The Executive Director Operations and IT, Access Bank Plc, Mr. Ade Bajomo have revealed that the target of 5,000 start-ups entries for the 2019 Disrupt conference of the Africa Fintech Foundry (AFF) planned for Landmark Centre in Victoria Island on Thursday, May, 16, has been exceeded by 100 per cent.
Addressing the media at the pre-conference briefing, he said “AFF and partners are amazed on the surge in the number of entries which have reached 10,000 ahead of the conference”.
He added that part of the indication is that Nigerian IT start-ups are growing and coming up with target driven and problem solving software application that will deepen Nigeria’s drive to knowledge economy.
Bajomo further revealed that AFF has been able to sample and trim down the number of start-ups to showcase their works at the event, saying “20 startups attended the Startup Challenge that held on the 3rd of May and five of them had been shortlisted to demo at the Conference in the areas of AI, Big Data, Robotics, Blockchain technology”.
Also speaking, Head, AFF, Olusegun Adeniyi explained that “the second Disrupt Conference just as in 2017, will build awareness around AFF, position Access Bank as the most innovative African bank and a thought leader in the banking industry focusing on emerging trends including AI, Robotics, Cybersecurity, Machine learning, Blockchains, Big data and analytics”.
“The aim is also to create awareness around Access Bank’s newly developed AI technology, provide a platform for strategic partnerships and collaborations between Access Bank and investors, experts, regulators, innovators and technology companies in creating new era of technological disruption in the banking space”.
Adeniyi revealed that the theme of the Conference, ‘Digital Goldrush: Building a Sustainable Tech-Economy,’ with sub-themes centered around how Data has become the new gold, and how it enables the use of AI, Robotics, Analytics, and blockchain technology, are designed to deepen knowledge advancement in financial technology, saying “These are all the disruptors that Data brings to the banking industry and across sector”.
On the gains of attending the conference, Adeniyi noted that “Disrupt 2019 will provide a great opportunity for innovators, founders, entrepreneurs, experts, leaders and executives to network. It provides a platform for innovators and entrepreneurs as well as executives to form partnerships, experts to share their knowledge, leaders to inspire the future bright minds and founders to showcase their start-ups”.