Yesterday the 21th of June 2016 witnessed the first ever ‘Let’s talk Tech’ summit powered by FirstBank of Nigeria, Nigeria’s pioneer bank.
The tech industry has been slowly growing in Nigeria ever since the advent of the internet and as time has gone on, the space has been growing at a fast rate, even at that, the industry is still a baby. The potential for growth in the industry is amazing and FirstBank identified this and organized a forum in which both the financial and the tech worlds could meet and strategize on how to work together.
The event which held at Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island was well attended by the who’s who of the tech startups. In attendance were; Akin Alabi the founder of Naira Bet, Nigeria’s first sports betting website, Obinna Ekezie of Wakanow.com, Ebi Atawodi of Uber, Jason Njoku of Iroko TV, Chijioke Dozie who started One Money with his partner, Lola Masha of OLX, Chika Nwobi of Mtech, Peter Bankole of Pan African University and others.
The event was kicked off with a welcome address from FBN’s MD and CEO, Mr. Adesola Adeduntan who welcomed everyone and spoke about the need for there to be synergy between the tech world and the world of finance so as to move the economy forward. He spoke of the need to extract value from the burgeoning tech space so as to make for a better nation.
Next up was the distinguished and ever eloquent chairman of the Board of Directors of FirstBank, Mrs. Ibukun Awosika. She gave the keynote speech which she called ‘Building a new Economy’. She highlighted the ways in which technology could destroy just as well as it could build up. She admitted that the financial world didn’t know much about the happenings in the tech space, but that FirstBank is leading the charge to learn more about it and are ready to support it as they were confident that the tech space could usher in a new era in the Nigerian economy.
She noted that it would be good for stakeholders in the tech world to understand the constraints placed on banks when it comes to loaning money to young startups and that they are also open to understanding the constraints that tech startups encounter in their bid to kickoff and that by this mutual understanding, both parties will be able to work together towards a common goal and create more successful businesses in the tech space.
She also spoke of the responsibility entrepreneurs owe the society and the other people looking up to them, she stressed that tech entrepreneurs continue to do what they do as it was what some people relied upon. She gave the example of how it might be more profitable to sell her company, but she wouldn’t do so because of her workers and that value needed to be recognized not just in the financial aspects, but also the human aspect.
She urged upcoming tech entrepreneurs to identify needs within the economy and society and then create something that will help solve this need so as to push the nation forward and that FirstBank was ready to help.
Mr. Francis Shobo, the Deputy Managing Director shared a few words stating that FirstBank had 13 million accounts and 10 million customers and that part of what they had to offer tech Entrepreneurs and challenged them to bring forward what they had so that the two can work together.
Next up, Akin Alabi of Naira Bet shared his story on how he overcame the odds and built Nigeria’s first sports betting site. He advised that anyone getting into any business should strive to be first and that this was usually a necessary ingredient for success.
Two panels took place afterwards. The first was tagged ‘Growth: How can Banks and the tech community collaborate to drive business growth and profitability in the current depressed economic environment’, one the panel were; Akin Alabi, Obinna Ekezie of Wakanow.com, Ebi Atawodi of Uber, Chijioke Dozie and Mr. Chukwuma Ezirim from FBN’s E-business division. The panelists answered various questions from the moderator as to how the financial institutions could help the tech community grow their businesses.
Akin Alabi stated that it would be a great help if FirstBank could partner with them in such a way that subscribers who had accounts with Naira Bet could seamlessly put in money and withdraw money from their accounts without any hassle.
Obinna Ekezie spoke of some of the challenges of starting up Wakanow and how there was no reliable database of hotels or airlines in the country at the time and the difficulty of getting airlines to give them competitive rates.
The second panel featured; Jason Njoku, Lola Masha, Chika Nwobi, Dipo Ogunbiyi from FBN capital and Peter Bankole of Pan African University and it was tagged, ‘Innovative Financing options: How can Tech comapnies leverage financing options to drive rapid growth? What are the best options at every stage of growth?’
Here, most of the panelists discussed how they got financing for their businesses and the common theme was that they got from people around them. This indicated that the banks could do more to support the tech community. Jason Njoku advised that FirstBank should start with businesses at the early stages as once they reach a certain level, the help of the banks would no longer be needed and it’ll represent a lost opportunity.
After the panels, an open session was held where other heads of tech companies were allowed to say their piece. The vote of thanks was given in which FirstBank assured those present that the conversation wouldn’t end there and that there would be more forums just like this one where ideas would be shared and the financial and tech world could merge.
For any tech entrepreneur looking for an opportunity to work with FirstBank, they gave out a dedicated email address to the forward movement of the discussion. Send an email to [email protected] and someone will surely get back to you.
It was a lovely first step in what looks like a blossoming friendship between FirstBank and the immense potential of the tech community.
You can see images from the event below.
