Banking industry adopts Fintechs
Sharp competition in the financial services sector and efforts to minimize impacts of COVID- 19 is pushing players in the sector to roll out innovative and technology supported products.
More new trends in the sector are evident, as indicated by a recently released financial services survey done by both government and private sector - FinScope Consumer Survey Botswana 2020. The report revealed there is fertile ground to introduce new financial technologies to offer financial services as most Batswana ( 76 percent) are receptive to learning new technologies, particularly to serve the unbanked and under- banked. “Considering that the unbanked segment has higher secondary education, it could be deduced that they could easily adopt new financial services given higher literacy rates,” said the report. On the ground, financial services providers are also actively and relentlessly investing in financial technologies and some are already registering positive growth on their digital platforms.
“Growth has been witnessed in registrations across all digital platforms, with customers appreciating the ease of digital transactability, and the options to serve themselves in the form of convenient, value- added services with minimum added exposure to COVID- 19. “Investment in infrastructure and especially in the bank’s robust cyber security measures remain key objectives, so as to facilitate self- service initiatives which are both efficient and secure for customers,” said Balisi Bonyongo, First National Bank Botswana ( FNBB) chairman. He said the FNBB has rolled out investment in people and innovation through extensive future skills training on digital learning platforms, as the bank continues to optimise and standardise its operational processes while embedding technology and automation across the operations.
“Major initiatives such as the implementation of robotic automation and optical character recognition are underway. The improved back office processes will translate further into an overall improvement in customer experience,” he said. BanABC has also applauded its products launched to advance the digital strategy for the retail segment app Sarumoney and the Fast Cash voucher product, for bearing some positive fruit. “The focus of our retail segment on digital product offering and secondly on increasing customer deposits is showing some very positive results,” said BancABC Botswana Managing Director, Kgotso Bannalotlhe. In April, Bannalothle had indicated that acquisition of BancABC Botswana by Nigeria’s Access Bank represented an opportunity for the bank to benefit from Access Bank’s strong corporate banking franchise, digital banking capabilities, and innovative product offering. Absa Botswana is also building blocks towards digital solutions; as competition heightens, the bank is among its peers in rolling out several digital solutions. Its latest offering is Absa Merchant Portal, which gives business owners an instant snapshot of their business. According to Absa, the platform allows businesses on the spot data, including point- of- sale processing volumes, turnovers, and transactions, rather than waiting for monthly statements. “Challenging times have helped us fast track creation of digital solutions for our clients. We at Absa haven’t stopped finding new ways to make our customers’ lives easier, in whatever way we can,” said Tumelo Seabo, Head of Cards – Issuing and Acquiring, Absa Botswana, adding that Absa Merchant portal is to address reconciliation challenges, offering business owners digital and innovative business tool. Meanwhile, as more fintech are introduced on the market, the latest Finscope report indicates that 1.29 million adults were financially included in 2020 up from one million in 2014, indicating a marked progress as around 242 947 additional adults are now banked.