AITEC Banking & Mobile Money West Africa: Accra, Ghana

Following Nairobi success, AITEC Banking & Mobile Money Conference heads for West Africa

Over 500 delegates attended this year's AITEC Banking & Mobile Money COMESA Conference in Nairobi this month, with highly positive feedback from all participants. Now the attention of the region's banking and payments industry turns to West Africa, where this year's theme is "Showcasing a region of financial innovation and integration". The event will be held at the prestigious Accra International Conference Centre over 28-29 May. Already Mediterranean Smart Cards Company has confirmed Platinum Sponsorship of the event and Ecobank is taking a lead role as Regional Banking Partner. Accion has committed to Silver Sponsorship as part of its regional campaign for financial inclusion. Temenos will be sponsoring a breakfast briefing on the second day of the conference for bank CXOs.

 An impressive range of local and international speakers have confirmed presentations, including two cloud computing experts from the USA: Dr Anil Sahai from Silicon Valley and Ndu Emuchay, Chief Architect Cloud Computing at the IBM Academy of Technology. Dr Sahai will also be presenting a post-conference workshop on cloud strategy development and implementation. 

 A key supporting organisation for the event is the ATM Industry Association and Pat Cunningham will be delivering an ATM Masterclass on "Reducing vulnerability through effective management". Silensec, a leading data security training and consultancy organisation providing service across Europe and Africa, will host two training workshops:

• Card security: PCI/DSS Compliance

• Mobile Security

Judson Welsh, head of AIMS West Africa, who has been appointed Conference Chairman, says the conference is yet again going to provide a valuable opportunity for the region to measure how well it has progressed in achieving cross-border integration. "We are delighted to have Dr Jonathan AREMU, Consultant on the ECOWAS Common Investment Market at the ECOWAS Commission making a presentation on regional integration. The conference is an opportunity for the private sector to engage with regional government initiatives and understand more clearly how the banking industry can support the integration process."

 The full conference programme can be viewed here.