AFRICA see what we can do to further expand digital banking services across Africa . One of the things that we ’ ve identified is that the challenges in Africa or in Europe are almost the same ,” comments Mambondiani . “ We are currently in the process of looking at partnerships across Africa , in the form of establishing green fields or maybe a joint venture ( JV ) with various financial institutions in other African countries .
“ We ’ re a digital bank , and want to deliver banking in a manner which is cheaper , easier and a lot more accessible . Our focus in doing
“ Our intention is to scale our number of customers from approximately half a million to around a million by the close of this financial year ” so is using mobile as the centre of our product delivery . We are only one of three institutions that we know in the world that is fully owned by an MNO , only one of two banks in the world . Others are in the form of a JV or partnership .
“ We ’ ve got a unique capacity of looking at banking differently and delivering it in a way that is relevant to Africa , reducing the cost of delivery because we are becoming a lot more digital .
“ Lastly , we are interested in building a platform business , a platform banking system and structure , an open banking platform which allows other partners to plug into what we ’ re doing for the benefit of our customers .
“ Our intention is to fully deepen financial inclusion and , therefore , we are providing solutions which are relevant to every Zimbabwean or financial access to the mainstream banking sector in a market which was previously excluded .”
DR LANCE MAMBONDIANI Steward Bank Chief Executive Officer www . gigabitmagazine . com 253