BANKING ON DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Atlas Mara: Banking on digital transformation 02
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w w w.a t l a sma ra . com
We speak to Teza Ngulube, Country Head, Retail and Digital Banking, at AtlasMara Zambia to see how the bank is making a success of its digital transformation‌
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anking is undergoing nothing short of a technological revolution. With every aspect of the financial sector undergoing
dramatic overhauls of internal operations to provide up-to-the minute customer-facing offerings, there
Official opening of the 1st Atlas Mara Branch
is not a corner of this market that is not reconfiguring its infrastructure, strategy and processes. Atlas Mara is a bank focussed on investments and operations within sub-Saharan Africa and it too has radicalised its business to keep up to spin with all the latest disruptive technology in the sector. The person charged with overseeing this sometimes tricky transformation for Atlas Mara Zambia is Teza Ngulube, Country Head Retail and Digital Banking. Having previously served with Zanaco and Standard Chartered Bank, Ngulube joined Atlas Mara Zambia to take charge of its Retail & Digital operations after the merger of Finance Bank and BancABC. From the very onset, the need to leverage
A member of the Atlas Mara staff with Group Chairman, Mr. Bob E. Diamond Jr.
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technology to drive retail customer relationships was apparent and required swift transformation of our capabilities to allow us remain a credible choice for both our new and existing clients. “I joined Atlas Mara in February this year,” Ngulube explains. “And it’s really been about making sure the bank has high-quality products that are working to meet customers’ expectations. The banks went through an important amalgamation that saw two banks become one. Each had very different profiles in every aspect. The technology from both sides also had to come together for a digital banking solution that
Atlas Mara staff with management and the group’s board members 06
worked for the new consolidated bank.”
very stable on Flexcube,” he says. “And
The starting point of the journey was
it has given us room to now focus on
to ensure we had a single core banking
the peripheral infrastructure.”
system. We had to prioritise the migra-
One area where Ngulube directed
tion of customers that were sitting on
his efforts was that of the bank’s ATMs.
a lower version of the core banking
“There’s a new culture at Atlas Mara
system to the higher version that today
and we needed to make sure that we
stands as our core banking system. “It
have an ATM network that works and
was a difficult process but we are now
delivers expectations from an uptime
Chris Mwelo Head of Global Markets and Treasury
Bonaventure Mbewe Head of Legal
Betsy Nkhoma Head of Corporate Banking
“It’s really been about making sure the bank has highquality products that are working to meet customers’ expectations” — Teza Ngulube, Country Head Retail and Digital Banking perspective, so we decided to replace
procurement and deployment of
90 of our ATMs out of a fleet of about
these 90 ATMs, which they were able
175. Additionally, we have also migrated
to deliver in good time.
to a new ATM switch powered by CR2, which gives us better connectivity,
DIGITAL BANKING
better response, and ultimately,
Mobile banking is now a given for any
a better customer experience.” The
financial institution in modern times and
local NCR team supported Atlas Mara
enquiries such as balance checks are
Zambia with the whole process of
critical, as is the ability to move money.
Otis Zulu Head ofAudit
James Koni Managing Director
Hele Lunda Public Sector & NGO’s
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Staff during branch launch
“There’s a new culture at Atlas Mara and we needed to make sure that we have an ATM network that works and delivers expectations from an uptime perspective” — Teza Ngulube, Country Head Retail and Digital Banking
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“We had two separate mobile banking platforms for the two banks prior to the amalgamation and for each, we had
an agency banking solution, covering both the app and USSD.” “So, as of 1 August, we have delivered
some critical failure points. It became
the mobile banking application, which
relevant for us to define a fresh mobile
is currently the best mobile app in the
banking platform that compensated
market. It has a very easy first self-reg-
for both banks to give us the right
istration process, and you are logged
positioning as Atlas Mara Zambia. We
on, it presents a user friendly landing
have rolled out a new mobile banking
page that is easy to navigate. You can
platform, provided by a company called
move money about with ease within
ModefineServer, which has given us
Atlas Mara and to other bank accounts
three different solutions. They’re giving
and you can also move funds between
us the mobile banking solution that
your prepaid cards.”
covers both USSD (unstructured
“The biggest partner right now is
supplementary service data), as well as
ModefineServer, whom have been able
the app. They’re also going to give us
to deliver our mobile banking solution;
a wallet solution, covered in both USSD
which includes the wallet as well as the
and an app. And they’re also giving us
agency banking. They have really stood
E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E
Teza Ngulube Teza Ngulube has over 12 years of retail banking experience covering both middle management and senior level. Teza’s experience covers retail branch network management driving sales productivity, client experience and governance to drive revenue and balance sheet growth whilst leading a highly motivated and engaged team.
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“We are working on building an agency banking model that reflects our aspirations. We are going to be building a model based on partnerships” — Teza Ngulube, Country Head Retail and Digital Banking
out over that last couple of months and 12
they’ve just been fantastic, and we have achieved quite a bit with them. I would
Atlas Mara’s Katete Branch
also like to mention our Oracle support team, who have been holding our hand
initially we had most of the downloads
throughout these projects.”
coming through on the app. But then, all of a sudden, we saw a strong shift on the
SUCCESS
USSD side. In this case, that’s where we
Ngulube is proud to announce at the
expect most of the traffic. So, we made
time of writing that the service has just
some good traction there. Right now, we
hit 10,000 downloads on the Google
are still at the stage of trying to get more
Play store. “The total registrations today
and more customers onto the platform
were 22,000. So, 12,000 on USSD
given our customer base of 150,000.”
and 10,000 on the apps is considerable
Atlas Mara Zambia is just starting
progress, given that we have spent
the migration of its customers to the
a lot of time without a functioning mobile
new wallet solution, Tenga; a low KYC
solution. It is also interesting to see the
product that anybody with a mobile
growth on the USSD channel, because
phone can register on via USSD or even
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the app. This game changing product
in the country, Zoona. We are in discus-
is available to everyone with a mobile
sions with them – they have in excess of
number and Zambian National ID – you
2,000 agents right across the country,
don’t have to be an existing customer
and we are looking to see how we can
of Atlas Mara bank to be eligible.
leverage their network,” says Ngulube.
“Tenga represents the birth of our
With Tenga, we will be fulfilling a criti-
mobile money solution and to support
cal need to allow financial inclusiveness
its relevance, we are working on building
at all levels of society irrespective of
an agency banking model that reflects
geography across Zambia.
our aspirations. We are going to be building a model based on partnerships. We have a couple of partners already on the cards, and one of them actually has the largest agency banking network
Atlas Mara Ritter House, 6th Floor, Wickhams Cay II PO Box 4041, Road Town, Tortola VG1110, British Virgin Islands T +260 211 232 404 | www.atlasmara.com