This book explores the various considerations for achieving an effective regulatory strategy to improve financial access and usage in Nigeria and beyond. Gaps in the legal and institutional framework for digital financial services (DFS) as well as the barriers that contribute to financial exclusion are identified as are the policy changes needed to provide more extensive, accessible and sustainable financial inclusion value. In addition, the book covers divergent themes around the use of and insights for regulating industry financial services providers and challenger entities that herald industry disruption.
The book adopts three research methods. The doctrinal research method is used to buttress the law and development analysis and the themes around regulation, adoption and usage of financial services. To elucidate the application of financial innovations, comparative case studies are drawn from selected jurisdictions including Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, The Philippines, Brazil, Mexico, Uganda, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. Lastly, using the empirical research method, the author reports the burden experienced by the residents of a community without banks in accessing finance. Included in this discussion are the barriers to finance as well as the coping strategies adopted by the community residents to access formal and informal finance.
Biography
Ogochukwu Monye is a technology law specialist with expertise in digital financial inclusion. She is a senior law lecturer at the University of Benin, Nigeria with a well-rounded experience in research, litigation, consulting, government and advocacy roles. She holds an LLB from the University of Nigeria, an LLM from the Queen Mary University of London, and a PhD from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Her research published in journals, book chapters and technical reports traverses access to finance, Fintech, consumer protection, digital inclusion and gender bias, recourse mechanisms, data privacy, telecommunications law, regional trade in Africa, e-health and IP, clean energy transition and e-commerce. She also researches the opportunities and challenges around emerging technologies including peer-to-peer lending, cryptocurrency, CBDCs, API, blockchain, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and digital identification.
"This book is an invaluable resource for understanding the developmental dynamics that create financial exclusion, particularly in emerging economies. It also serves as a rich toolkit for tackling a specific law-and-policy environment to shape it into a financially inclusive one. Finally, it readily commends itself as a handy reference book for a variety of actors in the financial services space, including researchers, lawyers, policymakers, corporate leads, fintech practitioners, students and other friends of financial inclusion." — Professor Ada Ordor, Director, Centre for Comparative Law in Africa, Faculty of Law, University of Cape Town
"Using refreshing insights from Africa, (her home region) Asia and Latin America, this study is truly lateral thinking in the service of financial inclusion. The case studies are a rich mixture of eleven jurisdictions and nine emerging technologies, mixing law, finance, technology, regulatory and social policy. Those of us struggling through the 21st century financial, economic and social crises from a perspective frequently dominated by the orthodoxies and controversies of the rich economies should take note of the sheer eclecticism of Ogo Monye’s thinking. Truly innovative thinking." — Robin Simpson, an old consumer war horse and consultant to UNCTAD with decades of experience garnered at the Consumers International, World Bank, OECD, ISO and UK National Consumer Council.
"The Covid-19 pandemic exposed our economic and digital inequalities thus creating impetus to centre inclusion in our digital and financial development goals. This work by Dr. Ogochukwu Monye outlines financial inclusion in a digital landscape as well as emphasizing the importance of mainstreaming inclusion in policy and regulatory frameworks for digital economies." — Onica N. Makwakwa, Head of Africa Region, Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI)
