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

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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.

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African Energy Week (AEW) 2024 to Navigate the Future of Oil & Gas Financing Amid Energy Transition

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September 9, 2024

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The African Energy Week: Invest in African Energy conference will gather industry leaders to explore oil and gas financing tools and strategies in the age of the energy transition

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, September 9, 2024/APO Group/ — 

As the global energy landscape shifts towards cleaner and more sustainable sources, Africa’s oil and gas sector faces challenges in securing financing for upstream projects. Nearly $3 billion was mobilized toward African energy projects in 2023 – with a significant portion directed towards natural gas – according to the African Development Bank (AfDB). As global markets evolve, African financing strategies must adapt to support both economic growth and long-term sustainability.

The Financing Upstream Oil & Gas in the Age of Transition session at African Energy Week (AEW): Invest in African Energy will explore how African oil and gas projects are securing financing in a rapidly changing landscape. The session will unpack evolving regulatory frameworks, innovative financing models and the balance between traditional fossil fuel and renewable energy investments. Moderated by Laura Sima, Director of S&P Global Commodity Insights, the panel will feature Trafigura Group Head of Upstream Finance Matthieu Milandri; Africa Finance Corporation Vice President Taiwo Okwor; and Project & Export Finance Africa Managing Director & Regional Head Fathima Hussain.

AEW: Invest in African Energy is the platform of choice for project operators, financiers, technology providers and government, and has emerged as the official place to sign deals in African energy. Visit www.AECWeek.com for more information about this exciting event.

To address shifting investment priorities, a dedicated Africa Energy Bank (AEB) has been launched by the African Petroleum Producers Organization and African Export-Import Bank. To be based in Abuja, the AEB aims to bridge Africa’s infrastructure funding gap and accelerate the development of energy projects across the continent. As a supranational institution, the AEB will provide critical funds for emerging oil and gas projects across Africa, supporting the sector amid the global energy transition, and is currently open for signature by prospective member states.

African natural gas projects have been a leading destination for foreign investment, as gas is considered a cleaner alternative and even labeled as “green energy” in the EU. Projects like Senegal and Mauritania’s Greater Tortue Ahmeyim LNG – led by bp and Kosmos Energy – have secured $4.8 billion in investment from a mix of equity from the IOCs and debt financing supported by multilateral banks. Blended finance – combining both public and private sector capital – has emerged as a critical solution to mobilizing large-scale financing in Africa’s energy sector. The TotalEnergies-led Mozambique LNG project represents a total post-FID investment of $20 billion, of which $14.9 billion comes from senior debt financing including a blend of loans from export credit agencies, multilateral finance agencies like the International Finance Corporation and the AfDB, and commercial banks.

Significant capital is also flowing to high-potential hydrocarbon basins with strong exploration prospects. In Namibia, multinationals TotalEnergies and Shell are continuing to explore the deepwater Orange Basin, with TotalEnergies allocating 30% of its one-billion-dollar exploration budget to the country in 2024 alone. Namibia’s government has been active in courting global financiers, emphasizing the need for sustainable energy development alongside oil and gas exploration and production. In Angola, TotalEnergies, Petronas and state-owned Sonangol secured a $6-billion FID for the Kaminho deepwater project in Block 20 that will develop the Cameia and Golfinho ultra-deepwater fields. The project will employ an all-electric FPSO unit, designed to minimize greenhouse gas emissions and eliminate routine flaring. Independent upstream company Invictus Energy also recently secured $10 million from local institutional investors for its Cabora Bassa project in Zimbabwe to develop the country’s first major oil and gas field.

The upcoming finance session will also position public-private partnerships as a mechanism for financing large-scale energy infrastructure projects, as well as de-risking investments. The Republic of Congo has advanced the development of its Banga Kayo block through an amended PSC with China’s Wing Wah Oil Company, enabling the commercialization of the block’s gas resources. In Nigeria, the $2.6-billion Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano gas pipeline is being financed through both public and private funds, with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company as the main financier and international lenders including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Bank of China involved. Nigeria’s Federal Government has provided a sovereign guarantee covering 85% of the project’s costs, securing crucial financing and building investor confidence.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Energy Chamber.

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The Islamic Development Bank Institute (IsDBI) Completes Pilot Implementation of Islamic Finance Strategic Mapping Framework in Kazakhstan

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20 hours ago

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September 9, 2024

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This comprehensive assessment, conducted in collaboration with the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC), aimed to identify key opportunities and challenges within the country’s Islamic finance sector

ASTANA, Kazakhstan, September 8, 2024/APO Group/ — 

The Islamic Development Bank Institute (IsDBI) (https://ISDBInstitute.org/) is pleased to announce the successful completion of its flagship Islamic Finance Strategic Mapping Framework (IF-MAP, formerly IF-CAF) (https://apo-opa.co/4cXPwti) pilot exercise in the Republic of Kazakhstan. This comprehensive assessment, conducted in collaboration with the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC), aimed to identify key opportunities and challenges within the country’s Islamic finance sector.

The pilot initiative of IF-MAP was launched (https://apo-opa.co/3MyooGO) in June 2023, and involved extensive consultations with key stakeholders, including government agencies, financial institutions, and industry experts. The resulting tailored policy recommendations report, which outlines the sector’s progress and provides recommendations for future development, has been submitted to the AIFC.

AIFC’s commitment to promoting Islamic finance is evident through favorable conditions offered to Islamic financial companies to operate in both the retail and corporate sectors

As one of the key outcomes of the exercise, IsDBI and AIFC jointly developed the Kazakhstan Islamic Finance Country Report 2024 (https://apo-opa.co/3B4GwFv) which H.E. the Governor of AIFC, H.E. Mr. Renat Bekturov, launched on 6 September during the Astana Finance Days. The report highlights the immense potential of Islamic finance in supporting Kazakhstan’s economic growth and development.

In his welcome address, H.E. Mr. Renat Bekturov noted: “This report not only provides a comprehensive overview of the Islamic finance industry but also highlights our shared vision for the future.  AIFC’s commitment to promoting Islamic finance is evident through favorable conditions offered to Islamic financial companies to operate in both the retail and corporate sectors. The report is an invaluable guide for investors, policymakers, and stakeholders.”

Commenting on the successful completion of the pilot exercise, Dr. Sami Al-Suwailem, Acting Director General of IsDBI, stated, “We are delighted to have collaborated with the AIFC on this important initiative. The Kazakhstan Islamic Finance Country Report offers a valuable analysis of the sector’s current state and future prospects. We believe that the report, together with the IF-MAP policy recommendations submitted to the AIFC, will be instrumental in guiding policymakers, investors, and financial institutions as they work to harness the full potential of Islamic finance in Kazakhstan.”

The IsDB Institute remains committed to supporting the growth and development of the Islamic finance industry worldwide. Through its research, training, and capacity-building programs, the Institute seeks to contribute to the creation of a more inclusive and sustainable financial system.

The Kazakhstan Islamic Finance Country Report 2024 is accessible on IsDBI website here: https://apo-opa.co/4ge7jQ1

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Islamic Development Bank Institute (IsDBI).

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ST Telemedia Global Data Centres Reinforces Commitment to Digital India, Invests US$3.2 billion to add 550MW Data Centre Capacity

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September 9, 2024

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SINGAPORE – Media OutReach Newswire – 6 September 2024 – ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC), one of the world’s fastest-growing data centre colocation services provider headquartered in Singapore, today announced a significant investment of US$3.2 billion (INR 26,000 crores) to expand its data centre capacity in India by a substantial 550MW, nearly tripling the company’s IT load capacity to meet the demands of India’s thriving digital economy, over the next 5-6 years.

This strategic investment reflects STT GDC’s confidence in India and the growth of its digital economy, as well as aligning with the burgeoning demand for digital infrastructure, driven by the surge in data consumption, cloud computing, digital transformation, and growing adoption of AI applications. This investment also further solidifies our market leadership in India, where we already command about 28% of market share by revenue.

STT GDC India is majority-owned by STT GDC in partnership with Tata Communications Ltd, which holds a minority stake in the company. STT GDC India’s portfolio consists of 28 data centres across 10 cities throughout India. Today, its data centre portfolio has a total combined capacity of over 318MW of IT load, with a well-diversified portfolio of about 1,000 enterprise customers that include many Fortune 500 companies. More recently, STT GDC India was recognised as a Great Place to Work for the fifth consecutive year, as well as one of the Best Places to Work in Asia.

“As we celebrate STT GDC’s 10th anniversary this year, embarking on this ambitious expansion is a sign of our confidence in Digital India and the future of one of STT GDC’s strategic and fastest growing markets globally. Prime Minister Modi’s vision for Digital India has paved the way for opportunity; today the India digital economy’s growth rate of almost three times overall GDP growth is putting the country on pace to achieve a US$1 trillion digital economy by 2027-20281. At STT GDC, we want to play an active role in co-investing and contributing to India’s long-term success by investing in the foundational digital infrastructure that will help further accelerate Digital India. We are excited about the opportunities ahead and are confident in our ability to contribute significantly to India’s digital transformation,” said Bruno Lopez, President and Group Chief Executive Officer, ST Telemedia Global Data Centres.

STT GDC, along with several other Singapore business leaders, participated in a Business Roundtable with Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted by the Singapore Business Federation on 5 September 2024.

—–
1India digital economy: India to be $1 trillion digital economy by FY28: IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar – The Economic Times (indiatimes.com)

About ST Telemedia Global Data Centres
ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC) is one of the fastest-growing data centre providers with a global platform serving as a cornerstone of the digital ecosystem that helps the world to connect. Powering a sustainable digital future, STT GDC operates across Singapore, the UK, Germany, India, Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam, providing businesses an exceptional foundation that is built for their growth anywhere. For more information, visit https://www.sttelemediagdc.com/.

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