The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the industry stakeholders have highlighted how digital technology is reshaping the banking industry and provided in-depth insights about various market trends and advances both locally and globally.
The apex bank was speaking at a forum organised by Inlaks, a leading system integrator in Sub-Saharan Africa in partnership with Temenos, the global banking software company, and HID, an American manufacturer of secure identity solutions in Lagos.
Presenting a keynote address at the forum with the theme “Banking in the Digital Age”, Deputy Director, Other Financial Institutions Supervision (OFIS) Department, CBN, Adedeji Adesemoye identified fundamental approaches that banks can use to enhance their digital capabilities.
Adesemoye itemized financial inclusion and digitisation as a means that can foster innovation across products, business models and allow straight-through processing that can automate and digitize a number of repetitive, low-value, and low-risk processes.
He further stressed that the need for banks to have a vision of their future, technology, infrastructure and a well-defined corporate culture are major factors that determine whether a bank is successful in this age.
In a similar vein, Head of Sales – Microfinance & Saas (Africa), Temenos, Nehal Batavia shared that Temenos has been providing innovative solutions to financial institutions worldwide for 25 years. Batavia stated that over 3,000 financial institutions use Temenos software, and among those are 41 of the top 50 banks in the world. He further shared that over 500 million end-customers rely on Temenos software in over 150 countries of the world.
Batavia said at the event that Temenos also provides innovative software solutions to banks of all sizes, “all around the world, helping them to thrive in the digital banking age”. He added that Temenos has been involved in this by building, delivering and supporting financial institutions through the world’s best packaged, upgradeable and open banking software.
In a joint presentation made by the trio of Kingsley Oseghale, General Manager, Enterprise Business, Tope Dare, Executive Director, Sales & Strategy (Infrastructure Business Division) and Adeyemi Ademiluyi, Cyber security Manager, Ademiluyi stated that there was no way that the issue of cybersecurity could be left unattended to when discussing banking in the digital age.
Ademiluyi said, “There are opportunities in this digital era, but there are also real threats in digital banking and it is important that organisations stay safe. Every day, attacks are launched at digital companies and these attacks are becoming more sophisticated. The ‘cyber thieves’ are becoming more creative and innovative in their approach. Organisations spend thousands and millions of dollars trying to put in place security software and infrastructure to limit these threats. We have been helping our clients to stay safe using multiple steps which will keep them ahead of cyber thieves.”
Executive Director, Sales and Strategy, Infrastructure Business Division, Tope Dare of Inlaks, stated that the company had partnered with credible companies, like Temenos and HID to provide a security infrastructure that can help digital banking platforms mitigate the problem of cyber theft.
Ondrej Valent, Senior Sales Manager Financial Services EMEA from HID Global, in his presentation on, “Overcoming the Data Sharing Challenge”, highlighted how HID is turning products into solutions by offering maximum strategic value of their customer’s investments. The company provides consultation through industry leading experts to enable end-to-end solutions, providing integration assistance on larger scale projects and also deployment assistance and training to give customers the tools to work with.
“HID is a leading provider of banking security solutions that helps organisations become compliant, increase their profitability, help them grow market share through innovation and takes care of the needs and safety of their customers,” he concluded.
Other speakers at the forum were Christos Panagopoulos – Principal Business Solutions Consultant, Fadi Yazbeck – Product Manager, IslamicSuite and Renato Samaniego – Principal Business Solutions Consultant, all from Temenos.