Mustapha Haruna, Director, Banking Supervision Department, CBN, says the apex bank will continue to monitor fintechs in Nigeria as an important sector in its operations.

Mr Haruna, represented by Adekunle Adeniji, an assistant director in the department, stated this at the end of the 31st Finance Correspondents and Business Editors seminar on Thursday in Enugu.

The two-day seminar, organised by the CBN, has ‘Trends in Nigerian payments system: regulating the fintech digital playing field’ as its theme.

Speaking on the topic, ‘The Fintech phenomenon: implications for supervision and regulation’, Mr Haruna said that as a regulator, the bank would ensure opportunities in fintechs were properly harnessed.

“So, as we onboard fintechs into financial services, we need to have a proper understanding of the technology companies and what risks they bring; and then we need to effectively manage these threats — threat to consumer data protection, among others,” he explained. “While we may not exactly eliminate these threats, we must ensure that we are able to minimise those threats to consumers and to financial institutions, as well as the financial system and its stability.”

According to him, authorities also need to ensure that regulated government entities, “necessary government structures will identify and manage all these risks arising from the use of these activities.”

Mr Haruna also explained that the CBN needed to keep an eye on the fintechs because of the huge market value in its operations globally.

(NAN)