Collaborate to enhance competition in digital financial space – Absa Bank MD

Abena Osei-Poku, the Managing Director of Absa Bank Ghana, has indicated that collaboration is the new competition in the digital financial service space across the continent.

She thus, urged the players within the industry to collaborate to increase competition in the sector.

The Managing Director made this known at a panel discussion on how Africa can build resilience and drive differentiation in the financial sector, at the Financial Times Global Summit.

Abena Osei-Poku noted that Africa’s financial service sector has transformed from a decade ago with digital technology leading the revolution that is impacting every facet of human life. She disclosed that three players in the ecosystem, banks, fintechs and telecoms are at the forefront of this unique opportunity.

The Absa Director observed that whilst the orientation of these three players are diverse in several ways, the overall assessment has been for them to collaborate with their complementary skills in creating an ecosystem that reflects scalability, accessibility, and convenience for the customer.

She asserted that Fintechs and telecom companies have consistently displayed creativity, agility and an innovative mind-set that tend to cause positive disruption for the benefit of the customer. Banks, on the other hand, have a robust system of stringent governance and stability at their disposal, which is critical to the partnership.

“Collaboration will always prove to be the way forward for these key stakeholders to co-exist and create sustainable synergies for the benefit of customers, clients and the financial inclusion agenda. It is a shared responsibility and there is no one size fits all. Regulation is also of extreme importance in this dynamic and already we are seeing Central Banks continuously proving assertive, proactive and transformative in their work in this space” she said.

Digital Payment Platform

Abena Osei-Poku stated that the COVID-19 has helped to increase the use of digital payment system with stakeholders playing key roles.

“Thanks to the global pandemic as well. Awareness around digital payments and collaboration is becoming mainstay, which is a good thing. Essentially, we continue to see a gradual harmonisation of the ecosystem, thanks to the understanding of all key stakeholders, and this is quite satisfying.”

On her views on blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, Abena Osei-Poku noted that crypto currency disrupts the dynamics of the financial system.

“We continue to take a closer look at the cryptocurrency concept as a bank. It seeks to disrupt the entire financial system by driving regulation away from the central banks into the hands of individuals aided by a web of computer connections. Most opponents to the model worry about the risk of decentralisation to the financial system. There is also the other important point of price volatility, which becomes an issue of concern to most mainline actors in the sector.

“At Absa Bank, we are still accessing the diversity of information and structure of the concept and are yet to conclusively devise a direction around it. Again, issues around closing legal loopholes to prevent cybercrime and fraud are of immense importance to us and we shall continue to keep an eye on this area” she added.