A deeper collaboration among players in the digital payment ecosystem is needed to boost the security of data and funds of Nigerians, Africa’s leading integrated payments and digital commerce company, Interswitch has posited.
According to Interswitch, such collaboration will help to improve the detection and prevention of fraud in the ecosystem.
Speaking at the 2022 BusinessDay ‘Future of Payments and Fraud’ Conference, Ejike Ngene, Head, Banking Technologies, Interswitch, said the payment space has grown explosively, not only in Nigeria but also globally, adding that Interswitch, as a leader in the space, has put together some preventive measures that aim to address the prevailing issue of payment fraud in the country.
“Interswitch has continued to invest in robust systems that pre-empt fraudulent activities with fortified protocols that undermine fraud within the payment ecosystem in Nigeria,” he said.
As a whole, the panel agreed that to create a fortified system against fraud, more skilled hands would be required, especially in view of the current skill deficit in the field exacerbated by the continued exodus of trained labour to other countries across the world. The panelists also cited aggressive training of Nigerian youths as a necessary step to be taken.
Speaking on what Interswitch was doing to bridge the skills gap, Ngene pointed out that the tech firm’s internship programme was designed to groom tech-inclined Nigerians and to support the current workforce. He said “To close the skillset gap, Interswitch is training and retraining Nigerians to create systems and solutions that will manage challenges bedeviling the digital payment ecosystem in Nigeria.”