Session 2: Opening Plenary And Panel Discussions

The opening plenary was moderated by Mr. Komba Malukutila, MD, MTN Fintech who was joined by Mr. Akash, Risk and compliance (MTN), Ms. T. Malemba, Head of products, (responsible for product evolution and all solutions seen), Ms. Chikondi Mwanza, Business Strategy and Mr. K. Chilongoshi the CIO. This panel reflected on the progress and potential of Fintech in Zambia.

KEYNOTE Change acceptance is required for digital advancement. Fintech relies on banks as collaborative partners for their operations because they are not rivals but allies in influencing financial and digital evolution.

Mr. Malukutila stated that 10 years from now, services including the banking system will not be what it was 10 years ago. He mentioned that the banks have realised that traditional banking is not what is going to push Zambia to the 69% of financial inclusion that the director alluded to earlier. What is needed is not the sharpest of species, or the most intelligent, but the ones that are most responsive to change. He explained how the journey of making Zambia digital has started, as evidenced by the evolution of access mechanisms like Zoona, then mobile money like MTN, Airtel, Zamtel and Kazang – 543. He also mentioned that 90% of the distribution has been done in urban areas and the work in progress is rural Zambia so that everyone is financially included. He also stated how in the western world everybody is moving to a bank since they have a credit score which in turn gives them access to financial services; however the local SMEs have no access to funding because there is no data on them. He further elaborated that as a fintech, they rely on the collaborative partnership with the banks for their operations.

Mr. Malukutila mentioned the government has stated that there must be a switch for all financial players to inter-operate; this saw the birth of the National Financial Switch (NFS) which links 19 banks, MNOs and fintechs in one platform. He further said that from an access layer, they started off with USSD, but now there are web interfaces where all the players have apps which you can interface. He added that with the cross border remitters, individuals can send money across borders as well as from one phone to another. Mr. Malukutila also highlighted some of MTNs success areas which included: „ 10,000,000 active wallets as at 2021 „ 36 registered and licensed PSGs „ In 2022 alone - 8,030,000 transactions accounting to 16,000,000,000 in mobile money transactions There are still a number of Zambians financially excluded.

During the ensuing open forum, Ms. Chikondi Mwanza added on what was stated in the opening ceremony by Director Kamuhuza, by stating that the NFS had made it possible to send Money from an MTN wallet to Airtel, a Bank or make payments within seconds. Ms. Malemba added to the discussion by saying that Banks and Fintechs are not in competition but rather in collaboration, as the drive for financial inclusion is bigger than any one entity. Fintechs have been evolving, and are not disruptive in a manner that they are innovative.

Mr. Akash commented that the innovations being made also give rise to more opportunities to cyber criminals. In trying to curb cyber threats and reduce the risks, guidance is being sought from ISO 27,000 and ISO 27,0001 just to name a few. He added that, there is also a lot of communication that has been going on with all interested parties in the cyber space to find a lasting solution to cybercrime.

Mr. Chilongoshi explained that Security is a journey and because threats are evolving, we can only say we are ready when we have the readiness to evolve as an industry. He also added that the number of threats that come with providing services are high and unavoidable, and so operators must be ready, and urged industry players, law enforcement agents to evolve in order to fight cyber crimes.

Ms. Kamuhuza detailed how customer personal data cannot be shared as it is private. However, she added that customer data is shared with cooperating partners only for purposes of loan disbursements where credit history is required. Ms. Mwanza added that there is something being worked on, to ensure that some data can be shared with partners across various networks, without infringing on the rights of the customers, and without breaking any rules or laws.