Even though banks are increasingly looking to infrastructure sharing to cut costs, they continue to lose hundreds of millions of rands every year by investing unnecessarily in ATMs and point-of-sale devices.
This is according to the Paynet Group, sponsor of the AITEC Banking & Mobile Money COMESA Conference, to take place from 7 to 8 March, at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre, in Nairobi.
Now in its sixth year, the banking forum will address key issues faced by the region's increasingly dynamic financial services sector.
“The market is typified by expensive duplication of infrastructure by banks and mobile money organisations and it is becoming clear that this approach is not viable if they wish to drive down costs,” says Paynet Group CEO Bernard Matthewman, adding that most players are now reacting to this and are beginning to share their infrastructure and are striving towards greater efficiency.
“At the heart of this is collaboration and co-operation - something we see the AITEC Banking & Mobile Money COMESA conference as helping to foster,” he notes.
“It's a defining time for the banking and mobile money industry in East Africa and the wider COMESA region. It is critical for all of us to keep up to date, which makes the conference something industry participants cannot afford to miss.”
He also points out that African banks face a great challenge in overcoming their heritage of colonial banking, which was designed to cater primarily for government, corporate and high-worth individuals.
“The bottom part of the pyramid has been badly neglected. Now that the mobile operators are setting the pace in terms of providing low-cost banking services, banks are scrambling to catch up. This they can do not only through technological innovation, but also through a customer-oriented corporate culture and service innovation.”
Forum organisers believe mobile banking is the future. However, they note that because most central banks are also tied into the old banking paradigm, they don't fully understand the dynamics of mobile banking; they worry about the risks involved, and therefore resist it.
“No doubt they are also encouraged to do so by the banks who don't want mobile operators encroaching into their space. Kenya is a notable exception. There, the central bank has taken the risk of allowing mobile operators to provide money transfer services - and it has benefited millions of Kenyans and reduced money transfer costs substantially.”
With mobile banking, money moves around the economy far more efficiently and quickly, and in that sense, a higher level of financial inclusion has been achieved, the Paynet Group says in a statement.
This year, the conference hopes to attract more than 1 000 participants drawn from commercial banks, mobile money service providers, and regional integration organisations like the East Africa Business Council. Some of the world's leading banking technology developers and vendors will also participate.
According to AITEC chairman Sean Moroney, who is programme director for the event, a key focus of the conference will be the looming reality of monetary integration, an extension of a debate involving central bankers from Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania, and a development that will impact the banking business and regional trade significantly.
In the main conference theatre, presentations will review trends in commercial and retail banking, innovations in banking technology and mobile money, new banking channels, and products and services, among other topics.
Share