ITU holds workshop to address financial inclusion in Digital Financial Services

THE International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has said it was ready to address the issues of consumer protection and financial inclusion in Digital Financial Services (DFS).
In a statement obtained by newsmen in Lagos on Saturday, the union said it was organising a workshop on DFS and Financial Inclusion, to address the issue.
It said that at the workshop, which would be held in Geneva today, mobile money experts would prioritise discussion on consumer protection.
The statement said there was the need to ensure that the over two billion ‘unbanked’ people across the globe were included in the financial system.
According to it, the latest developments in the market for DFS or ‘mobile money’ would be analysed at the conference.
The statement said that apart from consumer protection, the workshop would address issues on exploring merchant payments, DFS market competition, DFS interoperability, access to infrastructure and security and risk management at its sessions.
It added that the workshop, which would host representatives of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and the financial-services sector, would supplement the work of the ITU Focus Group on Digital Financial Services.
“The Focus Group is developing a set of operational recommendations, tools and solutions to assist countries in establishing financial-inclusion strategies capable of promoting widespread adoption of DFS.
“The group’s upcoming meeting will advance key deliverables to improve the cooperation of ICT regulators and central banks.
“It will also build greater understanding of the roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders, comprising the DFS ecosystem and support DFS operators in their efforts to achieve service interoperability,” the statement added.