Stanbic IBTC Bank, a member of the Standard Bank Group, and telecoms giant, Etisalat Communications have confirmed their sponsorship of the 2016 Brand Journalists Association of Nigeria’s annual brand and marketing conference.

This year’s conference, which is the fourth of its series, is entitled “Mobile Money in Nigeria: Challenges, Opportunities and Threats”. It is scheduled to hold from November 3 to 5, at Jata Events and Resorts, Lagos.

Sub-themes for the conference are: “Solving a sustainable framework for mobile money in Nigeria”; “Money: The nexus between technology and financial institutions”; and “Can the Telcos be alternative banks?”

President of the Brand Journalists Association of Nigeria (BJAN) Mr Goddie Ofose, during a press briefing on Tuesday, said that this year is the first time the conference will be holding in Lagos since its inception. He noted that the theme for the conference was particularly selected as there is no better time to discuss it than now.

His words: “This is our own way of growing the industry; by setting agenda for stakeholders to deliberate upon. It is not all about reporting the news. In the past, we focused on CSR, project management and nation-branding, but now our focus is shifting to mobile money. And, like in the past, we want to make this discussion very robust hence the theme and the calibre of people we are drafting to lead the discussions.”

According to him, there will be lectures drawn from the media, telecoms and the financial sectors; while each paper will have four discussants by experts in the given field, including Shina Badaru and Boatson Omofaye from the media.

On her part, Clara Okoro, vice-president, stated that mobile money is the big shift as it single-handedly catapulted Kenya economy to its present state. “Our plan is to have a situation where the banks will come and explain to us, how it works, as the fourth estate of the realm.”

Bennet Frimpong, Marketing Manager, Personal and Business Banking, Stanbic IBTC, said the bank is glad to associate with Brand Journalists in the forthcoming conference, especially in a topic where they are experts: mobile money banking.

“At this time, mobile money banking in Kenya is on a different level and we are hoping to replicate that in Nigeria,” he said, adding:

“Smartphones is all around us and is around 30 per cent of those with mobile phones. We recognise the uniqueness of mobile phones in our society today which, in a way, has become our next life. We will open ourselves to ensure that every information get out so that some of the successes recorded in Kenya, as regards mobile money banking, will be replicated here in the country.”

•Photo s by Akeem Salau shows (L-R) Ofose, Frimpong, and Okoro.

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