As Nigeria continues to cement its position as Africa’s leading digital payments hub, Dr. Folasade Femi-Lawal (FCA, FCTI, MBA), a renowned fintech executive and Fintech CEO of 2025 (African Global Economic Forum), has identified Digital Trust Stewardship as the single most critical competency directors in the digital payments industry will require by 2026.
Dr. Femi-Lawal, who has also been recognized as the Payment Influencer of 2024 (Europe, Middle East & Africa) and one of the 45 Most Influential Women in Digital Transformation, explained that the digital payments ecosystem in Nigeria is evolving rapidly—becoming more intelligent, interconnected, and complex. This transformation, she noted, demands a new kind of leadership—one that goes beyond conventional governance frameworks to embrace ethical oversight, transparency, and inclusivity at every level.
Nigeria’s fintech and payments landscape has seen extraordinary growth over the past few years. In 2024 alone, the nation processed 7.9 billion real-time payment transactions, with a total transaction value reaching ₦1.07 quadrillion, underscoring the accelerating shift from cash-based transactions to digital payments. The momentum has continued into 2025, with the first quarter alone recording ₦284.9 trillion in electronic payment transactions, representing a 22 percent year-on-year increase.
However, amid this surge in digital adoption, Dr. Femi-Lawal highlighted a critical imbalance. Despite technological advancements, only about 64 percent of Nigerian adults currently have access to formal financial services, leaving approximately 26 percent of the population financially excluded. This disparity, she argued, reveals an urgent need to ensure that the nation’s digital transformation remains inclusive and equitable. “As our digital rails expand, trust and inclusion must evolve at the same pace,” she stated, emphasizing that growth without ethical stewardship could widen social and economic gaps.
Dr. Femi-Lawal described Digital Trust Stewardship as the next frontier of leadership in the financial technology space. It represents a deep commitment to safeguarding data privacy, ensuring transparency, and prioritizing customer protection—not as regulatory checkboxes, but as core strategic imperatives that define sustainable success. She explained that as transaction volumes and digital interactions multiply, the responsibility of directors will increasingly extend beyond compliance to proactive trust-building among consumers, investors, and regulators.
She further argued that directors must develop a sophisticated understanding of how payment technologies, risk management, and innovation intersect. This requires investing in digital literacy at the board level, fostering continuous education, and encouraging dialogue between technical experts and policymakers. Beyond knowledge, leaders must embed responsible innovation frameworks—systems that assess new technologies not only for profitability but also for their societal impact, inclusiveness, and security.
Dr. Femi-Lawal also called for stronger collaboration among fintech companies, regulators, consumer advocacy groups, and traditional financial institutions to co-create solutions that serve all segments of society. Such multi-stakeholder engagement, she said, would help design financial systems that are fair, resilient, and trusted.
Furthermore, she emphasized that the future of governance in fintech will require agility. As digital ecosystems evolve at unprecedented speed, directors must adopt governance mechanisms that can adapt in real time to shifts in technology, regulation, and consumer behavior. “In a financial landscape where both volume and velocity are accelerating, trust will become the ultimate differentiator,” she noted. “Those who can steward it effectively will not only protect their institutions but also shape the future of finance in Nigeria.”
Dr. Femi-Lawal’s remarks underscore a broader reality: the next phase of Nigeria’s fintech revolution will be defined not solely by innovation or growth, but by how responsibly that growth is managed. Her call to action invites leaders across sectors to reimagine governance—not as a constraint, but as a catalyst for building a trusted, inclusive, and digitally empowered financial ecosystem.
