Connect with us
Anglostratits

Business

Absa Bank Kenya Partners with Huawei to Build a New Digital Foundation for Branch Networks

Published

on

AbsaBank

SD-WAN, as a next-generation technology and service, can help banks connect their branches and promote smart branch upgrades by constructing a powerful network

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, September 30, 2022/APO Group/ — 

“I see it as Lego blocks where the bottom layer is a strong technology foundation that gives us a platform to offer cutting-edge digital solutions to our customers. A strong, resilient network connects all the elements of the platform reliably.” – Moses Okundi, CIO of Absa Kenya

Who is Absa Bank Kenya?

Absa Bank Kenya is listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange and is one of Kenya’s leading financial institutions. Established in 1916, the bank has been a major player in Kenya’s financial landscape, engaged in personal and corporate banking, enterprise, credit cards and bancassurance.

In line with the bank’s purpose of bringing possibilities to life, the bank offers end-to-end financial solutions to retail, enterprise and corporate customers, and its regional and global footprint enables it to offer cutting-edge financial solutions to its clients. The bank is a leader in the credit card space. It has also been associated with a number of market firsts, such as the launch of the first ATM, Sharia-compliant banking and unsecured lending. Absa Bank Kenya is part of Absa Group, one of the largest financial services institutions on the continent with a presence in 12 African markets and a global scale with offices in London and New York. In Kenya, the Absa is present in 38 counties. It has 83 branches, 212 ATMs and a robust Internet and mobile banking platform.

Facing the ever-changing customer needs over the past few years, Absa Bank regards “digital enablement” as one of the company’s key strategies. While accelerating enterprise innovation, Absa works closely with partners to accelerate digital transformation, provide convenient and high-quality innovative services for employees and customers, and further enable the creation of a digital Africa.

Bank Outlets Rethink Their Positioning as Epidemics and Digital Technologies Hit the Financial Industry

In recent years, the epidemic and digital technologies have continuously impacted traditional commercial banks. The diversified requirements of bank users and physical isolation brought by COVID-19 epidemic have accelerated the digital transformation of commercial banks. As a result, “mobile first” has become a top topic in the industry. More and more banks regard “mobile money” as the essential way to digital transformation. As consumers embrace mobile banking, digital channels absorb many traditional banking transactions. As a result, customers ’footprint at bank outlets start to decline, leading to the closure of many outlets. However, bank outlets remain an important channel for serving customers. According to a McKinsey study on June 2020: “The focus of branch offices will evolve to help customers with their complex needs.” In another Deloitte study on the outlook for banking and capital markets for 2021, “nearly half of bank respondents said their institutions are considering real-time interactions with bank staff through intelligent ATMs…”

There is no doubt that bank outlets are still indispensable in banks’ digital transformation journey. However, banks are supposed to re-examine the position of offline outlets. In the future, branch offices will act as face-to-face (F2F) channels and customer experience centers where customers handle complex transactions, solve problems and receive financial advisory services. Smart bank branch networks will be the key for banks to achieve this goal and support commercial banks’ digital strategies.

The Traditional Branches Connection Solution Hinders the Digital Upgrade of Banks. Who is the “Mr. Right” for this Situation?

However, traditional bank branch network architectures are no longer sufficient to support the upgrade of digital branches or even hinder it.

First, the cost of traditional WAN networking solutions for branch connection is too high. With the promotion of digitalization, the demand for real-time data transmission of financial transactions, services, and files in bank branches, as well as the demand for digital office and high-quality video/voice within branches, has exploded. However, most banks traditionally rely on Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) to implement network connections between headquarters and branch sites, as well as between branch sites. However, the cost of construction of MPLS links is too high. Most banks hesitate in the face of such high cost. This becomes an obstacle to the establishment of intelligent branches of banks.

Traditional solutions also fall short of meeting the requirements for banking agility and flexibility. Previously, the construction, configuration, and go-live of a network at a new bank branch could take weeks or even months. Furthermore, many services that should have been available to customers if there was a strong network cannot be provided in some areas due to a lack of professional staff. As a result, traditional solutions become an impediment to the agility requirements of banking in the digital age.

Absa Bank Kenya’s intelligent cloud-based branch network will serve as a critical foundation for the financial giant’s digital transformation

Furthermore, low network O&M efficiency becomes a pain point for banks’ digital transformation. Banks are typical of these situations: the network structure is complex and invisible, branch locations are dispersed, and network diagnosis cannot be performed remotely. As a result, when network problems arise, IT Technicians must handle them. It could take several hours or even days, which would be disastrous for the banks’ operations and result in significant losses. As we can see, when the continuity of banking services is threatened by a network problem, traditional solutions fail.

Since the traditional branch connection solution is obsolete in the digital era, what is the best solution for digital branch construction? SD-WAN (software defined wide area network) technology is the answer. SD-WAN, as a next-generation technology and service, can help banks connect their branches and promote smart branch upgrades by constructing a powerful network based on cost-effectiveness, agility, flexibility, scalability, security, and compliance.

Absa Bank Kenya Partners with Huawei on SD-WAN Solution to Build a New Digital Foundation for Branch Networks

As business continues to expand, Absa Bank Kenya is actively seeking the most appropriate network infrastructure. “We strive to offer our customers a seamless digital experience. We want to enable them to bank and transact without any hitch and in a seamless manner at the convenience of whatever they could be,” said Moses Okundi, CIO of Absa Bank Kenya. To realize that, the bank needed to build a new infrastructure to improve the efficiency of various banking services, reduce O&M costs, and enhance user experience at branches.

To meet the digital transformation requirements, Huawei and Absa Bank Kenya’s technical team conducted in-depth discussions and surveys. Based on the bank’s actual requirements and digital strategy, as well as Huawei’s strong technical reserves and construction experience in enterprise network and financial digital transformation, Huawei provided Absa Bank Kenya with a customized NCE-Campus-based SD-WAN solution. In addition to common SD-WAN capabilities, this solution comes with some other unique advantages including:

  1. High-performance and congestion-free forwarding:
    • 3x high-performance in the industry, meeting SD-WAN development requirements in the next five years;
  2. Intelligent application routing ensures user experience for key applications:
    • Application-level intelligent traffic steering + 5G plus Fiber on-demand scheduling + A-FEC enable 20% video packet loss without frame freezing and artifacts.

3) Full-process automation:

  • Supporting multiple ZTP modes including emails, USB flash drive, etc. Network deployment at branches can be performed within minutes.
  • Branch, device, application and link status are all visualized.
  • Capable of centralized management and simplified O&M.

Finally, Absa Bank Kenya also selected Huawei as its digital transformation partner to build a cloud-based network between its headquarters and branches. This is prove that Absa Bank Kenya highly recognizes Huawei’s SD-WAN solution to meet its service expansion and digital innovation requirements during its digital upgrade.

Efficient, Reliable, Intelligent O&M, Accelerating Digital Transformation of Absa Bank Kenya.

What does an SD-WAN-based branch cloud network bring to Absa Kenya?

“We got to a point where we can manage traffic and distribute traffic evenly across various technology options or various connectivity options from various connectivity providers. The value of this is that it gives us robust resilience in managing that connectivity,” adds Okundi. Indeed, in the future, the branch network of Absa Bank Kenya will have intelligent traffic steering capability. It means the network can dynamically select MPLS links or internet links based on application quality and MPLS link quality, to ensure that key services use links with good quality. In addition, based on Huawei’s exclusive algorithm support, even if the quality of internet link is not so good, communication quality can still be ensured, which means that MPLS has a cost-effective alternative.

In addition, Huawei provides the iMaster NCE-Campus O&M platform for Absa Kenya, which can display the key O&M quality of devices, applications, and traffic. This platform can visualize application traffic of all branches, and therefore allows the IT team to monitor the dynamic data and adjust the bandwidth of each branch in a timely manner. This brings efficient and intelligent operations, as Okundi explains, ” For my tech team, we now have a very good level of visibility regarding  the usage of the connectivity partners we have engaged. We are able to see where the usage is and how the traffic is distributed. And in the worst-case scenario where manual intervention is required, our team can pinpoint the challenges, making their intervention very accurate and efficient.”

These are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the benefits provided by SD-WAN. Absa Bank Kenya’s intelligent cloud-based branch network will serve as a critical foundation for the financial giant’s digital transformation. As Okundi expounds: “I see it as a Lego blocks where the bottom layer is a strong technology foundation that gives us a platform to really offer cutting-edge digital solutions to our customers. And right at the bottom layer is a strong connectivity.” In the future, this powerful branch network will further promote the intelligent upgrade of Absa Bank and eventually help them evolve into intelligent customer experience centers.  This digital foundation will continue to support the business expansion and innovation of Absa Bank Kenya to provide the most advanced and the best financial services to Kenya’s customers and enterprises.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Huawei.

Business

African Energy Week (AEW) 2026 Technical Sessions Put Technology Behind Africa’s Next Energy Projects in Focus

Published

on

African Energy Chamber

Day 2 technical sessions at African Energy Week 2026 will examine frontier exploration, major gas developments, project economics and the technologies supporting Africa’s expanding oil, gas and LNG sectors

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, September 22, 2026/APO Group/ –African Energy Week (AEW) 2026’s Day 2 Technical Stages will put the technology and technical expertise behind Africa’s next wave of energy projects in focus, with sessions covering subsurface interpretation, deepwater exploration, gas development, project economics, digitalization, offshore operations and infrastructure.

 




  

The program will unfold across two exhibition-hall stages, with the Drill Room focusing on practical applications across exploration, gas development, offshore operations and LNG, while the Innovation Hub will examine frontier exploration, energy markets, digital technologies and infrastructure. Together, the sessions connect project-level technologies with the wider investment and development challenges facing Africa’s energy industry.

The day opens with GeoEnergy Petroleum Director Maged Fahim, who will examine how legacy and newly acquired subsurface datasets can be integrated with modern technologies to identify additional upstream opportunities. TGS Principal Exploration Advisor Felicia Winter will then focus on Angola’s deepwater basins, examining how modern seismic acquisition and imaging can be used to reinterpret existing data and evaluate frontier plays.

The discussions come as Angola seeks to build on renewed offshore activity. TotalEnergies announced in September that it plans to invest $10 billion in Angola over the next five years, including in exploration, while advancing its $6 billion Kaminho deepwater development.

Gas development will take center stage through two presentations by TotalEnergies. Alexandre Depiesse, GPI Venus, will address appraisal strategies and commercial viability for Orange Basin discoveries, while Mozambique LNG Operations and Project Director Nicolas Cambefort will examine development and optimisation of the Rovuma Basin gas resources. Mozambique LNG, a 13.1-million-ton-per-year project in Area 1 led by TotalEnergies, resumed activities in January 2026 following the lifting of force majeure, putting development of Mozambique’s major offshore gas resources back into focus.

AEW 2026 reflects the practical challenges facing Africa’s energy industry as projects move from resource potential toward development and production

The Republic of Congo National Showcase will provide another perspective on Africa’s expanding LNG industry. The country’s Congo LNG project reached a new stage in February 2026 with the start of commercial production from its second phase. The addition of the Nguya FLNG unit brought total liquefaction capacity to 3 million tons per year, expanding Congo’s ability to monetize its offshore gas resources.

The program will then broaden from individual projects to the continent-wide investment outlook with the launch of The State of African Energy 2027. AEC Senior Vice President Verner Ayukegba and S&P Global Energy Executive Director Max Pietzsch will present the outlook, covering upstream oil and gas, LNG, downstream markets, power, renewables and critical minerals against changing demand, trade flows and energy security requirements.

Project decision-making will remain under examination as S&P Global Energy Technical Research Analyst Tasnika Goorhoo presents “From Limited Data to Better Decisions: How Benchmarking Strengthens Upstream Project Outcomes.” The session will examine how comparative project data can help operators assess performance, costs and development outcomes.

NOV Vice President Mats Anderson will address offshore optimization through high-speed downhole connectivity and real-time distributed measurements, examining how faster access to downhole information can improve operational visibility and decision-making.

Infrastructure will also feature prominently, with Kenyon International West Africa CEO Victor Ekpenyong examining asset integrity and pipeline infrastructure through the company’s CACTUS and FlexSteel technologies. Honeywell Technologies Africa will close the technology-focused sessions with its end-to-end LNG offering, while SLB, InSwitch, the Petroleum Directorate of Sierra Leone and PETROSEN will bring additional perspectives on technology, digitalization and energy services.

“AEW 2026 reflects the practical challenges facing Africa’s energy industry as projects move from resource potential toward development and production,” said NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the AEC. “From subsurface interpretation and deepwater exploration to LNG development, project benchmarking, digitalization and infrastructure, these technical sessions highlight the expertise and technologies needed to develop Africa’s resources efficiently and create lasting value across the energy value chain.”

AEW 2026 takes place from October 12–16 in Cape Town, bringing together governments, investors, operators and technology providers to discuss investment, project development and the future of Africa’s energy sector.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Energy Chamber.

 




 

Continue Reading

Business

Rising power costs put energy strategy at the centre of industrial competitiveness

Published

on

South Africa

C&I Energy + Storage Summit Johannesburg to focus on the procurement, cost and investment decisions facing South Africa’s large energy users

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, September 22, 2026/APO Group/ –The cost of electricity is no longer only an energy issue for South African businesses. It is increasingly a question of competitiveness, investment and long-term operational resilience.

Recent figures show the pressure on large power users. Business Day reported on 7 September that South Africa’s mining and industrial majors paid Eskom R115 billion for electricity in the 2025/26 financial year. According to Eskom’s annual report, industrial electricity demand fell by more than 22% over the same period as high power costs weighed on energy-intensive operations.

 




  

At the same time, major businesses are moving to alternative supply. Reuters reported on 26 August that South African mining companies are accelerating investment in renewable energy to cut costs, diversify supply and meet decarbonisation targets.

For commercial and industrial energy users, the question is no longer simply how to secure power. It is how to buy it, what to invest in, and which energy strategy makes the strongest commercial sense.

Energy procurement is becoming more complex

Businesses are now weighing several procurement options at once. Should they sign a long-term PPA? Buy through an electricity trader? Wheel renewable power across the grid? Invest in behind-the-meter generation? Add battery storage? Each option carries different implications for cost, risk, contracting and long-term flexibility.

These decisions will take centre stage at the C&I Energy + Storage Summit Johannesburg, taking place on 28–29 October 2026 at The Maslow Hotel, Sandton. The programme is built around the practical challenges facing energy buyers today, with a focus on real projects, commercial models and implementation rather than technology in isolation.

A programme built around the buyer’s decisions

The summit closes with the C&I Decision Clinic: Ask the Experts, a masterclass where attendees submit real project challenges in advance and receive practical, anonymised responses from experts. Questions on the table include whether to build onsite PV or sign a wheeled PPA, how much battery storage makes commercial sense, what a bankable project preparation pack should contain, and what financiers require before term sheet stage.

It follows The C&I Energy Playbook: Five decisions business leaders need to make now, a closing panel in which the moderators of key summit sessions distil the programme into the priorities C&I businesses should act on.

Other sessions address the questions buyers are asking now:

  • Energy storage beyond backup power: unlocking commercial value examines peak shaving, demand charge management, energy arbitrage and hybrid PV-plus-storage business models, along with the operational realities of dispatch, degradation and warranties.
  • Making public-private engagement work for you unpacks how wheeling agreements are structured in practice, where interface risks arise, and how businesses can engage utilities and municipalities early.
  • Reducing energy costs without building new generation is a case-study-led workshop on energy efficiency, operational optimisation, demand response and digital energy management.
  • Projects Spotlight gives energy users the floor to share the strategies they have implemented, the lessons learned and the outcomes achieved.

The programme opens with the keynote panel Threats and opportunities in South Africa’s industrial future, bringing together policymakers, industrial leaders, financiers, and energy and water experts.

Bringing energy buyers into the conversation

The summit’s Hosted Buyer Programme is designed for qualified end-user energy buyers across sectors including mining, manufacturing, property, agriculture and other energy-intensive industries. Hosted buyers take part in the full programme and receive curated engagement with solution providers across energy procurement, storage deployment and project development.

Four events, one venue

The summit is co-located with the EIUG Conference, Water Security Africa and the Data Centre Summit, bringing the energy, water and digital infrastructure communities together in Sandton. It is brought to you by Enlit Africa, with ESI Africa as host media, and is accredited by the SAIEE.

Qualified commercial and industrial energy users can apply for the Hosted Buyer Programme at https://apo-opa.co/4yPnXOg, and bring their project questions to the Decision Clinic.

Full programme: https://apo-opa.co/4xK2ANv

 

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of VUKA Group.

 




 

Continue Reading

Events

Beyond the carbon credit: Who sets the terms for Africa’s carbon markets?

Published

on

From project ownership and verification to pricing and benefit-sharing, CMAS 2026 will bring African market leaders and global decision-makers together to examine who creates and captures value

KIGALI, Rwanda, September 22, 2026/APO Group/ –A carbon credit may be traded as a single unit, but its value is shaped long before it reaches a buyer. Decisions about project ownership, finance, data, verification and benefit-sharing determine who participates, who carries the risk and who ultimately benefits. As new regulations and international partnerships expand market access, these questions are becoming increasingly important across Africa.

 




 
 

They will be central to the Carbon Markets Africa Summit (CMAS) 2026, taking place from 13 to 15 October at the Kigali Convention Centre in Rwanda. The summit will convene African governments, project developers, investors, buyers and technical experts involved in decisions across the carbon-market value chain.

Countries are approaching these decisions from different regulatory, economic and environmental positions. While recent developments in East Africa demonstrate growing market activity, questions concerning international requirements, technical capacity, investment and benefit-sharing are relevant across Africa.

Ousmane Fall SARR, Coordinator of the West African Alliance on Carbon Markets and Climate Finance, says:

“African countries are developing carbon markets from different starting points. Stronger African expertise and regional cooperation will be important if the continent is to contribute to the standards and market practices that determine how its projects compete, attract investment and create value.”

Against this continental backdrop, East Africa provides a timely example of how the market is developing. In January 2026, Rwanda and Singapore invited applications for carbon-credit projects under their bilateral Implementation Agreement, aligned with Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. Credits from authorised projects may be used by eligible Singapore-based carbon tax-liable companies to offset up to 5% of their taxable emissions, subject to both governments’ requirements.

African countries are developing carbon markets from different starting points

Across the continent, carbon market frameworks are rapidly taking shape. Kenya and Uganda are strengthening regulatory oversight, regional partnerships are helping governments build market capacity and infrastructure, and South Africa is advancing reforms to modernise its carbon-credit ecosystem and attract investment. Together, these developments are bringing greater focus to questions of authorisation, project ownership, verification, pricing and access to international buyers, while also raising expectations that carbon finance should deliver sustainable economic and development value beyond the credit itself.

Emmanuelle Nicholls, Portfolio Director for CMAS, says:

“A carbon credit may be the final product, but behind it are decisions about ownership, data, risk, pricing and who ultimately benefits. The conversations in Kigali will examine what credible participation looks like across the full carbon-market value chain.”

These decisions have consequences beyond individual transactions. Carbon finance is increasingly connected to conservation, agriculture, soil restoration, food security, clean energy and waste management. Its success will therefore also be judged by whether projects produce credible environmental outcomes and lasting benefits for African economies and communities.

A practical example comes from the Chinko Conservation Area in the Central African Republic, where revenue from the Chinko Carbon Project is channelled through a community fund that supports locally selected initiatives, including the expansion of a medical centre in Agoumar. At CMAS 2026, African Parks and Welthungerhilfe, both Bronze Sponsors, will share perspectives on how carbon finance can support conservation, climate resilience, food systems and community development, while highlighting broader questions around project governance, impact and the distribution of value.

From project-level impact to market-wide structures, these questions will underpin discussions at CMAS 2026. The programme will address government authorisation, buyer requirements, pricing and offtake, investment risk, early-stage finance, registries and African measurement, reporting and verification capacity. It will connect the question of who sets the terms with the practical requirements for building credible, investment-ready projects and transactions.

CMAS 2026 is hosted by the Ministry of Environment of Rwanda, with UNDP and the African Development Bank as host organisations, the Development Bank of Southern Africa as host partner and AUDA-NEPAD as strategic institutional partner.

Taking place ahead of COP31, CMAS will focus attention on the decisions behind every carbon credit and what they mean for African governments, projects, investors and communities.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of VUKA Group.

 




 

Continue Reading

Trending