By Henry Uche

With the rapid disruptions brought about by technology advancement in the corporate world, an ICT expert, ‘DeRemi Atanda, has advised corporate organizations to upskill their employees in other to catch up the disruptions pervading through every nooks and crannies of human endeavor.

Atanda who is the Managing Director of Remita Payment Services Limited (RPSL) made this call while speaking as a panelist at the 2023 Treasury Leadership Forum put together by Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria Limited, held recently in Lagos.

According to him, organisations must ensure their personnel are prepared for a more technology-focused future, as innovation is gaining momentum in treasury management.

“While advancements in automation and artificial intelligence are radically altering how work gets done and who does it, technology’s larger impact will be complementing and augmenting human capabilities, not replacing them. So organisations will benefit more from communicating their technology decisions to mitigate conflict.

“There are unintended consequences of automation. In a situation where workers don’t know what to expect conflict can arise”

Remita boss advised that people along the value chain must know how automation will impact them and this has to do with internal and external processes.

He emphasised the need for collaboration among financial service providers and technology service providers, which he described as the new reality and future of the industry.

With the theme, ‘Harnessing Technology for More Efficient Treasury Management’, financial experts, economic analysts, and other professionals at the Forum believe that the move towards new technologies such as APIs, Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, advanced analytics, big data, block chain, and cloud computing, driving innovation are enabling rapid experimentation and new product development. However, the key challenge is- knowing where to start.

‘Deremi said organisations must have a clear idea of their objectives to ensure that every project sets out to bring value to treasury management are well structured.

“Not all businesses will be on the same technology maturity level, hence your treasury requirements should be need-specific. Where there is a disparity in your internal capacity versus the supplier capacity, the automation will likely fail. Systems exist everywhere but they are not meant to be used the same way everywhere.

“In today’s fast-paced business environment, there is the need to deal with the challenges of automating treasury management. Having a grand clarity of what the objectives are will help analyse the financial environment and manage conflicts,” he said.

He urged corporate leaders to focus on implementing technology into specific projects with targeted goals such as risk management, cost alleviation, or improved efficiency, and then integrate processes and platforms into a Treasury Management System (TMS).

“While advanced automation tools can facilitate real-time financial insights and mitigate risks, selecting the right partners and technology to work with will help to minimise operational costs. Corporate treasurers must ensure all stakeholders reskill and secure buy-in from other teams in the organisation”

He added that Nigeria is at a tipping point where treasurers have an opportunity to influence the treasury solutions of tomorrow. As banking relationships continue to evolve, financial and technology service providers must collaborate to leverage next-generation treasury technologies, while proactively engaging clients along the innovation journey.

“What represents the next wave of thinking should be systems that make it possible for customers to manage all types of assets even across borders. Also, we must explore how we can co-create and collaborate anywhere to make it easier for customers to become digitally enabled for treasury management.”

Speaking on digital assets and what is next, he affirmed that Remita is currently working with the Central Bank of Nigeria on the eNaira, Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). “We are building rails that the entire industry will be consuming, and we are building for the banks, retail, and for merchants” he added.

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L-R: Akeem Lawal, MD, Payment Processing & Switching, Interswitch PurePay; Onome Ajomewo, Director, Cash Products, Standard Chartered Bank; ‘DeRemi Atanda, MD, Remita; and Yinka Ogunnubi, Group Treasury Manager, CFAO, Nigeria, at Standard Chartered Bank’s 2023 Treasury Leadership forum in Lagos recently.

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