FDH Bank Plc Head of Information Technology, Ganizani Phiri, one of the panelists considered to be regional Fintech Leaders, at the recently ended 9th Africa Bank 4.0 Summit for the SADC Region held in South Africa under the theme of ‘Scaling Up Digital Transformation’ made the remarks at the end of the summit.
“It was a great experience to be recognized as a key panelist to share our experience with Top Leaders in Banking and Technology from across the Globe. It shows how much progress we have made as FDH Bank plc in the area of digitalization, innovation, and Cyber Security. Feedback from other professionals indicated that our progress is worth emulating,” said Phiri.
He further said FDH Bank plc has worked tirelessly to narrow the digital divide and enhance access to financial services to customers through introduction of innovative products like 525Banking, One Click, WhatsApp Banking, Agency banking and the flagship Ufulu 525 Account.
“Customers can access these innovative products with any phone from a simple to an advanced one. FDH Bank plc has also taken serious steps to ensure that customers are safe while using our products. FDH Bank plc has committed to remain ahead in her pursuit to bring more innovative products and solutions to the market,” explained Phiri.
Giving a background to the panel engagements at the summit, Phiri said the discussions were mainly about how the SADC region can align efforts to digitalization, innovation while considering cyber security risks inherent in these initiatives.
“We also discussed issues of policy and inter-country collaboration to mitigate cyber- fraud. Overview of SADC’s Cyber Security Outlook, how robust and agile IT security policy can bridge the gap between innovation and security. We also discussed how countries can take progressive steps now to protect critical national infrastructure against cyber-crime,” said Phiri.
Picking on key lessons to the banking sector in Malawi as a whole, Phiri said there is no limit to innovation and there is need to be ahead of the game to give customers the best.
“Much as we are in competition there are many areas we can collaborate for the benefit of customers. We need to tackle issue of cybersecurity jointly for significant progress to be made,” he said
The 9th Africa Bank Summit was conducted to address a digital divide that has been created due to Africa’s internet coverage that is still lagging behind other regions due to the availability of poor services and issues for the remote and poor areas in many countries.
