Banks across Africa tap into IBM Hybrid Cloud and AI Solutions to advance Financial Services

Banks across Africa are turning to IBM’s technologies to help drive financial inclusion across the continent.

IBM today revealed that banks like EcoBank, Attijariwafa Bank, United Bank of Africa, Co-operative Bank of Kenya, Nedbank, and Banco Mais have picked hybrid cloud and AI capabilities from IBM to unlock digital innovation and continue their work to develop digital-first solutions, ultimately aiming to broaden access to financial services on the continent.

Alan Peacock, General Manager, IBM Cloud said, “Enterprises face unique challenges when it comes to balancing innovation and regulatory compliance, especially those in highly regulated industries like financial services.

“For decades, IBM has been fuelling the transformation of the financial services industry, bringing IBM’s industry experience and leadership in security and data privacy to help banks address those challenges and modernize, transform their operations and offer innovation to their customers.”

Commenting on the new development, Angela Kyerematen-Jimoh, Regional, General Manager for IBM North, East and West Africa said, “In the past year we have seen banks navigate changes brought on by a growing preference for digital and mobile solutions, increasing smartphone penetration and the demand for convenience, innovation, and simplicity from today’s modern consumer.

“As banks across the continent take advantage of the opportunity to provide digital financial services which can boost financial inclusion, IBM is working with Africa’s financial groups to deliver intelligent, cloud-based, digital-first innovation through IBM’s hybrid cloud and AI capabilities.”

The banks are already incorporating IBM’s technologies in the offering of their services. Ecobank with operation in 33 African countries has adopted a hybrid cloud to extend its reach to millions across Africa. It also has access to other IBM cloud services that can be used to develop more innovative, digital-first solutions to enhance its own client experience.

Attijariwafa bank also has adopted IBM hybrid cloud solutions to help advance the digitisation of its banking operations, and more quickly bring new digital services to its customers, all in a security-rich and flexible environment. By deploying IBM Cloud Paks, Attijariwafa bank aims to modernise and manage its core banking applications like its corporate banking application, in a secured, integrated, and scalable environment.

United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA), operating in 23 countries and with headquarters in Nigeria, has set a goal to grow its transaction volume significantly over the next few years and to deepen retail market penetration. To achieve this, they would be required to attract the unbanked, acquire new customers through digital banking and retain existing customers by adopting a “No Transaction Must Fail (NTMF)” initiative. The bank leveraging IBM POWER9-based servers, Flash system storage, and IBM PowerVC (Power system virtualization & cloud management), has set up a scalable, private cloud environment that is designed to be cost-effective as the bank takes its first step towards embracing a hybrid cloud model.

The Co-operative Bank of Kenya turned to IBM to modernize their core banking platform and reach their customers on different channels including mobile and online while offering customized services driven by insights. With IBM Power and FlashStorage solutions, they now have an infrastructure designed to improve insights on customer data, speed query resolutions, and time-to-market on new services across channels – all backed by highly available, scalable, cloud-and AI-ready technology.

Banco Mais, a bank in Mozambique, turned to IBM to help streamline its business processes and reduce turnaround times for customer-facing services. Banco Mais implemented IBM Business Process Manager on Cloud service and was able to start projects faster and deploy process application solutions without the need to build the IT infrastructure. By turning to this IBM Cloud solution, they developed, tested, ran, and monitored their business processes at a fraction of the time it would otherwise have taken.

Nedbank aims to deliver superior digital experiences to its customers. To achieve this, the bank is modernizing its core banking applications with a hybrid cloud strategy and has turned to IBM to help bring digital products and services to market.