There is no debate: the most innovative sector in the Nigerian economy is banking. And the Bankers Committee is legendary for what it has achieved in our nation. Why this praise? From BVN (Bank Verification Number) to NIBSS (Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems), the banks have continued to improve their sector, innovating at scale. Yes, if something is missing, they plan and fix that thing by pooling their resources together.

The latest one is a killer “app” designed to mute most fintech competitors while advancing financial inclusion in the nation: Shared Agent Network Expansion Facility (SANEF) is a big deal.

The nation’s banking sector is taking another big leap and responsibility with the Shared Agent Network Expansion Facility (SANEF), as it pursues the realisation of a plan that wholly reflects commitments to achieving the 80 per cent target on financial inclusion, in about 28 months from now.

SANEF, which difference lies with the fact that it is driven, wholly by banks, devoid of any government’s financial interventions, is a scheme that has already brought the lenders to another unanimous position and strong belief in mutually beneficial goal. But mostly, it is part of the industry’s contribution to the national project- Financial System Strategy 2020 (FSS 2020).

This is coming after the bankers, under the aegis of the Bankers Committee, in December 2015, agreed to pool together, five per cent of their respective profit after tax to pursue equity participation in small businesses and lending at single interest rate.SANEF is a project ratified by the Central Bank of Nigeria, owned by Deposit Money Banks, supported by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS), licensed Mobile Money Operators (MMOs) and the Shared Agents, with the primary objective of accelerating financial inclusion in Nigeria, through a renewed agent network arrangement

This is my prediction: Nigerian banks would seek for a mobile license and do mobile money in their own terms. South African banks have been getting the (virtual) mobile operating licenses; Nigerian banks would join the party as one bloc. When that happens, using any bank web service will come at zero mobile browsing credit. As always, they would not do this directly – they would hold equity in a new entity and with that overcome all regulatory issues from NCC (Nigerian Communications Commission), the telecom regulator.

The green kiosk is not the great stuff here; the innovation is the fact that one agent can serve for all banks. The kiosks will fade but the vision of shared agent would move into an app. That is why I have tilled this piece “Killer App” because SANEF App would be valuable.

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Winning the battle is always different from winning the war, especially in the age of disruptions; because you can still be disrupted, after disrupting someone. And for some of us who understand these battles, there’s nothing like a victory lap, just start readying for the next battle once you finish one.

Obviously the banking sector is a cut above the rest, a case in point is the success of BVN, when compared with the mess we called SIM card registration. Till today, many active phone lines cannot be traced to the identities therein. Let’s not even mention NIN and all our money sucking undertakings.

Until we realise that government cannot successfully drive any policy, except private players take over, then we can moderate our expectations from anything being implemented by government; always ineffective and inefficient.

With SANEF, the banks have essentially democratised financial services, and at the same time – becoming the super aggregators, welcoming others to just come in and have a small cut. Dogs can be giving births here and there, but when an elephant decides to give one, everyone stands still and watch.

It’s a big party, more jobs for the boys and girls all over the country.
After the reggae, play the blues

I have accepted the invitation of the Government of Alberta (Canada) to attend and speak in Inventures 2019. Inventures offers a great platform for deep conversation on technology and innovation. The event holds in Calgary on June 5-7, 2019. Alberta Innovates organizes the program.

Alberta Innovates is a provincially-funded Corporation with a mandate to deliver 21st century solutions for the most compelling challenges facing Albertans. We do this by building on our province’s research and technology development strengths in the core sectors of health, environment, energy, food and fibre and platforms such as artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and omics. We are working with our partners to diversify Alberta’s economy, improve our environmental performance and enhance our well-being through research and innovation.

The Government of Alberta has been bringing experts from around the world for deep conversations on Innovation. That redesign is catalytic because without innovation, nothing happens. Yes, it is not just the creation of knowledge that matters but the translation of the knowledge to fix market frictions via products and services.

Great ideas without products and services are Invention. But when they are commercialized, you have Innovation. Simply: Innovation = Invention + Commercialization.

While the creation, generation and accumulation of knowledge remain critical, it is the translation of knowledge that builds modern nations. For many centuries, the world was an inventive society despite amalgam of some of the finest scientists who pioneered nearly all fields of modern physics and chemistry. Yes, ideas everywhere but not a single product or service for citizens.

But when the century of innovation kicked in, GDPs of nations grew. Alberta is working to sustain that innovation element by creating a fluidic system to ensure that ideas move from labs to markets. I am hopeful Nigeria does the same also; policy matters. Yes indeed, as no nation has advanced the welfare of its citizens unless it can transition from an inventive society into an innovation society.

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The world waits for no one, nations and people that will control things by 2050 are already laying the foundations. In this part of the world, we are waiting for 2045 to launch our own 2050 agenda. And this is why any thought about leapfrogging anyone may remain only a dream, because it does appear that we are always set up to play catchup.

All our national, regional or local agendas are tied to individuals, largely – politicians who may not even understand what they are saying in the first place, so when their tenures are over, brand new agendas are created by the newest guys in town, sometimes with beautiful names and acronyms.

If the federal government cannot drive any serious agenda, maybe state governments can come within a region/zone and create something big. But that’s more or less like asking for butter when no one has even agreed to provide you with the bread…

If we are not careful, in 30 years time, our democracy and governance may not go beyond building roads, railways, power projects, water, health centres; with the usual ‘it is our turn to rule’. Just grab power for the sake of power, and nothing more.

Wishing you a happy outing, with something to bring back to Africa.

We like this one – a top engineer in the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) used Zenvus, our agtech business, as a case study for the award of a GSMA certificate in Barcelona Spain. You can download the slides here. We truly appreciate NCC for showcasing a Nigerian business in that platform – thanks.