Summary: With a common aim to promote digital innovations in the African BFSI sector, Huawei and Oracle to define the required road map at the 7^th Edition of WFIS 2021: Africa, organised by Tradepass.

Amidst the phenomenal disruptions happening in Africa within the BFSI sector in terms of Fintech, Mobile Money and Digital Banking, corporate giants like Huawei and Oracle have decided to take the center stage at the most premier BFSI virtual summit in Africa on 10-11 August, 2021.

Not only has Africa become the leader in Mobile Money but the continent’s high-spirited Fintech startups have also garnered a whopping US $350 million in investments in 2020. As per a report by International Monetary Fund, sub-Saharan Africa has become the world leader in mobile money adoption, usage, and innovation.

The virtual summit will attract 1500+ technology and business heads from 200+ leading Banks, Insurance & Micro-Finance institutions across Africa to virtually connect, collaborate and explore a wide range of new-age-future-tech solutions curated for the growing BFSI sector.

Through the many insightful presentations and panel discussions with the leading experts, the summit aims to throw light on the most pressing topics in BFSI like ‘AI in Banking’, ‘Cloud Banking’, ‘RPA in BFSI’, ‘Open Banking Innovation’ and many others.

BFSI innovations are finally bringing financial inclusion in the continent providing the vast underprivileged population access to financial services. There are close to 150 mobile money providers operating in sub-Saharan Africa which are witnessing a rampant growth like never before.

It’s also the golden period for the African fintech ventures as during the first quarter of 2020, African countries like South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Egypt raised a staggering $112m, $74m, $62m and $51m in investments, respectively. Moreover, fintech companies in Africa are further facilitating banks with their operations as banks are now able to provide digital banking services to the vast underserved population.

Organiser and the CEO of Tradepass, Sudhir Jena expressed that “The 7^th WFIS 2021: Africa will be an important milestone in the changing paradigm of the continent’s BFSI sector as it aims to promote the new-age financial innovations in Africa”.

Some of the confirmed speakers include:

• Dr. Konstantinos Tsanis, Digital Transformation and FinTech Specialist, IFC World Bank
• Ronald Raffensperger, Senior Transformation Expert Financial Industry, Huawei
• Raghav Prasad - Division President, Sub-Saharan Africa, Mastercard
• Agrippa Mugwagwa, Managing Director, Xarani Fintech
• Alberto Sessa, Senior Director Financial Services, Oracle
• Olayinka Situ, CTO/Group Head, Corporate Transformation, FirstBank Nigeria
• Stanley Mwangi Chege, Group Chief Information Officer, Jubilee Insurance
• Mohamed Fathy, Chief Information Officer, EFG Hermes
• Onyebuchi Akosa, Group, Chief Information Officer, United Bank for Africa Plc
• Tendai Chavarika, Head customer experience, Steward Bank Zimbabwe
• Ubong Nkanta, Head, Customer Experience Governance, United Bank for Africa Plc
• Uzo Mkparu, Group Head CRM, Customer Analytics & Insights, First City Monument Bank
• Marcia Ujobolo, Senior Specialist: Customer Experience, South African Revenue Service (SARS)
• Jennifer Jemedafe, Founder & CEO, Retention Concierge
• Anna Collard, SVP - Content Strategy & Evangelist, KnowBe4
• Sudheer Prabhu, CTO, CIM Finance
• Motunrayo Ajayi, Head, HC Projects & Digital Transformation, Sterling Bank PLC
• Gloria Njiu, Head of Digital Business, NCBA Bank Tanzania Limited
• Nyong Inwang, Head Channels & Digital Banking, Nova Merchant Bank
• Chukwuma Osahor, Head, Digital Partnerships, Access Bank Plc
• Glenn Lazarus, CEO, ATS Network Management Pty LTD
• Makabelo Malumane, Head of Transaction Banking, Kenya and East Africa, Standard Chartered Bank
• Robert Kariuki, Digital and Transaction Banking Specialist, Sidian Bank Limited
• Sam Mohatle, Head of Digital Banking, First National Bank - Lesotho
• Shehryar Ali, Country Manager - East Africa, Mastercard
• Shina Atilola, Divisional Head, Retail & Consumer Banking, Sterling Bank Plc
• Vitumbiko Gubuduza, Head of Compliance, NBS Bank Plc
• Evans Odhiambo, Assistant General Manager & Head of Transactional Banking, I&M Bank
• Bharat Soni, CISO, GT Bank Plc
• Albert Yirenchi - CISO, Stanbic Bank Ghana
• Faheem Ali, CRO, Musoni
• Dr Peter Kamau Njuguna, CIO, Co-Operative Bank of Kenya
• Kumar Dandapani, Formerly Head of Retail Banking, Bank Africa
• Naana Araba Abban, Head Consumer Banking, Ecobank

The solution providers who will be showcasing their technologies over the two days include –

Huawei, Mastercard, Oracle, KnowBe4, ATS Network Management, Freshworks, Check Point Software Technologies Ltd, Finacle(Infosys)