Year Ender 2021 – phenomenal year towards technology adoption; 2022 offers greater opportunities, say Fintechs

India needs to create high number of nanopreneurs to build trust amongst rural citizens for fintechs and their digital offerings by busting the myths and misperceptions attached to these offerings, Dilip Modi, Founder, Spice Money said.

“While India continues with the digitisation drive, it is important to understand that rural India is still a cash-driven economy where, as a recent study by CMS Infosystem found, even when one is comfortable with online shopping, they prefer the ‘cash on delivery’ option, Modi said.

Spice Money is a rural fintech company with over 8 lakh rural entrepreneurs which it refers to as ‘Adhikaris’. The company claims to have managed financial transactions worth USD 12 billion servicing 100 million consumers.

See Zee Business Live TV Streaming Below:

He said that 2021 has been a “memorable year” for digital and financial adoption as well as inclusion, particularly in India’s hinterlands in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic.

He was hopeful of more fintechs coming up in 2022 to tap opportunities available in rural India.

India witnessed a significant jump in technology adoption in financial services with lending occupying a front seat, feels Lalit Mehta, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Decimal Technologies.

“One segment that has been changed forever is lending. Many customers have realised the inefficiencies that plague traditional lending such as the need to complete physical paperwork, undergo cumbersome KYC and deal with in-person interactions,” Mehta said.

Decimal Technologies is a digital solutions provider to the BFSI sector.  

“Digital lending especially emerged as a boon for MSMEs that have traditionally struggled with credit accessibility due to the lack of proper financial documentation or collateral for the underwriting process,” he further said.

Fintechs enabled the use of alternative data for underwriting in digital lending, turning MSMEs credit-worthy, he further said.

His expectations from the next year is to see significant traction in digital lending which offers potential to innovate outside the constraints of traditional credit offerings. “In the next year, we expect an increasing number of MSMEs to be financed to scale,” he said.

“We are also looking forward to new regulations around digital lending along the lines of the recommendations submitted by the working group chaired by Jayant Kumar Dash, that will ensure that the space is safe for customers and only legitimate players are able to fulfil the credit needs of India, building trust in the fintech players,” Mehta said.