The need for citizens engagement and experience especially in a fast, secure and reliable way cannot be overemphasized.
Chijioke Ugwu, head, Partnership Development, Infobip West Africa, reechoed the need at this year’s Nigeria Fintech Week (#NFW21) organized by the Fintech Association of Nigeria (FintechNGR).
Jordan’s Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship partnered with Infobip to develop the first government chatbot (Source: Infobip)
Ugwu said that such engagements make it possible for citizens to relate with the government in the most effective way.
In his presentation titled: ‘A focus on Citizens Experience & Engagement’, the Head of Partnership Development at Infobip West Africa, identified four challenges to be improved on by the Government.
These include; digital engagement agenda with results; revenue growth with citizen expectations; local capacity, and improving local content, transparency and trust in governance.
With reference to the growth of fintech companies in Nigeria, he said that opportunities for fintech companies keep expanding at an increasing rate.
In his words, “This also brings about the need for citizen engagement and experience to be done in a fast, secure and reliable way; making it possible for citizens to relate with the government in the most effective way.
“The percentage of internet users among the Nigerian population was projected to be 51% between 2017-2026 and taking a sneak peek at the Nigerian economy.
“Four challenges to be improved on by the Government, as noted by Ugwu include (1). digital engagement agenda with results; (2). revenue growth with citizen expectations; (3). local capacity and (4). improving local content, transparency and trust in governance”.
Ugwu also listed complex integration; no single point of orchestration; multiple channels, vendors and APIs as factors on today’s communication landscape which require urgent technology disruptions to enable even use cases to and be monetized including public relations, immigration, education, healthcare, e-voting, etc.
Speaking on Infobip as a company with global reach and strong local presence, Ugwu said its focus is the provision of cloud communication platforms that helps businesses connect seamlessly with end users.
The company meets customers’ demands for communication and user relations over one interface, engaging with citizens and ensuring accurate KYC.
Ugwu further stated that the recently launched eNaira will increase and facilitate lots of ways for the payments sector.
“This includes government to person payment, government to business payment, person to government payment & business to government payments.
In terms of simplifying payment process across the Nigerian citizen’s preferred channels of communication, solutions that seamlessly integrate, messaging, verification, payment and the citizen’s data platform should not be overlooked,” he said.