KBA and Huawei Ink sign collaboration Agreement to promote a tech-driven financial sector

Kenya Bankers Association CEO Dr. Habil Olaka and Huawei Kenya Chief Executive Officer Mr. Will Meng during the signing a memorandum of understanding. Under the agreement, the two organizations will organize financial ICT-related activities.

Kenya Bankers Association (KBA) has taken a deeper dive into the technology world after signing a collaboration agreement with tech-firm Huawei Kenya that seeks to deepen financial inclusion in the financial sector.

Working with Huawei, KBA will lead an industrywide capacity building initiative geared at promoting knowledge on Financial Technology Innovation (Fintech), digital transformation and other and other ICT-related programmes within the Kenyan banking industry.

The move its to ensure that there is technology becomes the future of the financial sector making it affordable, efficient, and in line with the KBA strategic plan for 2020-2023.

“This partnership will further focus on research and knowledge-sharing activities, which will supplement the research initiatives that continue to be spearheaded by the Association’s Centre for Research Financial on Markets and Policy. In this regard, the collaboration will certainly augment KBA’s and member banks’ knowledge base in engagements with diverse stakeholders from a fact-based perspective,’’ said KBA Chief Executive Officer Dr. Habil Olaka.

The partnership comes on the heels of the 2020 edition of the Huawei-KBA Online FSI Summit slated for  September 30, 2020. The forum is among the initiatives Huawei and KBA are jointly implementing to promote the delivery of efficient banking services through technology under the cooperation agreement.

Huawei Kenya Chief Executive Officer Mr Will Meng expressed his optimism and confidence in the partnership which he sees as the future of financial services especially at a time when Covid-19 has disrupted the traditional ways of doing things.

‘’The theme of the upcoming summit is ‘’Building Banking Core Competence through Digital Transformation to Accelerate Inclusive Finance’’. It is one of the initiatives we are rolling out in Kenya in partnership with the Association to ensure we optimally leverage on technology to achieve affordable and accessible financial services in the regional economy,’’ said Mr. Meng.

In recent months, the unexpected painful bump of Covid-19 has ignited a new wave of technological adoption in different sectors; a move that was initially thought to take longer. The Banking sector has continued tapping into the potential of technology and adopting innovative ways of efficient deployment of technology in service delivery.

“Beyond the Covid-19 disruption, we see technology as an invaluable enabler of financial inclusion. I have no doubt that the summit along with the KBA-Huawei collaboration will play a significant role in our collective efforts to entrench technology in our operations and sustain our contribution to the national development agenda,’’ Dr. Olaka said.