IT investment and applications in the African banking and finance sector trail behind international best practices, especially when compared to Western Europe and North America, delegates at the Banking Technology Africa 2006 conference were told this week.
Delivering his keynote address, Ghana-based First Atlantic Merchant Bank MD Jude Arthur noted that Africa's technology deficit has an adverse impact on the efficiency, delivery, growth and profitability of the sector, and measures need to be taken to address this.
"There is a need to identify IT solutions and allocate correct spending to exploit the opportunities in the industry, as well as promote the economic development. It is important that infrastructure and applications address user access, customer acquisition and relationship management," he said.
"The banking industry faces a world where size, location and branch networks will assume roles from what the public are used to. As well as with the advent of the Internet, infrastructure and analytic software, good execution, outsourcing and partnerships will determine the winners and losers in the industry."
If African banks and financial institutions want to remain competitive, they must apply resources to obtain technology to optimise their returns at different risk levels, Arthur pointed out. With technology, banks can align their internal and external systems to ensure the security levels in the market are achieved without compromising transactions.
He concluded: "It is important for bankers to think beyond the current industry boundaries and frontiers, and create new market space as the basis for increasing market share and remaining competitive. In this way, the employers of this strategic logic will render competition irrelevant."
The Banking Technology Africa 2006 conference is being held at the Sandton Convention Centre. Topics discussed include banking innovation, technology strategies, anti-money-laundering and transforming technology.
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