Fintechs charged to drive borderless trade in Africa

The business community in Nigeria and players in the Financial-Technology sector have been charged to take advantage of the opportunities that abound in the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) by developing intra-African payment solutions to ease trade settlements.

This recommendation, amongst others, was discussed at the 7th Edition of PoS Innovation Summit organised by Global Accelerex with the theme “African Continental Free Trade Agreement : Driving Borderless Trade Through Fintech’’, in Lagos.

The Managing Director of Global Accelerex, Tunde Ogungbade, set the tone for the event with thought-provoking questions in his welcome remark, which centered on how Fintechs can facilitate easy and seamless payment across Africa in this new era of borderless trade and how the former bottlenecks and barriers can translate to breakthroughs and possibilities for continental commerce.

The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, who was represented by the Director General, Nigerian Office for Trade Negotiations, Liman V. Liman, explained the intricacies of the treaty, pointing out that African countries stood to gain a whole lot by doing business with each another.

He opined that the pact, which has a goal to create a single market that allows free flow of goods and services across the African continent, would expand intra-African trade through harmonisation, liberalisation and facilitation of trade instruments across Africa.