Financial Services Providers Urged to Go Digital

NAIROBi, Kenya

Kenya Bankers Association has called for more investment in mobile money technology by banks to increase accessibility to banking services. KBA chief executive Habil Olaka, speaking at opening the 7th Annual AITEC Banking and Mobile Money COMESA Conference yesterday, said adoption mobile technology would increase efficiency and expand business opportunities for banking.

“There is need for banks and financial institutions to reach out and diversify away from the ‘traditional’ models of operation towards technology-driven service provision,” Said Mr. Olaka.

A gradual shift in consumer attitude and growing demand for real time access to service, he said, has characterized the banking sector in the recent past and banks in Kenya and in the region need to embrace these changes to remain relevant.

Ehouman Kassi, the Managing Director of Eco bank Kenya, said the banking industry needs to adopt technological solutions that enhance seamless banking operations in order to bolster intra-regional trade in Africa which presently stands at about 10 percent of total trade.

“European Union intra-regional trade is presently 60% of their total trade, mobile and internet banking will pay a critical role in growing intra-regional trade in Africa,” said Mr. Kassi.

AITEC Chairman and conference director Sean Moroney calling on the financial services providers to take advantage of the annual AITEC Banking conference assess and accelerate their strategic adoption of technology. “This year, AITEC Africa is lifting the conference agenda to appeal to bank CXOs and other top-level managers to the forum as a message that technology, and indeed mobile technology, is the next frontier of growth for the banking sector,” said Mr. Moroney.

Decision-makers, he added, need to have some level of understanding of which technology stands to increase efficiency and productivity in their businesses to make strategic decisions on technology investments. Noting the pervasive power of mobile technology and the patent influence of broadband connectivity in commerce and the finance sector, the AITEC Banking & Mobile Banking COMESA conference features sessions on keeping pace with a changing mobile payments industry and business models for mobile payments in competitive markets.

The AITEC Banking and Mobile Money COMESA Conference is a two day conference that brings together the entire spectrum of the banking industry, with retailers, regulators, banks, microfinance institutions and key stakeholders in the COMESA region to deliberate on strategies to expand into the in cross-border operations and key issues faced by the region’s increasingly dynamic financial services sector.