The Digital Finance Africa 2024 (DFA 2024) conference recently hosted by IT News Africa (ITNA) sparked good vibes in the Digital Finance sector. The event now on its 4th successful year. The daylong event took place on Thursday 4 July 2024 morning at Maslow, Sandton, South Africa.
Kickstarting and emceeing the event was Nastassia Arendse.
Speakers
Amongst the keynote speakers for the day was: Coen Jonker CEO and co-founder: TymeBank, Frank Rizzo Chief Design Officer: Discovery Bank, Keneilwe Gwabeni Group CIO: Assupol Holdings, Cheslyn Jacobs Chief Commercial Officer: TymeBank, Ben Janse Van Rensburg CTO: BankservAfrica, Dr. Alfred Musarurwa Chief Technology and Operations Officer: Stanbic Bank Zimbabwe, Carlos De Almei Director Sales South Africa: WIOCC Group, Towela Zulu Mukosa Chief Executive Officer: BI TECHNOLOGIES AFRICA, Dr Yudhvir Seetharam Head of Analytics, Insights and Research: FNB Business, Pierre Himmelmann VP Channel International & Strategic Operations: ELO Digital Office Africa, Jonathan Oaker Founder and CEO: CloudZA, Troy Nyi Nyi Global Head of Commercial: Fraud BPC, Adeyemi Odubajo Manager, Customer Acquisition, Echezona Agubata CTO Coronation: Merchant Bank Nigeria, Anthony Oduu CTO, CPO and Co-Founder: Verto, Harry Scherzer CEO : Future Forex, Ikeh Titus Executive Director: Credlanche, Nigeria, Chipo Mushwana Executive Emerging Innovation: Nedbank, Marcello Schermer Head of Partnerships & International Expansion: Yoco, John Felix Mchaki Head of Information Security: Ecobank Tanzania, Andrew Wilmot Customer Experience Executive: Ecentric Payment Systems, Abe Wakama CEO, IT NEWS AFRICA, Lazola Ndamase Head of Data Enablement & Analytics: Nedbank CIB, Anton Grutzmache Co-founder: Ominisient, Archimides Panagiotides Solution Sales Lead: Software AG, Glenn Lazarus CEO: ATS Network Management, Kevin Nono CEO: ELO Digital Office Africa, Kurai Masocha Chief Executive Officer: Tech Oasis Systems, Anine De Kock Head of Partnerships: Peach Payments, Auguste Claude-Nguetsop Partner, Head of Banking Advisory: KPMG Southern Africa, Lerato Bodibe Founder CEO: ROCVEST Systems.
Some key takeaways
Cheslyn Jacobs from Tyme Bank focused on Tyma Bank’s 3 core business values in its client engagement process. “Transparency (concept of being easy), Customer centric and Intuitive Design is what makes us the best online bank.”
Speaker from Ecentric Payment Systems, Andre Wilmot on Trends and Predictions for Africa’s Payment Innovation in 2025 and beyond. Provided how the future will look like. “The Gen- Z will dominate from 2025. In essence the ecommerce will expand. Cryptocurrency and Blockchain will also see an expansion. And Regulators will play a very crucial role in payment systems. Promote competition, innovation and security online.” said Wilmot
Anton Grutzmache from Omnisient, explained how they maximise on data to revive businesses. “We recently approached the Shoprite group in order to propose how we can monetize their data. Our platform enables privacy data sourcing, analytics and decisioning for Fraud prevention. We treat consumer data with the highest and strictest professionalism. We do not mess with the consumer rights.” said Grutzmache
Chief Design Officer at Discovery Bank, Frank Rizzo presented on Bridging the Gap: Digital Banks’ Role in Enhancing Financial Inclusion. “Client education is quite significant to us. Hence our Fin App focuses on awareness on earning and spending day to day, weekly and monthly etc. We’ve just launched home loans. We intend interrupting that market. We’ll do so use the shared value concept.” mentioned Rizzo
CEO for ATS Network Management, Glenn Lazarus, says “We can’t afford to have an IT structure of an organisation that works in silos. We need to have a well-integrated IT system that is made up of a tech savvy team.”
Gold sponsors
CEO at ELO Digital Office, Kevin Nono, said “I am impressed about the diverse turnout to the event. I am also impressed about the shared information and thoughts of digital advancements. Overall what we at ELO believe in is that technology needs to take care of everyone.”
VP Channel International at ELO Digital Office Africa, Pierre Himmelmann, said “We are proud to be a gold sponsor for DFA 2024. Our company was born in 1871 in Stuttgart, Germany. We started out as a paper- binder. Today we have 25 of our own locations in 16 countries. Today’s tech space has seen the introduction of Ai that will steer it forward. I look at it as Ia, defines as Intelligent automation. That’s really our operation process at ELO. When it comes to the baking sector in Africa. We need a solution that is Ai, however that should be able to forget or be taught to forget. e.g Forget old banking acts and update with new, the same goes for policies, personal/ banker details etc., This is a key service offer.”
According to Global Head at Fraud BPC, Tray Nyi Nyi, SABRIC report has seen a rise in normal branch fraud in South Africa. “Internal to external fraud, scamming which targets individuals that are not tech savvy has increased. Our business is to intervene with preventative measures in order to keep this kind of cybercrime at bay. Our operations solution deals with the entire payment ecosystem, from a to z.”
Archimedes Panagiotides from Software AG indicated the significance of lumping info together in an orderly manner. “It’s important to consolidate your information. Also ascertain what’s holding you back.” said Panagiotides
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