TheCable

Elizabeth Rossiello, founder of BitPesa, a digital foreign exchange and treasury solution that leverages technology to significantly lower cost and increase speed of business payments, says the product is a “market-maker in major currencies in Africa.

Speaking at a forum in Lagos, she said BitPsea seeks to empower businesses and entire markets at a level of macroeconomic engagement that would enhance economic growth..

She added that the risk and potential losses associated with turbulent emerging market currencies was a challenge for companies operating on the African continent.

“We saw the difficulties small financial institutions faced finding liquidity in local African currencies and repeatedly saw funds and companies have to exit the market due to this challenge.

“In order to keep up with and support frontier markets’ accelerating development, we cannot rely on just traditional infrastructure, instead, we must create a hybrid financial infrastructure that is equally accessible and efficient

“BitPesa is a market-maker in every major African currency and opens corridors for business payments and trade between frontier markets and the rest of the world.”

A financial expert, Dayo Amzat, said Nigeria requires a policy and institutional governance that will insulate the business environment from the values of politics.

Amzat, chief executive officer, Zedcrest Capital, also spoke on the effect of the electioneering season on the election.

“Since we started this democratic dispensation, every four years, the things we hear are that portfolio investors are leaving the country, naira is losing value or the stock market is on a losing streak,” he said.

“We cannot keep having this conversation, it does not augur well for a country.

“It is tough to think that a disagreement between the President and Speaker, or fallout between the Executive and Judiciary will have an effect on the economy.

“We need to have the kind of policy and institutional governance that will largely protect the business environment from politics.”

He urged businesses to diversify their products portfolio, implement cost cutting strategies and explore the various foreign exchange markets created by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to mitigate forex and revenue losses.