Africa’s leading HR & payroll technology firm, SeamlessHR, hosted C-level executives to a roundtable on the factors driving disruption in Kenya’s financial services sector. The event comes when the financial services industry in Kenya is undergoing a major transformation driven by technological advancements. The stakeholder’s meeting was aimed to foster insightful discussions and generate actionable insights to drive sustainable growth and innovation within the industry. 

According to the Central Bank of Kenya, globally, there has been an emergence of ‘hybrid risks ’ that are affecting the financial services sector. They include the potential materialisation of cybercrime and climate change risks to the financial sector. More adoption of technology and technological innovations in the financial sector has come with risks of cyberattacks, frauds, threats, and even actual losses.

 The event was hosted by SeamlessHR’s CEO & Co-founder, Dr Emmanuel Okeleji. Among the dignitaries attending were Kenya’s ICT and Digital Economy Secretary, Ms Mary Kerema, and Phillip Thigo (MBS), the Special Envoy on Technology for the Republic of Kenya.

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Speaking during the session, Dr Emmanuel emphasised the importance of understanding the disruptive forces at play and exploring innovative strategies to navigate the changing landscape. “Banks and other financial services institutions in Africa must adopt technology solutions to improve business efficiency and operations for growth. Banks will always be here, even in 100 years, but the way banking is done will continue to evolve in the coming years as we embrace innovation. At SeamlessHR, we built our solutions to help these institutions automate all their business processes, helping them manage their resources better and be more productive. This way, organisations will continue to evolve as the industry expands. ” said Dr Emmanuel.

On her part, the Secretary for ICT and Digital Economy, Mary Kerema – Secretary of ICT, E-Government and Digital Economy, highlighted the government’s commitment to supporting ICT infrastructure that helps bring different services to the populace.

“The government is working towards making sure that we have a connected country, and hence we are working to grow the reach of fibre across the country which will lower the cost of access. The Financial services industry is a key cog in transformation and we have seen it grow exponentially with all the different players in the space, and with the adoption of new technologies like AI, which is helping the industry to be even more responsive to customer needs”, she said.

The meeting brought together c-level executives from some of Kenya’s leading financial institutions. They included Gloria Akinyi, Chief People Officer -Digital Business, NCBA Bank; Group Human Capital Executive at Old Mutual East Africa, Nkirote Njiru. Also present was Director of ICT and Innovation at Co-operative Bank Charles Washika; Director, of Human Resources at SBM Bank – Jackie Ogonji; Justine Kosgei, CEO & Principal Officer – AAR Insurance amongst others. The stakeholders engaged in in-depth discussions on leveraging technology and innovative strategies to enhance the financial services industry. 

“The growth and adoption of AI, has seen the financial services sector be the first one to be disrupted, and rightly so as quite several tasks are repetitive and mundane which is where AI excels. In Banking, ATMs, mobile and internet banking are replacing the traditional banking hall, which is shrinking in size. As a special envoy on technology, we harness all these technological advancements to aid in everyday development within the Kenyan economy to help the public sector move services closer to the people even as the private sector continues to innovate around these new technological advances ”, said Phillip Thigo (MBS) –  Special Envoy on Technology for the Republic of Kenya.

Banks can use advanced analytics to gain insights into customer behaviour, personalise services, and detect fraudulent activities. Stakeholders should invest in AI technologies, recruit data scientists, and develop robust data governance frameworks to leverage the power of data effectively.