FirstBank Champions Inclusive Fintech Innovation at Canada-Africa Fintech Summit (CAFS 2025)

FirstBank proudly sponsored the just lately held Canada-Africa Fintech Summit (CAFS 2025), which happened from August 5–8 on the Sheraton Centre in Downtown Toronto. Convened by Dr. Segun Aina, President of the African Fintech Community, CAFS 2025 was a landmark occasion that united fintech leaders, regulators, startups, and traders from Africa and Canada to discover scalable digital options, encourage funding, and promote inclusive financial growth throughout each continents.

As a legacy establishment with over 131 years of management in monetary providers, FirstBank’s sponsorship highlights its dedication to fostering cross-border collaboration, monetary inclusion, and forward-thinking innovation within the world fintech panorama. Olayinka Ijabiyi, Ag. Group Head, Advertising and Company Communications at FirstBank, acknowledged, “Our assist of CAFS 2025 displays our perception that collaboration between African and Canadian fintech ecosystems can result in transformative improvements. FirstBank is proud to assist form that future.”

Throughout a high-level panel dialogue with Rudy Cuzzeto, MPP for Mississauga–Lakeshore, and David Stevenson, Nation Director for the United Nations World Meals Programme (Nigeria), Chuma Ezirim, Group Government for E-Enterprise & Retail Merchandise at FirstBank, harassed the importance of digital collaboration in Africa’s monetary ecosystem. “We’re constructing APIs that perceive regulatory bifurcation, who has entry to what, and why. The know-how is the straightforward half. The actual problem lies in sustaining safety, consent, and efficiency,” he defined. “In Nigeria, fintech has developed past disruption to convergence, integrating banks, fintechs, and regulators into an agile and accountable ecosystem.” He additional emphasised that regulatory readability is crucial for constructing public belief and attracting non-public funding in fintech, stating, “The extra we collaborate, the extra classes we be taught, and the larger the advantages for customers.”

In a separate panel dialogue, Rachel Adeshina, Chief Know-how Officer at FirstBank, shared insights on harnessing AI to boost credit score entry for the underbanked. “We’re addressing information poverty through the use of AI to interpret different information, permitting us to lend to people who would possibly in any other case be invisible to the normal credit score system,” she famous. Adeshina highlighted that FirstBank has disbursed over ₦1 trillion in digital loans via this AI-driven mannequin, attaining a exceptional compensation charge of over 99%. “This innovation was enabled not solely by know-how but in addition by a supportive setting, together with API banking laws, information privateness legal guidelines, and a shift from account-based to wallet-based banking,” she added. She additionally underscored the significance of scalability via collaboration, stating, “In a fragmented continent like Africa, digital scale will come from interoperability. Connecting the 54 markets is the following massive problem, and fintechs are ideally positioned to guide that initiative.”

The summit fashioned a part of Canada’s broader Africa Technique, aimed toward fostering financial partnerships, digital cooperation, and innovation alternate. As Africa’s digital finance ecosystem continues to develop and Canada develops its personal open banking framework, occasions like CAFS 2025 present a well timed platform to align methods and ignite collaborations

About FirstBank

First Bank of Nigeria Restricted “FirstBank”, established in 1894, is the premier financial institution in West Africa, a number one monetary inclusion providers supplier in Africa, and a digital banking large.

FirstBank’s worldwide footprints reduce throughout three continents ─ Africa, Europe and Asia, with FirstBank UK Restricted in London and Paris; FirstBank in The Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, The Gambia, Guinea and Sierra Leone; FBNBank in Senegal; and a FirstBank Consultant Workplace in Beijing, China. All of the subsidiary banks are totally registered by their respective Central Banks to offer full banking providers.

Apart from offering home banking providers, the subsidiaries additionally interact in worldwide cross-border transactions with FirstBank’s non-Nigerian subsidiaries, and the consultant places of work in Paris and China facilitate commerce flows from Asia and Europe into Nigeria and different African nations.

For over 13 a long time, FirstBank has constructed an impressive status for strong relationships, good company governance, and a robust liquidity place, and has been on the forefront of selling digital fee within the nation with over 13 million playing cards issued to clients (the primary financial institution to realize such a milestone in Nigeria). FirstBank has continued to make vital investments in know-how, innovation and transformation, and its cashless transaction drive has been steadily accentuated with nearly over 25 million energetic FirstBank clients signed up on digital channels together with the USSD Fast Banking service via the nationally famend *894# Banking code.

With over 43 million buyer accounts (together with digital wallets) unfold throughout Nigeria, UK and sub-Saharan Africa, the Financial institution offers a complete vary of retail and wholesale monetary providers via greater than 820 enterprise places of work and over 280,000 agent areas unfold throughout 772 out of the 774 Native Authorities Areas in Nigeria.

Along with banking options and providers, FirstBank offers pension fund custody providers in Nigeria via First Pension Custodian Nigeria Restricted and nominee and related providers via First Nominees Nigeria Restricted.

FirstBank’s dedication to Variety is proven in its insurance policies, partnerships and initiatives akin to its workers’ ratio of feminine to male (about 41%:59%; and 37% ladies in administration roles) in addition to the FirstBank Girls Community, an initiative that seeks to deal with the gender hole and improve the participation of girls in any respect ranges throughout the organisation.  As well as, the Financial institution’s membership of the UN Girls is an affirmation of a deliberate coverage that’s per UN Girls’s Girls Empowerment’s Ideas (WEPs) ─ Equal Alternative, Inclusion, and Nondiscrimination.

For six consecutive years (2011 – 2016), FirstBank was named “Most Priceless Financial institution Model in Nigeria” by the globally famend The Banker Journal of the Monetary Instances Group and “Finest Retail Financial institution in Nigeria” eight instances in a row, 2011 – 2018, by the Asian Banker Worldwide Excellence in Retail Monetary Providers Awards.

Considerably, FirstBank’s International Credit score Score was A+ with a optimistic outlook whereas scores by Fitch and Normal & Poor’s had been A (nga) and ngBBB+ respectively each with Steady outlooks as at September 2023. FirstBank maintained the identical stage of worldwide credit score scores because the sovereign; a milestone that was achieved in 2022 for the primary time since 2015.

In 2024, FirstBank obtained notable worldwide awards and accolades. A few of these embrace Nigeria’s Finest Financial institution for ESG 2024 and Nigeria’s Finest Financial institution for Corporates 2024 each awarded by Euromoney Awards for Excellence; Finest SME Financial institution in Africa and in Nigeria by The Asian Banker International Awards; Finest Personal Financial institution in Nigeria and Finest Personal Financial institution for Sustainable Investing in Africa by International Finance Awards; Finest Company Financial institution in Nigeria 2024, Finest CSR Financial institution in Nigeria 2024, Finest Retail Financial institution in Nigeria 2024, Finest SME Financial institution in Nigeria 2024 and Finest Personal Financial institution in Nigeria 2024 all awarded by the International Banking and Finance Awards.

FirstBank has continued to realize broad acclaim on the worldwide stage with a number of worldwide awards and recognitions obtained thus far in 2025 which incorporates Finest SME Financial institution in Nigeria 2025 and Finest SME Financial institution in Africa 2025 by The Asian Banker; Finest Personal Financial institution in Nigeria 2025 and Finest Personal Financial institution for Sustainable Investing in Africa 2025 by International Finance Awards; SME Financier of the Yr in Nigeria 2025 by The Digital Banker International SME Banking Innovation Awards; Finest Retail Financial institution in Nigeria 2025 and Finest Financial institution for Empowering Girls Entrepreneurs in Nigeria 2025 all by The Annual International Economics Awards.

Our imaginative and prescient is “To be Africa’s Financial institution of first selection” and our mission is “To stay true to our title by offering the most effective monetary providers doable”. This dedication is anchored on our core values of EPIC – Entrepreneurship, Professionalism, Innovation and Buyer-Centricity. Our strategic ambition is “To ship accelerated progress in profitability via customer-led innovation and disciplined execution.”

Olayinka Ijabiyi

Ag. Group Head, Advertising & Company Communications

First Bank of Nigeria Restricted