On Wednesday, May 29 2024, one of the Management Study Program lecturers at UIN Malang, namely Muhammad Sulhan, SE., MM, gave a guest lecture for students of the Bachelor’s program in Muamalat Management at the Islamic Studies Academy, University of Malaya (APIUM) Malaysia. On that occasion, the theme presented was “The Role of Financial Technology on the Development of Indonesian SMEs”. Sulhan said that in the current era, the use of technology in the financial sector, commonly known as financial technology (fintech), has become popular in several industries, such as the financial, banking and other industries. Fintech use, such as e-payments in Indonesia, has increased significantly since the COVID-19 virus due to the government’s policy to do work from home. Thus, consumers have changed their habits to prevent the spread of the virus, from physical transactions to digital payments.
SMEs in the current digital era must be able to utilize financial technology because there are many benefits obtained by SMEs, including Fintech can be utilized by SMEs to increase financial access, increase efficiency, and increase business growth. The role of Fintech in the development of SMEs in Indonesia includes acting as a provider of SMEs’ business capital loans, a provider of SMEs’ financial inclusion, a provider of SMEs’ financial management services, and a tool to increase financial literacy. In this session, Sulhan also conveyed several tips for choosing the right Fintech platform for SMEs: First, choose a Fintech platform that offers services that suit your business needs; Second, Compare the interest rates and fees offered by various Fintech platforms; Third, choose a fintech platform that has a good reputation and applies high data security standards, and Fourth, read user reviews to find out their experience using the fintech platform. Finally, in the future Fintech will become an important part of the SMEs business ecosystem in Indonesia, therefore collaboration between the government, fintech industry players and SMEs is very necessary to ensure that SMEs can access and make maximum use of fintech.
