Banks Processed 1.4bn e-transactions Valued at N97.4trn in 2017

The banking industry has processed not less than 1.4 billion transactions valued at N97.4 trillion in 2017 due to the emergence of new digital products and services and the influence of internet in consumers’ purchasing decisions.
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Deputy Governor in charge of Financial System Stability (FSS) Mrs Aisha Ahmad stated this in her keynote address at the maiden edition of the National Financial Literacy Stakeholders’ Conference held in Abuja.
“Today, the financial system is probably the most affected by technological advancement. New digital products and services have emerged, and the internet greatly influences consumers’ purchasing decisions as they continue to adopt e-commerce. For instance, in 2017, in the banking industry, 1.4 billion electronic transactions valued at N97.4 trillion were processed as against 869 million transactions valued at N69.1 trillion recorded in 2016.”
She noted that low financial awareness and literacy levels as well as consumer confidence remain critical issues that must be examined more closely if our financial inclusion strategy is to succeed.
According to her, an essential pillar of any consumer protection regime is Consumer Education, which is founded on financial literacy.
She posited that the benefit of a financially literate population are immense as consumers are better equipped to make optimal choices in the use of financial products, pose lower credit and default risk, constitute a market for sustainable financial services and products, reinforce competitive pressure on financial institutions for better products and services, and promote Financial System Stability by increasing market demand and responsible use of financial services.
The Deputy Governor however noted that while these developments are no doubt good for the financial system and are expected to aid our financial inclusion efforts, they are accompanied by a myriad of challenges which include but not limited to privacy and security concerns, requiring enhanced privacy and data protection for consumers.
Others are: Exposure to new and more inventive fraudulent practices which requires stakeholders to double their combat efforts, consumers are confronted with multiplicity of information which may lead to information processing errors, adding that concerns around accuracy, reliability of information as well as transparency continue to grow
She also said the industry is faced with an increasing complexity of financial products and services accompanied by consumers’ lack of information or capacity to understand such products and/ or their associated risks, stressing that enhanced disclosure is very essential.
As part of efforts to effectively tackle the seeming challenges inherent in the implementation of the scheme, four documents were presented at the conference by the Deputy Governor and they include: Revised National Financial Inclusion Strategy, Consumer Protection Framework (CPF), National Financial Literacy Framework (NFLF) and National Financial Education Strategy (NFES).
According to Mrs Ahmad, in the course of implementing the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) which was launched by the President in October 2012, the need arose for the review of the strategy to meet the challenges and re-assess the developments and the current realities, of the ever-evolving environment in which we operate.