The 2020 Lagos Fintech Week has set an agenda for the summit that will help address the skills gap and the future of work in the tech sector.
The Organiser said the event which incorporates Fintech Talents Summit (FTS) into the annual week-long event will “to discuss the trends and solutions for the future of work and education in financial technology space.”
According to the chairman of the organising committee, Dr. Yele Okeremi, the Fintech Talents Summit (FTS) is the premier space for multi-disciplinary stakeholders from the private sector, policy, academia/education, and innovation to come together
Okeremi said, “FTS will attract strategists, key opinion leaders and relevant stakeholders to shape the future of talents in Fintech through education, innovation, and recruitment.”
He informed that FTS is co-located within Lagos Fintech Week. Lagos Fintech Week is organized by Fintech 1000+, the largest Fintech group in Africa comprising regulators, Bank CEOs, government, investors, insurers, Fintech firms, and the media.
He added that the summit will discuss topics such as Community-as-a-Service which will centre on connecting the right talent for current and future opportunities, Fintech Talents Acquisition Strategy among others.
According to him, the summit will attract top fintech leaders in the ecosystem such as Programme Manager, Google Developer Ecosystem, Aniedi Udo-Obong, and Chief Information Officer at Interswitch, Femi Ogungbamila, CEO, Innovectives and Emmanuel Agha, among others.
In Nigeria, the fintech ecosystem has grown to become a leading network in Africa’s financial service industry through innovative solutions in lendtech, insurtech, wealth tech etc. The Nigeria fintech industry is regarded as a dominant force in Africa in this regard.
However, despite the huge potential of fintech, access to and retention of best-in-class talent is a growing concern within the industry. According to a PwC report in 2017, 77 percent of the CEOs surveyed view skills shortages as business threats.
Research has shown that the local educational systems are not providing the necessary skills to train students in today’s AI-driven industries, as companies and countries are being confronted with significant talent shortages.
As fintech evolves in Nigeria, Africa and globally, and sets more sophisticated requirements for technology skills, many businesses lag behind due to the lack of talents and resources to bring their innovative ideas to life.
In part, the fintech talent gap is justified and even self-explanatory: the industry is relatively new and has to nurture new talents to meet its challenges. The number of people that are proficient in finance and technologies is still dramatically low; needless to say, they are in high demand and command a high salary.
Skills such as blockchain, programming languages – Python, C++, C#, GoLang, SQL, JavaScript and Java ML, AI, and Deep Learning, cybersecurity including soft skills such as communication, creativity, and high EQ are at short-fall in the industry.
