
We were out today in bright orange colours as the event started with the opening address well delivered by the President of FintechNGR, Ade Bajomo. He spoke extensively about the need for some important players in the African Fintech space to enable Nigeria and the continent at large to fulfil financial inclusion and sustainable development goals. He also spoke about the need for Africa to start developing and exporting our own technology stacks – ‘the Africa stack’, and become producers rather than just consumers of existing byproducts of science and engineering. In his words, the vision that drives FintechNGR, is the belief that Fintech is the key to unlocking Africa’s potential.
The keynote address was delivered by Dr Emomotimi Agama, the Director General of the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC). His address which was based on the theme for the event – Positioning Africa’s Fintech Ecosystem to Accelerate Inclusive Growth. In his keynote, he addressed the need for the SEC in the financial markets, particularly fintech to protect the rights and data of all parties, investors, in particular. According to him, the SEC believes that effective regulation is not just about enforcement but also about creating an enabling environment where innovation can thrive while protecting the interests of all stakeholders.
He urged Fintech innovators to continue developing solutions that address Africa’s challenges, particularly in the areas of financial inclusion, access to capital and wealth creation for underserved populations.
The Fireside chat was an important highlight for us as it featured our very own Mujib Ishola, Executive Director, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Remita, alongside Rodger Werkhoven of OpenAI, Ehia Erhaboh from AI-Nigeria, Gbolahan Atoyebi from MainOne and George Onyewuchi, from SoftAlliance. The Fireside chat which was moderated by Carmelle Cadet, CEO of Emtech discussed Africa’s Tech in the Age of AI.
Rodger Werkhoven, Independent Creative Director at OpenAI introduced OpenAI’s latest AI model – ‘Agents’ which is capable of carrying out human-like actions like talking, coding, thinking, building strategies, and so much more. Unlike Assistants which are LLM (Large Language Model) based, Agents are LAM (Large Action Model) based.
When asked about the current landscape of AI in Africa, our CTO, Mujib mentioned that one interesting thing about AI in Africa is our numbers and diversity as we have a lot of data in Nigeria alone, talk more of Africa. He mentioned that eventually the conversation will shift to what Africa is contributing to the progress of AI, and one of that will be our data and possibly infrastructure. He also highlighted how important it is for us to be careful in the handling of our data as mishandling could cause more division rather than inclusion.
While discussing the challenges and opportunities of the three pillars of AI in Africa – talent, computing and data, Mujib Ishola mentioned the possibility of biases and errors in the data or models and how this affects inclusion for people across board. He also spoke about how it can be expensive to run these models, particularly when paying via FX. In response to some of these possible challenges mentioned by Mujib, Rodger suggested the introduction of an AI Act for Africa similar to the European AI Act.
The session ended with the participants agreeing that there is a need for a fourth pillar – rules. Thus bringing the total amount of pillars needed for the success of AI innovation in Africa to four – talent, computing, data and rules. In his final comment, Mujib expressed confidence in Nigeria and Africa’s abilities to continue to contribute to these technologies.
Tomorrow promises to be another exciting time and opportunity for learning as our Managing Director, ‘DeRemi Atanda will be delivering a keynote address and other speakers will be sharing domain knowledge.
Do well to join us!
Venue: Landmark Event Center, VI, Lagos.
Date: 8th – 10th of October, 2024.
Time: 10:00 am
To connect with us or schedule a meeting during Nigeria Fintech Week, please send an email to [email protected].
