Remita: AI adoption critical to Nigeria's fintech growth

Guardian Nigeria

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00:00Now, a report by Remeter says urgent action is needed by Nigerian fintech companies to

00:06stay ahead of the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence, and the report highlights the

00:10role of the AI plays in Nigeria's fintech growth.

00:14Now, with over 40% of Nigerians still unbanked, the report notes that Nigeria's digital economy

00:19stands to gain immensely from AI adoption.

00:22Deremi Atonda, Managing Director of Remeter, joins me to unpack this report.

00:27Thank you so much.

00:28It's a pleasure to have you on the show with us today.

00:32Yes, I am.

00:33Nice to be here.

00:34Quite an exhaustive, very robust report, but we've seen AI reshaping the global financial

00:40services landscape, and of course, Nigeria is part of that, but challenges, risks, and

00:46opportunities.

00:47But talk to us about where we are now here, where we are at this moment, 2025, with artificial

00:53adoption and what we should be doing as a nation.

00:58Thank you very much, Esther.

00:59It's a pleasure to always feel the pulse of the West African and African economy at the

01:04end of the day on this program.

01:07Speaking to the issues, for us at Remeter, we've been in this fintech space and payments.

01:15Looking at the future, it's clear that artificial intelligence will play a very critical role.

01:21We took a backseat to analyze the future, and we've come up with a report of the impact

01:26of AI in payments and fintech in Nigeria and Africa, and that report is published.

01:32And there's some things jumping out, that AI has the potential to leapfrog the economy

01:37in Nigeria and across the continent through its infusion in payments.

01:41And AI isn't new, by the way.

01:43For us at Remeter, we started with what you typically call weak AI, everybody's gone to

01:49strong AI.

01:50That's why you're not able to charge GPT and all of that.

01:53They're just models of AI.

01:55And we believe very much so, like you say, that accelerating payments, financial inclusion,

02:00banking and all of that, will be able to leverage the opportunities that artificial intelligence

02:06is bringing to the table now.

02:08And it's a role.

02:09Forty percent of banked Nigerians are underbanked.

02:13New payment products and solutions coming on stream, transformation of payments at the

02:17individual and corporate level, all of those things are things that AI will accelerate.

02:23In simple terms, you're talking about automating processes, intelligent automation of processes.

02:29We've gone beyond the information era.

02:32We've gone beyond the knowledge era.

02:33It's now the intelligence era, where things are built to happen at the speed of thought.

02:41And this is leveraging advanced technologies, and that's why it's called artificial intelligence.

02:45Being able to process things to make things happen intuitively and making more to happen

02:50for the economy.

02:51But what is the scale of adoption, though, within the digital payment space and even

02:56outside of it?

02:57The honest truth is, AI isn't something you're going to see and touch.

03:03You can only experience it.

03:06And the scale will be that for a number of those of us in fintech, particularly what

03:10we've done is that we've transformed our payment processes.

03:13And you're going to see a lot more transformation.

03:16One of the things AI will also do will accelerate the rate at which people get to be digitally

03:21included.

03:22And just think about it.

03:23Practically everyone has a phone, whether a smartphone or a feature phone.

03:27With the embedding of AI at the manufacturer's level, you just hold a phone, you use it to

03:33make a call, and then you have a suggestion of what to do next.

03:36You didn't have any idea about that, and it's leading you on.

03:40And so you begin to see a lot more people are going to be brought into the digital financial

03:44space.

03:45The next thing is as it relates to payments, you're going to have suggestions and things

03:49that can prompt you to do what you want to do without even struggling.

03:54And more importantly, you're going to be able to engage and make things happen in your natural

03:58language.

03:59So think about a number of people who do not consider themselves English literate, and

04:04they can engage and interact to make financial transactions happen in their local languages.

04:11So people are already in this environment building language models that are based on

04:16the indigenous languages.

04:18So that in itself is about stimulating financial inclusion, bringing AI to play.

04:23The next thing is accelerating transactions.

04:27Just one single transaction can build patterns around them, and that can be suggestive of

04:32the next thing to do.

04:33And that's one thing we've seen in the report that Remita has come up with, having been

04:37in this space and today with transactions exceeding about 80 trillion a year.

04:42That is an insight into where the money is going, where is it originating from, and those

04:47are the insights that helps you to serve the market better.

04:50So you're also, I mean, there's also data, good, credible data emerging from all of that

04:54too.

04:55The honest truth is, the fuel for AI is data.

04:57It's what you're able to make of data, and that's why it can only be intelligent.

05:01There's no intelligence without data.

05:03So it's a critical analysis of the data you have.

05:06And so we train data.

05:07So any data you have, you're subjecting it to what is called machine learning for patterns

05:12to emerge and for intuitive behavior to happen as it were, while still keeping data private.

05:19And that's why you can anonymize the data in the environment of artificial intelligence

05:23and things are still happening on their own.

05:25So part of the things we've seen, like I said, is you're going to be able to create or engender

05:30new financial transactions.

05:32An example could be credit.

05:34You've always bought airtime, or you've always made school fees payment, and at some point

05:39you've not made that payment.

05:41It's expected you're going to make that payment, and you are suggested to say, you've not made

05:45the payment for this word.

05:46If you don't have money, could suggest credit to you.

05:49And so these are the kind of things we've built, these are the kind of things we see

05:52that can happen.

05:53And within the entire industry, active engagements and discussions are going on.

05:57Right.

05:58Now let's talk about the risks, current risks, emerging risks, and how players, old and new,

06:03should navigate them.

06:05Great.

06:06There's hardly anything that has a good side that you wouldn't say has some other side.

06:11The greatest thing about AI today, possibly, is about data and their personal data.

06:18To say, how much of my data is within someone else's control, and how much of that can they

06:24use to influence the kind of things I do?

06:26And that's where you talk about ethical introduction of artificial intelligence.

06:32One of the organizations at the forefront of AI advocacy in Nigeria today is CB, that's

06:37the Community of E-Banking Aids.

06:41And over the weekend, there was a master class, and a major aspect of it was talking about

06:44the ethical use of artificial intelligence to ensure that it just achieves the common

06:51good as perceived by everyone.

06:53So when I talk about the kind of things Remta is trying to do, for instance, in terms of

06:57working with different credit providers, to suggest credit to those who have track record,

07:05that's a good use of it.

07:06But there could also be people who may want to use credit for some other purposes.

07:11AI is still the answer to that, by the way, because it can therefore, at the speed of

07:16thought, help you analyze all the data points.

07:20Another major area would be fraud, country fraud.

07:23While some people can use AI for fraud itself, you hear about deepfakes, AI can also fight

07:28that, because you can create an ecosystem where you've been able to aggregate data across

07:33the entire industry, and the CBN can be at the forefront of that, and many of us are

07:38doing things.

07:39There's just an industry platform where those of us who are investing in the future of payments

07:42are collaborating.

07:43And so those are the benefits.

07:45So talking about the risks on one end, being aware of them, and also leveraging AI to address

07:51them are some of the things we see, and those are captured in the report.

07:55Right.

07:56I wish you had more time, but I mean, great stuff, and we're all excited about how this

08:00is going to all take shape this year.

08:01Thank you so much for talking to us today.

08:02Thank you, sir.

08:03Appreciate your time on the show.

08:04Deremi Atunda, Managing Director of Remeter, looking at, of course, our book for AI this

08:09year.

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