These conferences organized by Qore were designed to showcase the impact of automated digital solutions when adopted by Microfinance Banks despite prevailing region-specific challenges these Financial Institutions face.
The Northern conference which held at the Green Palm Desert hotel in Kano, spoke to Unlocking New Possibilities for Microfinance in Northern Nigeria, leveraging digital solutions. Current users of Qore’s Banking-as-a-Service suite of solutions shared their experiences on their digital journeys. Highlighting the before and after stories Mr. Asongo Abraham Ph. D; the Chief Operating Officer at Standard Microfinance Bank Ltd; Yola, detailed the transformation the bank underwent after adopting Qore suite of solutions including the cloud-native Core Banking Solution (BankOne), the Payments and Transfers enablement platform and the Agent Banking Solution.
The Eastern conference held at Casoni Hotel, Port Harcourt and themed Understanding the Importance of Digital Transformation for Microfinance Banks, shed light on the role of digital technology in key banking operations including Business Development, Customer operations and especially Internal Control. The Managing Director of Ekondo Microfinance Bank, Calabar, took time to elaborate on the bank’s growth, post adoption of the BankOne digital banking suite of solutions. The Western conference held in Lagos focused on the need for automated digital processes, the significance of open banking, and the dynamic role of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) in fostering collaboration. In attendance were key stakeholders and representatives from Microfinance practitioners across the regions. Discussions centered around leveraging emerging technologies like block chain, artificial intelligence, big data Internet of things etc. Conversations also revolved around how APIs enable seamless integration between financial institutions and fintech partners, leading to enhanced services and products for customers.
Speaking at the conference, Mudiaga Umukoro, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Qore during his presentation, stated “The traditional paradigm of banking is undergoing a radical shift. Banking systems can no longer be confined to traditional structures; the advent of new concepts like Banking-as-a-Service, Embedded Banking, De-fi etc. are fundamentally altering how we perceive financial services. He added, “To fully realize their potential, financial institutions must embrace modern API –enabled technology platforms, which are empowered with framework for collaborations within the banking and payment ecosystem.”
He also noted that Qore’s commitment to the complete automation and digitalization of the industry is underscored by numbers -18 commercial banks, 450 microfinance Banks, 1 million cards issuances monthly and over10 million hosted accounts.
Also speaking at the event, Yvonne Ige; the Vice President, Core Banking & Self-service Channels Business at Qore, stated” We firmly believe that the future of the financial industry lies in embracing innovation, and the recent BankOne regional conferences have reinforced this belief. The importance of transitioning from traditional banking structures to a more collaborative, tech-driven model cannot be overstated. At Qore, we are dedicated to empowering financial institutions with the essential API-backed framework to facilitate collaboration within the fintech space. As we look ahead, we recognize that artificial intelligence will power most transactions in the next decade, making full digitalization, tech-readiness, and agility vital for financial institutions to thrive.
The conference provided a platform for attendees to explore the pressing needs and immense benefits of adopting a digital banking approach. With the financial landscape rapidly evolving across Africa, the discussions centered around how financial institutions can leverage open APIs to accelerate innovation, drive collaboration, adapt to current trends and create new opportunities for growth. BankOne is the leading core banking software serving over 500 financial institutions in 7 countries across Africa. BankOne, for over a decade, has become well known for its capacity to shorten implementation time and provide services automation for banking services. BankOne is one of the Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platforms of Qore. Until October 2022, Qore was an internal strategic unit of Appzone.
