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Digitalization Of Financial And Business Operations Is Important For SMEs Businesses – Iyabo Akeem-Onikoyi

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Iyabo Akeem-Onikoyi is a seasoned professional with over 15 years of work experience in the financial industry. Most of her career years were spent in the digital banking space before her recent move into the Fintech Industry. In this interview, she gives insight into her banking career, fintech industry, Women empowerment and manifold issues that impact SME businesses.

Can you explain to our readers, the relationship between SMEs and Financial Technology (Fintech)

Iyabo Akeem: SMEs are small and medium-sized businesses categorized by their turnover and their number of employees among other factors. Technology provides various tools which enhance business processes, data analytics, automation, sales, and business management among others. Fintech provides platforms for businesses and SMEs to automate their processes, payment, and collections, sell their products digitally and accept payments for goods and services locally and globally.  Businesses around the world are leveraging technology for sales of goods and services either through social media platforms, personalised websites or e-commerce marketplaces to scale their businesses, reach new and vast customer bases or accept payments remotely across borders.

In what capacity can women function in SME environment? 

Iyabo Akeem: There are about 100million SMEs in Africa and about 42 % of this number are said to be in Nigeria alone. The SME sector contributes about 48% of national GDP, more than 50% of employment, and 96% of businesses according to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics. It will interest you to know that up to 41% of these businesses are owned by women. These statics shows the impact of small businesses in the economy and the huge contribution of women to the economy. Despite the challenges facing SMEs in Nigeria and Africa as a whole, it is clear that a strong indicator for a vibrant economy is a greater percentage of it women population empowered and skilled to participate in the workforce.

 Explain to us in your view, what is the most prevalent challenge being faced by SMEs, how it affects women, and how it can be solved.

Iyabo Akeem: There are numerous challenges facing businesses in Nigeria from production to distribution and sales of goods and services.  Various studies show that access to finance is the biggest problem being faced by SMEs in Nigeria. Considering the huge contribution of this sector to the national economy, providing easily accessible and low-cost funding to this segment of the business will be a catalyst for national economic growth, better job creation and poverty alleviation among the populace. With the right access to funding, the underserved population like women will be better empowered to run their businesses at different scales and capacities. Financial empowerment for women has a direct impact on their liberty, health, and ability to provide basic support for their children, which will have a ripple effect on the national wellbeing and economy.

As a professional in digital banking, what would you advice business owners, SME/MSME on digitizing their financial activities, especially from the lessons of Coivd-19?

Iyabo Akeem: Businesses and SMEs have a lot to benefit from digitizing their business for some of the reasons I have highlighted earlier. The effect of covid-19 lockdown on life and businesses was staggering. It drastically changed the consumers’ behaviors and business strategies globally. Businesses that automated their processes and where relevant maintained active online presence and experienced minimal impact during the covid-19 lockdown. E-commerce businesses, courier and delivery businesses were among the segments that experienced positive indices while the rest of the world was on a downward trend. Businesses that were already positioned to offer their products and services online enjoyed a competitive advantage, while businesses that were predominantly offline suffered more setbacks, some had to scale down or shut down completely, while others had to re-strategize their business model for online sales and automation. As the world gradually recovers from the impact of covid-19, it is pertinent for businesses to remain accessible to their customers through different channels made possible by technology. This will help them position their businesses to withstand any future unpredictable force majeure events. Businesses and SME should leverage technology and Fintech platforms to scale more quickly and operate more efficiently.

As a woman in the male-dominated Fintech industry, do you think that women can break the glass ceiling of uncodified barrier erected against them?

Iyabo Akeem: in my opinion, glass ceiling is a perception and a mindset that women have been measured with over the years. However, women have what it takes intellectually to break the stereotyped glass ceiling. Due to the demand from family, childbearing and other challenges that comes with marriage, some women in their mid-life career level are limited from attaining senior level. In some cases a woman may have to sacrifice her career to relocate with her spouse or children for a better life or opt out of work to take care of special needs child. These are of course, equally extremely important.  If you look at some of our mothers, they sacrificed a lot for the homefront, gave up their career and their financial power and along with it, their freedom to challenge some of the situations they had to endure. All of these are changing rapidly as women now have numerous role models locally and globally and are now better informed on how to simultaneously manage work and homefront. There will be challenges along the way no doubt, as it can be difficult to choose between the home and work sometimes. For an average woman, her children will always take priority. If a woman is even attending the biggest conference on the world stage and she randomly receives a phone call from her child’s school or her child’s nanny, she will most likely excuse herself from that meeting especially if she knows that such call will not come except it is necessary.  So we cannot take for granted the greatest love of all, a mother’s love for her child.  For instance, I just came back from my daughter’s school before coming for this interview.  She was to present at an event for just about 3 minutes, even though I had told the school prior that I would not attend the event, the moment she told me she will be presenting, I knew I had to be there. I attended only to witness her presentation, took a picture with her and left for my next meeting.

As women, we must remain resilient and focused, learn to prioritize and delegate where necessary, continue to up-skill ourselves, be committed to our career goals and aspirations and surround ourselves with the right support system. We should not see ourselves any less than our men counterpart in our careers. What matters is what you have to offer, your intellectual capability, leadership skills and commitment.

 

What motivates and drives you?

Iyabo Akeem: I have too many people around me who looks up to me and who have huge expectations and hope in me. Some of the great leaders I have worked with who impacted me positively, my children, my siblings, my mother and some of the young and smart people I have been privileged to work with.  Also, the zeal to give back to the society in whatever way I can, I am not there yet but in my own little way, in whatever way I can empower people, family, nuclear, extended, people in my neighborhood or community. I know that I cannot do all these if I am not successful, I think those are a major parts of what keep me awake at night, why I show up every day despite the challenges as I cannot afford to fail, there is so much at stake.