A few days into the new year, I was invited as a guest on the Patito’s Gang, where I joined a few other experts to discuss the Fourth Industrial Revolution. We looked at the impact of digital revolution on the economy as well as on the future of developing nations such as Nigeria.
The anchor of the show, Prof. Pat Utomi, focused on the impact of technology on the financial services sector.
Nigeria’s fintechs have done pretty well; but a lot certainly still needs to be done and success in this sector will be determined how start-ups that operate within the sector decide to innovate.
Fintechs that want to succeed will have to continuously employ digital solutions to bring about unending satisfaction that is constantly evolving in expectations. There is no doubt that the traditional means of handling financial services, especially the banking system have over the years delivered brand recognition and credibility services to the corporates and individuals in this country. However, traditional financial services are stuck in established processes.
This often comes with processes that stall the development of new solutions to address the difficulties that come with solving the needs of their customers.
Contrary to the traditional system model, fintechs have employed the development of digital solutions for the satisfaction of users.
The question now is: why do the financial service providers, especially the banking sector, need digital solutions now compared to the ones offered through traditional methods?
Since the boom of fintech start-ups, the evolution of customers has been taken to another level of awareness. Thus, even the unbankable are gradually accepting to execute their financial transactions through the use of digital solutions, after neglecting the traditional means.
This has clearly shown how digital trends can bring about noticeable transformation in the polity. The impact of digital solutions on financial services has therefore helped to increase competition in the financial sector.
Digital solutions by fintechs have brought about more personalized experience for users than ever before. This has by miles disrupted a good number of activities in the financial sphere, which in turn has resulted in increased pressure on banks and quick development of new products and services.
Investment in digital solutions has not only transformed customers experience with financial services but has also impacted the workplaces where these various services are carried out.
Digital transformation has been able to provide the best of alignment between teams for more collaboration, quick and efficient result as well as precise customer service; the ability of automation, in terms of tasks involving administration; ease of workflow and the ability to simplify challenging work that would have appeared difficult, going by the traditional approach.
It has also brought in a new approach of organizational transparency. The offering of digital solutions in financial services might appear not to have covered a lot of grounds when it comes to the subject matter of transparency, but compared to the traditional means, it has brought more transparency options to the table.
What has digital solution been able to offer the financial service firms and their users?
Digital solutions have shifted the focus from the regular traditional business structures to empowerment of staff members, through the contribution of ideas and decision making.
Since cloud-based services are economical, digital solutions have found ways to meet these needs, thus streamlining costs of infrastructure and the IT.
Since digital transformation has gone mobile, customers are in expectation of what would continuously guarantee them ease and convenience in their business dealings.
Digital transformation often involves a continuous experimentation and this gives room for — Finish Reading on the Punch
