Nigeria’s foremost informal association in the banking, financial and allied technology sector, the Fintech1000plus, has honoured the duo of the immediate-past president of the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), Rev. Sunday Folayan, and co-founder and CEO of eMaginations, Mr. Sola Fanawopo, as FinTech1000+ heroes, reports ITREALMS.
The recognition, ITREALMS gathered was held for partners and volunteers of FinTech1000+ following their prompt contributions to the association’s CSR COVID-19 intervention for the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
ITREALMS also gathered that the latest honours’ list as Fintech1000plus Heroes comprised MTN, Airtel, Globacom, Rev. Sunday Folayan, and Sola Fanawopo among other volunteers.
The heroes’ mementoes were presented by Messrs Abubakar Suleiman, and Omoke Adebanjo, the Managing Director, Sterling Bank plc and Mastercard Senior Vice President, Regional Franchise Lead (Middle East & Africa), respectively.
Both are members of Fintech1000plus, Nigeria’s foremost informal association in the banking, financial and allied technology sector.
Commenting on the event, Iyin Aboyeji, Founder Future Africa and member Fintech1000plus noted that “Some weeks after COVID-19 hit the country, we observed some technology challenges which the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) was having. They included; inability to efficiently disseminate mass media communication and information to all mobile phones concurrently, and incidence reporting which includes; tracking, tracing and citizens action points.”
In addition, he said, FinTech1000+ after deliberations among its membership and interaction with the NCDC decided to put together a team of front-end interfaces that will rapidly use the COVID-19 Risk Assessment triage to quickly analyze information from the public, while storing the information in a backend database for subsequent analysis and follow-up.
He pointed out that the front ends were made up of “Interactive Voice Response system (IVR), Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), application in major Nigerian languages, desktop tools for web-based access, and a mobile application. Moreover, as much as possible, make the front ends toll free or ZERO cost to the people, and for the telcos to make the portal access free for such incident response systems.
In acknowledging the support of Fintech1000plus, the Director-General, NCDC, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, applauded the group and partnering telecos as well as volunteers for a job well done.
“The fight against COVID-19 is not a government or public sector battle alone. But that of every stakeholder of the Nigeria project. Fintech1000plus support is well appreciated and a commendable partnership from the private sector. It is our wish that such will continue, not just during this COVID-19 pandemic, but in other areas in future,” he said.
Fintech1000plus, ITREALMS recalls, prides itself as an informal association of professionals in the financial technology sector that adopts a pragmatic approach to solving problems, especially those that impact the ability of Nigerians to do business and make payments and settlements electronically.
*Nenye Dom/Editor
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