Huawei launches its Non-Stop Banking initiative

African banks need to upgrade their systems to remain relevant, and being tech-savvy is imperative for the banking industry.

These were sentiments shared by Chinese multinational Huawei Sub-Saharan Africa President Leo Chen in his keynote address at the Huawei Intelligent Finance Summit 2023 hosted in Cape Town, South Africa on Thursday.

The company used the summit to launch its Non-Stop Banking initiative which calls for collaboration between the ICT and banking industries on the continent.

Industry opinion leaders, as well as executives from major banks across Africa, attended the Huawei Intelligent Finance Summit 2023.

Huawei Sub-Saharan Africa President Leo Chen says it is imperative for the banking industry to be tech savvy. (Source: Mobile in hand photo created by rawpixel.com - www.freepik.com).

Chen urged African banks to leverage the advancement in mobile banking and fast track full digitalization that will enable them to compete in the broader fintech market.

Huawei Global Digital Finance CEO Jason Cao added the financial industry should pay acute attention to users and their demands, embracing changes.

"Huawei is dedicated to helping its African financial customers address challenges and accelerate changes across six fields: shifting from transaction to digital engagement, cloud-native and agile businesses, data democratization, secure and reliable infrastructure, hybrid multi-cloud and Lego-style modular services and automated and predictable operation," he continued.

Future of banking is mobile

"Financial services need to urgently move from being "brick-and-mortar" businesses and move towards being technology companies," said Bank 4.0 author Brett King during a roundtable at the Summit.

King added that the change in consumer behavior fueled by post-COVID recovery has accelerated the need for Africa to adopt a mobile-driven banking approach.

"For African banks to digitally transform they need to ensure that trust is built into their internal systems," added Kenya's NCBA Group Director of Digital Business Eric Muriuki Njagi.

He added that financial institutions need to invest in developing technology engineers as these skills are a prerequisite for fintech businesses to become digital-first.

King further reiterated that regulators need to also play their part and not be reactive when it comes to setting up digital transformation regulation.

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*Top image is of Huawei Sub-Saharan Africa President Leo Chen (Source: Huawei).

— Matshepo Sehloho, Associate Editor, Connecting Africa