FINTECHS AND NEW WAVES OF DIGITAL REVOLUTION

The primordial age of technological freedom is tearing apart old waves of industrial revolution and new technological disruption services altering the fundamental structure escalates worldwide.In this treatise the blogger Ibikunle laniyan examines the critical impact of block chain and specififcally of fintechs and the new waves of digital revolution. Mordern age experiments a lot and experiences a whole lot of boom and burst in the growth of technological services and revolution.We cannot be compelled to abandon the notion that each pain in the optimal growth of technological ecosystem albeit as it were comeswith gigantic growth in the standard of living and balloon in mordern civilisation.However we've reached a crescendo once again similar to internet revolution of the early 90s and it came with a big bang,unprecedented explosion and strategic irresistibility of the digital financial services ferociously leveraged and solely powered by fintechs.No doubt,they have lowered potential costs by maximising economies of scale,grow security and transparency and the velocity at which digital transaction takes place at particular period to grow tailored financial services to serve unbankable poor. Albeit the inherent risk and challenges facing digital financial services and regulatory framework,across intercountry disruptive experiences,growth of digital expansion however could not obscure the soaring risks and inherent paramount obstacles.It was particularly encouraging during C0VID19 period keeping the financial system functioning and people save in the face of moral embargo like social distancing and quarrantining imbroglio that attended the pandemics.In the face of falling demand and disrupted input supply,recessionary tightening of credit conditionings and rising incertitude,kept its ammunition shelling as new attempts were made to churn out sensitive technologies to manage this relentless spiral of growing risks.Be that as it may,in the fast explosive tech ecosystem,developing economies expected to lag behind in 2023 where digital usage struggles from the rear.As it were during the pandemic similar divide experienced a surge of 5billion users worldwide compared 3 billion offline 96%in the developing region.A digital inequality of this monumental proportion currenly defies no solution,though puzzles not beyond the author's proven proposition. We also examines concerted effort maneauvered at bridging the divide.Less than 10%of the poorest percentiles in africa could access the internet.51%of south asia women less likely to use mobile internet.Unfortunately when vulnerable poor population access the net,lack of digital education frustrate the whole effort.In most african countries,using my country interpersonal user based experiences,the more access mobile connectors in africa get,the less research and capacity building,they accommodate,a cardinal point why ignorance and misery rises in the continent,in the face of possible technological solution.From Chile where Cuenta Rut as national ID linked basic account operates over 2million vulnerable Chileans received social assistance payment directly to their bank accounts in the face of massive closures of offices to shut out virus spread;to Cote d'ivoire where govt provides medical screening and infection geolocation intelligence,containment measures were succesfully deployed.Turkey provides elearning platform with over 1million teachers to 18m.students In the latin america and caribbean region high data cost was cited by 60%of the unconnected as main obstacle to internet access.83% of people in africa live in mobile connected areas but only 27%are using them.This critical regulatory and institutional inadequacy could stall the beautiful dream,promotional expansion and rapid access to fintechs'services online.Nevertheless the golden spiral of fintechs continues to be one of the major drivers of digital revolution waves.For instance in previous year2021 was a banner ad.year passionately driven for this golden investment of digital expansion invariably accelerating the valuebased services for rapid digital transformation.The industry according to BIS study attracted a trillion dollars from over 35,000equity deals grew exponentially to 5%from mere 1% since 2010.The top 100fintechs already account a staggering value of $2.7tr.compared to the top 100banks with value of $7.1tr.The growing spectrum of decentralised finance replacing legacy banks and traditional intermediarieslike banks,brokers and insurance firms seem to be overtaken by the new techies.Blockchain,AI,cryptocurrency and smart contracts currently usurped the public ovation,deemed to be core competence of any financial institution in the next decade.Equipped with highly datacentric technology,financial institutions will be positioned to offer improve faster risk assesment,customer product matching,enhanced security and customer focused and intelligence driven operations.The rise of fintech or financial technology enables market competition even though could share infrastructure and equally motivate legacy banks to rethink their technology and grow innovation for better services. Digital banking as one of core fintechservices grew from innovative practice androde on consumer interest and on the frontuser experiencefor the mobile apps moving to the backend,with greater emphasis on data analytics.To add value to the services enterprise banks find common ground to collaborate with fintechs or fintech startups to grow this value chain.The strategic delivery of institutional capability creates insurmountable hyperchallenging task and possibly could under deliver.Two or three years ago,blockchain technology came with lot of excitement that could revolutionise banking.But with media overhype fallaciously underdelivered and seriously underperformed below its potential.In 2020 about 50billion devices was connected to the internet collectively known as internet of things(I0D) and prompted trillions of small but realtime transactions,conducive for fintech services.Now with the new waves of fintech services,a good fintech should be able to leverage on thousands and millions of wallets,cryptos,AI,blockchain,IODs to provide cost effective electronic banking services to any types of clients even the unbanked populace. With emergence of financial technology revolutionising the value chain ranging from blockchain technology,to digital banking,mobile payment options and crowdfunding,boundless opportunities massively created should be leveraged to solidly proffer solution to its institutional inadequacy.In 2019,fintechs surpasses $1tr.annual global revenue.Mobile payment dominated revenue and payment apps like paypal,payoneer,Venmo,apple pay and a host of mobile money services prevalent in SSA region.The region account almost 50% or 48.4% of active global mobile money users.Bureaucracy in public civil services drasticaly reduces including ease of opening bank account,including telecom services,made accessible to the larger audience.The growth of cyberattacks could be equally mindboggling.MPESA witnessed a wave of organised crimes led to huge loss in kenya.Kuda in nigeria and Zazu in Zambia raised over $3m.still shows remarkable resilience.Mckinsey analysis shows african fintechs have made remarkable inroad with revenues between $4b.-$6b.per annum in 2020 and penetration levels excluding south africa absymally low at 3%-5%.Cash still used in 90%of transaction in africa compared to less than 20%currently in UK.Africanfinancial services based on the study could grow by 10%annually growing by2025 to $230b excluding SA. SA accounts for 40%african fintech market,with Ghana and francophone westafrica and then nigeria and egypt growing until 2025 at 15%,13%and 12%respectively.11 Markets comprising nigeria,Ghana,Egypt,Kenya,Tanzania,Southafrica,Uganda,Cameroun,Senegal comprises of 70%and 50% of african GDP and population respectively take the fintech radiance where growth will be concentrated.Inspite of all the activity,only a handful of unicorns start ups with $1b.valuation like kuda,flutterwave etc.Navigating the key component challenges of sustainability,scaleability,profitability,technology ecosystem,regulatory framework and corporate governance is a major hurdle.This is navigable with robust business method.Forget that in assumption of similar investment levels per customer,that is 4 times harder to achieve profitability in africa than in latin america and 13times harder than it is in EU and 20times than America,a globalised fintech with unique business methods escapes unhurt.We quite agree regulatory framework uncertain,localised technology in all ramification matter a lot.Given the huge chasm of fragmented financial regulatory framework and uneven infrastructure across markets,selfregulatory ecological sensitive market approach built into its distinct business method could pave the way to surmount such uncertainty with timely predictable corporate sensitivity response system even applicable where complex and variable regulations including license approval processes create obstacles for fintechs business continuity and compliance across these uncertain markets.Whether they move faster than regulators or keep up with regulation may not be detached from selfregulatory capacity along with enforcement rate that could change so quickly.Same challenge met by investors and entrepreneurs with exposure to volatile exchange rates in some that affects consistency can be treated same way.We address the issue of internet penetration and it ensures that in the nearest telecom fintechs will arise to bridge the digital divide and deployment of internet of things is a serious money spinner. The emergence of fintechmania came with a lot of sensation and more than ever before Nigerians are expressing interest,making increasing enquiries at the local commercial law firms on what it takes to set up digital banks in the country.The central bank guidelines in this context for digital regulation and specific licensing regime yet to emerge but the prevailing initiative to work with available financial licenses share consensus across the board.The extant licences below will fill the gap:a.The use of microfinance bank licence.b.Payment service banks licence.It can accept deposits from clients but cannot issue loans.PSB licence can be obtained by established banking agents,telecom companies and available fintechs.Capital requirements to obtain licence is 5billion naira.c.Finance company licence.capital requirement:100m.naira.The receipt of licence by promoters is followed by CAC registration and promoters must ensure they have right contract in place to protect their business interest coupledwith properly negotiated terms of investment in the digital bank. Protecting the intellectual property assets is vital to the survival of a digital bank.Property such as the logo,software,apps and source codes from appropriate registry such as National copyright commission(NCC) or for trademark,patents and designs registry.The setting of robust corporate governance platform to ensure sound corporate governance practices with duly constituted board comprising at least one independent director and required board committees etc.A staggering host of boundless opportunitiesawaitsfintech start ups,which are under mandatetoworkwith specified apps and softwaredevelopers ranging from digital lending,digital banking,consumer efinance,digital microcredit,due to the fact that they aid users to bank,pay,save,spend,invest,borrow and generate money.Digital banks and fintechs are also heavily regulated.Considering regulations such as antimoney laundering(AML)policies,payment card industry data security standard(PCIDSS),Know your customers (KYC),General data protection regulation(GDPR) and a whole lot of regulatory bodies to deal with based on divergent jurisdictions they work with.They include office of comptroller of commerce(OCC),Consumer financial protection bureau(CFPB),commodity futures trading commission(CFTC) and federal deposit insurance commission(FDIC)regulate their conduct in america.Fintech start ups should learn from them prior to venturing and inherent regulatory risk as they vary from country to country reduces to the barest minimum.Moreover,fintechs niches go beyond just digital banking and comprises of popular niches like investment management,wealth management,digital lending,mobile banking,global money transfers,insuretech,regtech,microfintechs dealing with digital microcredit,loans and advances,blockchain and Artificial intelligence based solutions,crowdfunding,emicroinsurance,eREITs,e-micropayments and mobilepayments,financial product services. There is a lot of stuffs to be done in the heavily untapped underbanked and the unbanked poor category.Mobile exchange traded funds(METF),mobile stock trading(MST),agrotechies offering farm services,beauty shops and a whole lot of offline services domesticated in their electronic portals either solely offering the services or collaborate with existing companies to deliver valuebased services.Fintech apps market category include digital payment and so far is the biggest source and market of the fintech industry.It includes digital currencies,online payment system and transfers and the vastly untapped popular ewallet subcategory that could be richer than central banks of the world by assets someday.Digital payment platforms like paypal,payoneer etc readily comes to mind.Other niches such as digital investment and regtechs are innovative technologies,to help solveregulatory issues such as KYC,KYB,AML and othercompliance checksfully automated by ebusinesses to deliver regulatory compliance and reduce human error.There is data security andcybersecurity to employ different security techniques to reduce growing rate of explosive security breaches and cyberattacks for a more reliable fintech apps.Microservice reduces the deployment cost of building fintech apps with artificial intelligence and blockchain trends.Mobile to generate $935b.or almost a trillion in 2023.The growth of ecommerce like the brick and mortar trends for thousands also come with its own crucific and we devise business method and broadly categorises fintech beyond unicorn,zebracorn etc beyond the buzz generated by industry practitioners.This could spread eprosperity by 2035 a decade journey when we envisage to live in golden age of mordern civilisation when poverty might be a thing of history.Little wonder in recent times,few issues have raised debates,in financial inclusion than fintech industry including hypes,confusion and buzzes around it.Growing at dizzying pace,digital technology inspires everyone like never before.Frankly speaking,launching financial disruptive services at quite unprecedented rate,in the ecosystem space of microfintechs spin offs from traditional fintechs serving communities and states at most. Outlandish innovation incorporated into the value chain tends to abhor this missing link.It could only do a disservice over the longterm to alienate the underserved and the unbanked poor in general.As vertically intergrated value chains declines in the financial sector and technology enabled disruption practices exponentially explores financial clarity,identify promising innovation policy makers as well investors and regulators must undergo intellectual reform.And in terms of opening up financial landscape to the poor specifically its chronic gross underperformance in this aspect,leaves much to be desired.However,CGAP understudying the evolutionary paces,points out the missingspace for the unbankedpoor in the fiercely competitive highly sophisticated consumer mass market.Same missing space muchmaligned by traditionalbanks to ignore theinformal sectorat largehad been imbibed by fintechs in the emasculating and insensitive