The Sustainable and Inclusive Digital Financial Services initiative (SIDFS) of the Lagos Business School (LBS) has announced a partnership with Dalberg, to launch a report intended to create an inclusive ecosystem for financial services in Nigeria.

The launch, which is expected to take place in Lagos, would also feature a two-week art exhibition to present the result of a new digital financial inclusion report titled, “The Consumer Segmentation Framework (CSF).”

SIDFS and Dalberg with the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, undertook a deep study of the under-banked and unserved consumer segments to uncover insights and present data which can aid the achievement of the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) goal of 80 per cent financial inclusion by 2020.

The LBS said it planned to present the annual research report in a curated exhibition portraying the persona of customer segments identified to help key stakeholders such as regulators, operators and development organisations connect with the realities of the segments that they seek to serve, in the drive towards developing a sustainable framework to attain financial inclusion for Nigerians.

Research Fellow, SIDFS, LBS, Immanuel Umukoro, explained in an event yesterday that this years’ report is focused on the economics of financial inclusion and customer segmentation.

According to him, “The just concluded CSF study is an artistic presentation of the findings of the study which introduces the different customer personas of the unserved and under-banked to aid intervention efforts.

“We used a human centre design approach methodology which enables people interact one-on-one.

“The launch and exhibition will provide an opportunity for stakeholders of the financial service industry to experience and learn more about the different personas of Nigerians who live day to day without financial services through the use of certain materials like scenario simulation which they would be able to relate to better than abstract.

“The exhibition is intended to help key stakeholders better appreciate and come to terms with the reality of the audience that they seek to serve.

“Our evidence-based approach employs scientific and analytical methods to acquire and explore consumer and operator data, from which we uncover insights which drive innovative product development.

“These are not just economic in nature but consumer-centric and will also spur reforms that are able to catalyse the digital financial services ecosystem in Nigeria,” he added.

The Co-founder and Director, Video Art Network Lagos and curator of the art exhibition, Oyinda Fakeye, also noted that, “The exhibition has been built around the archetypes that were discovered through the study so what we have tried to do is to present the exhibition in an Audio-visual experience.

“The power of using audio-visual realism to portray the customer segmentation profile is such that will allow stakeholders connect deeply with the personas that they seek to engage, in a bid to create fit-for-purpose interventions.”