Chief Executive Officer of People’s Pension Trust, Saqib Nazir has asked players in the digital finance industry to take economic inclusion into account when they are designing strategies to bridge the digital gap in society.
He believes that digital inclusion will be a mirage if people cannot afford to pay the appropriate prices for services designed to include them in the digitalization journey.
Speaking at the Mobile Technology for Development (MT4D) forum during the recently concluded 3i Africa Summit in Accra, Sadiq Nazir stressed the need for collaboration between Africa’s industry players to establish an environment in which consumers can afford to pay for the best possible services.
“Digital inclusion is changing the way we live, but we are all aware of the obstacles that still need to be overcome, such as having access to dependable internet that prevents us from fully utilising the digital economy. Not only has financial inclusion been a recurrent subject, but economic inclusion as well.
”We can help the poor with credit, savings accounts, and pensions, but can they really afford it? Therefore, we must cooperate to establish a business climate in which each of us produces enough revenue to cover the costs of the services and pay a fair price for them”, he stated.
He stressed that if carriers refuse to pay for these services, digital inclusion will remain a problem.
