AITEC BANKING & MOBILE MONEY COMESA 2011: AITEC announces line-up for fifth annual Banking & Mobile Conference for COMESA region

The first decade of the new millennium has probably been the most traumatic ever for the international banking industry. Added to that, the African region’s mobile banking boom opens up a wide range of new security threats for the industry. And from a commercial point of view, the banks are under siege – on the one hand by mobile operators who have stolen the initiative from them in mobile banking, and on the other hand by microfinance institutions, who are leading the way in banking the unbanked. In addition, with increased regional economic integration, banks are having to develop effective systems for seamless cross-border transactions.

All these dynamics provide a rich source of content for next year’s Banking & Mobile Money COMESA conference taking place in Nairobi over 24-25 February 2010. As at this year’s conference, over 100 international and local banking, microfinance, mobile payment and data security experts will be making presentations in plenary and specialist track sessions, sharing their knowledge with colleagues from the region’s financial services sector. The theme of the conference, “New strategies for a new era of financial integration” reflects the current drive in the region for economic integration.

Although Kenya escaped the worst of the international financial meltdown, there are important lessons to be learnt in terms of governance, security and credit management and these topics will be covered in the Risk Management track.

The event has the backing of key stakeholders in the sector, including the PayNet Group as platinum sponsor, Technology Associates as gold sponsor and SevenSeas Technologies as silver sponsor.

Announcing the initial speaker line-up for the conference, AITEC Chairman Sean Moroney, said: “This is the one educational and business networking event that bankers should add to their diaries now to make sure they are there to experience with peers from throughout the COMESA region this unique knowledge-sharing opportunity. A rich conference programme is taking shape and already includes some leading gurus from the financial services sector.”
Speakers and topics announced by AITEC include:
•  Building an efficient acquiring infrastructure – Work in Progress - Bernard Matthewman, CEO, Paynet Group, Kenya
•  Empowering Africa’s new mobile merchants - Graham Gilmour, CEO, The Business Phone, UK
•  Building mobile financial ecosystems - Benjamin Lyon, Vice President of Business Development, Kopo Kopo Inc, USA
•  The rise of Banking 3.0: The role of outsourced transaction processing excellence - Sanjeeva Shukla, Executive Vice-President & Global Head – Operations, BPO Certification Institute, India
•  Experiences from building a completely cashless MFI - Cameron Goldie-Scott, Musoni Bank, Kenya
•  The CRM, BI and SOA transformation: The game-changing bank of the 21st Century - Adam Nyaga, GM Business Applications, SevenSeas Technologies
•  Hyper-channel banking – Customers choose, banks follow - Barry Coetzee, CEO, iVeri, South Africa
•  The fruits of mobile innovation - John Waibochi, CEO, Virtual City, Kenya
•  Mobile money and emerging e-commerce in Kenya - Andrea Bohnstedt, Publisher, Ratio Magazine, Kenya
•  Co-operative mode of mobile banking - Amar Choudhary, Manam Infotech, United Arab Emirates
•  Liquidity management at agency level - Frederik Eijkman, MD, PEP Intermedius, Kenya
•  Bringing credit to Africa: Security, infrastructure & support concerns - Gary Chalmers, CEO, iPulse, South Africa
•  eBanking operations: The Nigerian experience - Tope Dare, Founder, ATM Community, Nigeria
•  Bringing innovation to the core - Peter Muya, Enterprise Architect CRM/ERP, SevenSeas Technologies, Kenya
•  Outsourcing to the Cloud - Delano Kiilu Longwe, Business Manager- Data Centre and Application Infrastructure, SevenSeas Technologies, Kenya
•  Business process management for world class financial services - Jeff Thuo, GM, COSEKE, Kenya
•  Cohesion in financial induction: Linking remittances, wages and microfinance - David Smith, CEO, Rainbow Interchange Group, UK
•  Outsourcing for banks: Lessons from international practice - Sanjay Sikka, CEO, Horizon Contact Centers, Kenya
•  INNOVATION CASE STUDY: iPay - Leading the East African mobile commerce revolution - Philip Nyamwaya, Business Development Director, iPay, Kenya
•  MASTERCLASS: ATM Security - Tope Dare, Founder, ATM Community, Nigeria

“This is the undisputed market-leading conference for the region’s financial services sector – the knowledge Mecca for CXOs from commercial banks, central banks, insurance companies, innovators, MFIs, mobile operators, mobile payment aggregators and development agencies involved in financial services,” said Moroney.

For full details of the conference, log on to www.aitecafrica.com