Intermarc Consulting Limited has concluded plans to host the 13th edition of the annual international conference and exhibition on cards and e-payment systems in Lagos as cards and epayment system continues to take centre stage in the economies of most African countries.

The company said in a statement that the event with a theme ‘Shared Services: Optimising Payment Systems in Africa’, will create further awareness on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN’s) cashless policy and how it relates to the creation of a Central Switch, prohibited gentiles for mobile money and agent banking in Nigeria.

The statement added that the biggest card exhibition in Africa will see high calibre executives including the deputy governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, the managing director of NIBSS, as well as managing directors of banks and other leading epayment service providers from Nigeria and overseas in attendance.

“Over 50 exhibitors from countries like Portugal, China, Egypt, France, United Kingdom, Dubai, Morocco among others will exhibit the latest technologies in electronic payment and would opportune members of the public who are interested in having a better understanding of the Cashless technologies better knowledge.

“The companies include SIBS International, Master Card Worldwide, JCB, Samsung, Airtel, HPS, etc. The major Nigerian banks like Diamond, Zenith, Skye, Access etc. will also be there along with the CBN,” the statement said.

It added that the conference will have sessions on how successful shared service implementations across the world can share their learning points with Africa.

“In order to maximise the potential benefits of e-payment, the concept of shared services has been adopted in most implementations in the UK, Asia and Europe. We also see similar trends in South Africa. This concept is becoming more popular in the rest of Africa. The question however is “how do stakeholders cooperate to compete,” the company said.

The company explained that a mix of publicity platforms such as media adverts, radio jingles, mass SMS, road show and the social media will be used to reach the relevant members of the public who will visit the exhibition stands to acquire more information and awareness.

“To ensure that members of the public get full benefit of this event, we have engaged the services of LagBus to offer free bus services to convey interested people to the event.”

Speakers expected that at the conference include: Director, Banking & Payment System (Central Bank of Nigeria), Dipo Fatokun; General Manager (SIBS International), Pedro Hipolito; , Executive Director (Emis, Angola), Edgar Bruno; Director of Projects (Emis, Angola), Pedro Abreu; Executive Director , Business Development (NIBSS), Christabel Onyejekwe; Co-founder & Managing Director (Jumia Nigeria) Tunde Kehinde and Group Head of Card Services (Zenith Bank), Chioma Nkechika.