BANKING & PAYMENT TECHNOLOGIES WEST AFRICA, 2009: Mobile Banking to be major focus of Banking & Payment Technologies Conference

The conference will start with a Focus on Branchless Banking hosted by leading organisations promoting innovation in this area: Enhancing Financial Innovation & Access (EFInA), the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), the MSME Project which is a joint pilot of the Federal Government of Nigeria and the World Bank, and the global microfinance body Consultative Group for Advancing the Poor (CGAP). The session will be chaired by Adedotun Sulaiman, Chairman of the EFInA and one of the country’s leading innovators in payment technologies.

Expert speakers on branchless banking include:

• James Olekah, Director of Banking Operations in the Central Bank of Nigeria

• Modupe Ladipo, CEO of EFInA Nigeria

• Jennifer Isern, Africa Director of CGAP

• Alice Zanza, a specialist in the World Bank’s Payments Department

• Brian Richardson, CEO of Wizzit, South Africa’s mobile banking pioneer

• Renzo Rossi Escuza, Manager, Direct Channels at Banco de Crédito in Peru

• Abiodun Ogunlabi, Mobile Money Programme Manager at MTN Nigeria

• Kyari Bukar, CEO of ValuCard, Nigeria

• Lauren Reese, IS Fund Manager at CGAP

• Mitchell Elegbe, MD of Interswitch

• Edna Ishaya, Executive Chairman of AdanaMamaki, Nigeria

• Simon Akinteye, MD of Integrated MFB, Nigeria

Over 30 speakers will be making presentations over the other two days of the conference, which will also include an exhibition of banking and payment systems and solutions.

Announcing the impressive line-up of speakers, Sean Moroney, Chairman of AITEC Africa, organisers of the event, said that Nigeria’s bankers, mobile operators and microfinance institutions would be able to benefit from a unique education programme which will help them prepare for the country’s mobile banking explosion. “By learning from the mobile banking projects already under way in other markets, the country’s bankers can better understand the opportunities, as well as the hazards, presented by latest technologies and systems. We are delighted to be combining forces with leading agencies in this field to offer the market a high-powered conference drawing together unparalleled expertise in branchless banking,” said Moroney.