Afrigather This text was contributed to TechCabal by Noel K. Tshiani, the founding father of Congo Enterprise Community.
On this unique interview for TechCabal, Tshiani discusses with Parfait Lubamba, head of knowledge expertise at Ecobank Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), about his entry into the banking sector and the way expertise is impacting the business within the DRC.
What’s your skilled background?
I maintain a bachelor’s diploma in database administration system from the Institute of Greater Research in Programming and Evaluation, in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. I even have certifications in info programs administration and undertaking administration, Cisco applied sciences, and lots of others.
I used to be a Cisco expertise coach earlier than becoming a member of Ecobank DRC. I’ve greater than 10 years of expertise in new info and communication applied sciences, together with 7 years within the banking sector.
I’m at the moment the pinnacle of knowledge expertise at Ecobank DRC since October 2022, after having held the place of head of digitalisation and different channels for the retail financial institution.
The IT division I handle is answerable for the community and telecommunications infrastructure, core and non-core banking purposes (improvement, innovation, and course of automation) and repair supply (initiatives, digital banking, and IT governance).
My important goals are the supervision of actions and initiatives within the IT division, the definition and implementation of expertise technique for the native financial institution, and the definition and implementation of contingency plans to make sure the very best availability of companies.
As head of expertise at Ecobank DRC, what’s your understanding of the position of expertise within the banking business?
Know-how has influenced the event of virtually each business. From schooling to well being, to agriculture and even exploitation of the soil and underground.
The banking sector just isn’t exempt from this alteration. A historic evaluate permits us to see that the introduction of the primary Automated Teller Machine (ATM) by Barclays Financial institution in London in 1967 is in the identical interval because the transportable calculator.
These two innovations have dramatically modified the banking sector. To catch up by way of banking penetration, expertise is our final resolution. The event of expertise infrastructure, larger cell community protection with 5G and web accessibility for all are achievable objectives.
With the arrival of Large Knowledge, the Web of Issues (IoT), and synthetic intelligence, the instruments exist to make an actual revolution, opening the door to even richer years by way of innovation. As such, this pattern will verify the main position that expertise performs within the banking sector and extra globally within the economic system.
What main technological improvements do you intend to roll out in 2023 to set you aside from different banks?
Ecobank is a pan-African financial institution with operations in additional than 33 nations and with large ambitions for all these territories.
With a robust concentrate on the African continent, Ecobank Group is continually considering and growing options that meet Africa’s current and future wants.
Now we have large surprises in retailer for the options being developed for territories that signify a robust potential for improvement.
Concerning startups and small companies, does Ecobank DRC have any merchandise or choices which might be focused to this market phase?
As a part of Ecobank’s technique to proceed its evolution in the direction of open banking, the Group designed a sandbox a number of years in the past. Fintechs, modern startups, software program builders and expertise or monetary companions (cell community operators and microfinance establishments) can use it and get most profit from it.
This sandbox gives many account companies, collections, funds on the whole, QR cost, together with Visa and Mastercard, invoice cost, web-based acquisition, switch, and extra. These APIs permit startups and small companies to entry bigger markets in Africa, particularly within the nations the place we function, so long as the rules of the nations involved permit them.
This can be a sturdy aggressive benefit for Ecobank Group in addressing expertise points as no different financial institution can provide such a diversified vary of companies.
Ought to the main focus be on cell cash and fintech startups as a method to obtain monetary inclusion, on condition that about 10% of the nation’s inhabitants has financial institution accounts?
To extend monetary inclusion in probably the most distant areas of the continent, banks have a task to play in rolling out cell cash and fintech startups that may speed up the nation’s bancarisation.
Nevertheless, this may take quite a lot of time and require extra investments from stakeholders past the banking sector. Thus, partnerships between private and non-private sector gamers are important to attain such an goal.
As a monetary establishment, Ecobank Group is specializing in partnerships with cell cash operators and fintechs to attain this purpose. By contemplating them as cooperators (a brand new time period combining cooperation and competitors), it’s potential to attain this inclusion by reaching the most important variety of individuals.
