With the advent of a COVID19 pandemic, financial institutions have accelerated their digital transformation journeys to not only keep abreast with an evolving threat landscape but align solutions with clients fast morphing needs. Managing and leading in digital times induced by a healthcare crisis has revealed the need for agile risk management, constant learning and that leaders are indeed citizens of the world. As part of the European Investment Banking – EIB lending operations to SMEs and Microfinance, a webinar in conjunction with the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management dubbed ‘Managing and Leading in times of Digitisation‘ was convened on June 16 with four Southern African FI’s namely Zambia National Commercial Bank – Zanaco Plc, First Capital Bank – FCB Malawi, Fincorp Eswatini and Nedbank – Mozambique sharing insights on their respective pilgrims.
Speaking during the panel discussion, Chief Executive Officer of Zambia’s largest indigenous bank by asset size and profitability, Zambia National Commercial Bank Plc Mukwandi Chibesakunda, revealed that for the big strong reliable bank, digital transformation was already part of the agenda historically. Taking a trip back memory lane, Chibesakunda shared that the first Automated Teller Machine – ATM, mobile banking product named XAPIT, mobile banking App, QR code payment platform were launched by Zanaco Plc that has remained ahead of the digital curve in the Zambian market.
“We even have an innovation hub at our head office and continue to innovate and design new products,” Chibesakunda said. We have seen the regulator reduce working hours for our branches and that has moved our clients to alternate channels which we are now struggling to understand what will happen, post COVID, to our brick and mortar as more clients have become comfortable with our digital channels,” she said.
Nedbank Mozambique Chief Operating Officer Elsa Garca stressed the need for simplicity in the digitisation journey.
“Keep it simple and stupid as opposed to complexity which many seem to skew towards. One thing I have noticed is that if you add technology to a bureaucratic processes the result is a bureaucratic technology,” Garca said.
Nedbank Mozambique has pivoted off an innovation lab that allows the younger generation (teenagers) to add to the stock of already existing older staff to help drive digitisation.
“It is important that we go to clients, empower our teams and demystify processes,” Garca said.
For First Capital Bank Malawi focus has been on value chain mining and building synergies within the ecosystem. Digital Transformation and Ecosystem Head Ewen Hiwa highlighted the need for sustainable fraud awareness to curb the evils that come with digitisation while emphasising the importance of understanding the client life cycle, internal alignments and taking baby steps with clients while platform stability remains key in exceptional service delivery in the digitisation journey.
“Experimentation through sandboxes should be embraced while leadership will evolve to remote managing of portfolio in this digital age,” Hiwa said.
“Clients are fast moving with technology whose pace we need to keep in being agile or else there could be pockets of frustration that could cause them to vote with their feet,” Group Managing Director of Swaziland Fincorp Dumisani Msibi said.
The Fincorp Group Managing Director echoed the need for leaders to set the tone at and from the top but revealed the fears that digitisation has continued to bring with it in Swaziland such as myths around job losses. Other hurdles that Fincorp has faced include having to embrace digitisation in a rural setting where penetration rates can be very low and slow. However Msibi re-iterated the importance of creation of multi-client teams that understand client needs for solution crafting and absorb feedback through various steering committees to improve for solution improvements.
“Digitisation for solutioning is driven by client demand as the market evolves. Leadership also drives demand so as was seen for Apple products,” Ms. Chibesakunda said. Leaders should be part of the digital change, and must be agile enough not to expect more that what they don’t expect themselves. They are citizens of the world and as such must think of others way beyond their sectors. Building capability and embracing diversity indeed is critical, she said.
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