Twelve months ago, Peerless Technologies made a bold commitment: to build a modern core banking solution in Africa that truly reflects the realities of African markets. One year later, that promise has taken firm root with SeaBaas, its flagship platform, now powering institutions across Nigeria and beyond. What began as a bold experiment has become a benchmark for resilience, efficiency, and innovation in financial services.
A Local Solution with Global Ambition
SeaBaas was first deployed at Sterling Bank in September 2024, marking a historic moment in Nigerian banking. Sterling had relied on T24, a Temenos system built in Geneva, but took the risk of cutting over to a homegrown platform. The transition was not without turbulence—customers initially faced downtime during migration—but the decision soon proved transformative. Today, Sterling reports record-breaking customer acquisitions and soaring transaction volumes, all underpinned by SeaBaas’s reliability.
Unlike traditional monolithic systems, SeaBaas was deliberately designed as composable, cloud-native, API-first, and AI-ready. This philosophy allows financial institutions to operate with agility—rolling out new products in weeks instead of years, and integrating with fintech ecosystems seamlessly. It is, in every sense, a core banking platform built not just for today’s needs but for tomorrow’s opportunities.
Tangible Impact in Year One
The numbers tell a compelling story. Over its first twelve months of deployment, SeaBaas processed more than two billion transactions with 100% system availability, ensuring uninterrupted services even in high-pressure environments. This reliability has translated into real-world impact:
- Customer Growth: Institutions running on SeaBaas, including Sterling and ARM Pensions, recorded over 101% growth in customer balances.
- Financial Inclusion: More than five million end-users are now served on SeaBaas-powered platforms—a 150% increase year-on-year.
- Efficiency Gains: Banks experienced a 60% reduction in transaction processing times, giving customers faster access to funds and improving liquidity management.
- Operational Savings: SeaBaas has delivered over $10 million in direct cost savings, an invaluable edge in a sector where legacy systems carry staggering total ownership costs.
For developers, the benefits are equally striking. With clean REST endpoints, versioned APIs, and developer-friendly sandbox environments, SeaBaas empowers teams to innovate without vendor lock-in or convoluted integration projects.
Sterling Bank’s Leap of Faith
Sterling Bank’s CEO, Abubakar Suleiman, summed up the impact of migration: “Transaction volumes are soaring while our acquisition—the number of new customers choosing Sterling—has broken records eight months in a row.” For a tier-2 bank with a market capitalization of ₦390.9 billion, the decision to back a local solution has not only saved millions of dollars in licensing fees but has also positioned Sterling as a pioneer of African-built technology.
Looking Ahead: Scaling with Intent
If year one was about proof, year two is about scale. Peerless and its partners are preparing to expand SeaBaas beyond Nigeria, targeting institutions in West and East Africa. The goal is not just to serve more clients but to deepen value creation—helping banks, fintechs, and pensions modernize with speed and confidence.
Equally important is Peerless’s investment in African talent. By cultivating engineers and innovators across the continent, the company is ensuring that SeaBaas is not merely a product but a movement—demonstrating that African technology can set the global standard.
The New Benchmark for Core Banking
At its heart, SeaBaas proves that transformation in African financial services need not depend on imported systems. By combining reliability, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness with local relevance, it has rewritten the playbook for digital banking.
