Paymongo, a Filipino-led payment gateway startup, emphasized the need for companies to create simple and convenient digital financial services to achieve the goal of financial inclusion in the country.

At a panel at the first AI Summit in the Philippines hosted by the Aboitiz Data Innovation (ADI), Jojo Malolos, CEO of Paymongo, stressed the importance of knowing the consumers well and identifying the specific needs and circumstances of consumers.

“To achieve financial inclusion, you need to have financial common sense first, which means understanding the behavior of your target market whether it be compatibility to the device they will be using and how it will be used,” Malolos said. “People are not fully aware of how technology impacts their lives. And for us in the fintech industry, we need to see technology as a tool to deliver that promise of innovation.”

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Malolos pointed out that one of the key challenges to financial inclusion is the efficient adoption of the target consumers to fintech services developed such as digital banking.

Simple and convenient 

Fintech companies should also take into consideration the importance of keeping digital financial services simple, easy to use, and accessible to both merchants and their customers. 

“In PayMongo, we make sure that as we get into micro-merchants, we are able to give them the benefit of setting up and succeeding in their business. It is when they succeed and generate income that they can appreciate the other players in the fintech ecosystem,” he said

“Our objective in PayMongo is to simplify things for businesses. That when you get into our system, it’s so easy, so simple, and you will realize that utilizing these digital financial systems is actually not as complicated as it seems,” he said.