November 23 > 24
What's on this year?
Tuesday 23 November
Welcome and opening
The Swift African Regional Conference will kick off with an introduction by Swift’s Sido Bestani, Regional Director, Middle East, Turkey, India & Africa, who will set the scene for what to expect during the two day event and address some of the milestones achieved in the region.
Sido Bestani, Regional Director, Middle East, Turkey, India & Africa, Swift
In conversation with Swift’s Chief Executive Officer, Javier Pérez-Tasso
During this session, Swift’s CEO Javier Pérez Tasso, will share his perspectives on the last few months, the industry challenges ahead in Africa, and provide insights on Swift’s vision to enable instant and frictionless end-to-end cross-border transactions with our new strategy.
Javier Pérez-Tasso, Chief Executive Officer, Swift
Sido Bestani, Regional Director, Middle East, Turkey, India & Africa, Swift
In conversation: Digitising Africa’s economy
How can Africa’s economies cash in on digital opportunities?
The unforeseen global pandemic constrained Africa’s economic activity in 2020 drastically. According to recent figures from the African Development Bank, GDP growth across the continent was projected to grow by 3.4 percent in 2021. This was mainly due to digitisation and increased access to critical infrastructures including healthcare, education and financial services.
Looking ahead, the focus turns to recovery as the region looks to improve its economy post-pandemic. How can Africa’s economies cash in on digital opportunities? To what extent can digitisation help drive regional integration and enable the development of a single African digital market today?
Jan Pilbauer, CEO, BankservAfrica
Sido Bestani, Regional Director, Middle East, Turkey, India & Africa, Swift
Boosting intra-African trade
How are payment market infrastructures across the continent supporting the drive for increased intra-African trade?
As of July 2019, 54 of the 55 African Union states have signed the landmark African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa estimates that the agreement will boost intra-African trade by 52 percent by 2022, which demonstrates that removing barriers to intra-African trade has the greatest potential for building sustainable economic development.
While the free flow of goods and services is crucial to enhancing intra-regional trade−real-time movement of financial flows across borders, payment system interlinkages and trade digitisation are equally important. How are payment market infrastructures across the continent supporting the drive for increased intra-African trade? And to what extent has this already had an impact?
Robert Besseling, Founder and CEO, Pangea-Risk
Linda Teggisa, Head Transaction Banking , NMB Bank
Huny Garg, Executive Director, Swift
Financial inclusion in the digitised post Covid-19 world
What role can banks now play in improving equality for citizens’ financial well-being?
Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, technology, such as mobile banking, has created new opportunities for digital financial services to accelerate and improve financial inclusion. Recent evidence suggests that digital financial inclusion could significantly contribute to economic growth, reduce poverty and narrow income inequalities. In today’s world, we constantly experience how technology, often initiated by fintechs, is modernising payment infrastructures in order to keep commerce flowing, sustain economic growth and increase access to financial services.
What role can banks now play in improving equality for citizens’ financial well-being? And how can financial institutions make it easier for the unbanked to gain access to their products and services?
Sheila M'Mbijjewe, Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Kenya
Akeem Lawal, Divisional CEO, Interswitch Group
Arabile Gumede, Financial Journalist, TV & Radio Business Anchor
What have we learnt? And a look ahead to Day 2
Olivier Lens, Head of Sub Saharan Africa, Swift
Onur Ozan, Regional Head, Middle East, North Africa & Turkey, Swift
Tackling payment fraud with Swift
In this session, we will discuss the evolution of anti-fraud in the financial industry and how the community continues to confront it. Soundoss Hamza, Financial Crime Compliance Expert for the Middle East and North Africa at Swift, will deep dive into how our solution is supporting the community to mitigate fraudulent attacks, and where the African community stands in this regards.
The value of payment pre-validation with Swift
Most cross-border payments are processed end to end without issue. Those that fail or lose time, however, while much smaller in total volume, consume a significant amount of time and resources to correct. Incorrect or missing information about the beneficiary provided when the payment is initiated is a main cause of such errors. Our Payment Pre-validation service can help you tackle this. Hear from Mireia Guisado-Parra, Product Owner for Swift's Pre-Validation initiative, and Oguz Bilge, Product Manager, Cash Management at Garanti BBVA, on the benefits they have discovered.
Live Q&A with Muhannad Tamemi, Senior Account Director, Swift
Wednesday 24 November
Welcome with Swift’s Chief Business Development Officer, Rosemary Stone
The second day of ARC will be introduced by Rosemary Stone, our Chief Business Development Officer, who will reflect upon the key priorities for our African financial community and outline the opportunities to be part of the future of finance in the region.
Rosemary Stone, Chief Business Development Officer, Swift
Understanding customers today and tomorrow
What will it take for banks to make this leap successfully?
Mobile banking has transformed financial services in Africa – customers expect everything to be instant and at their fingertips. Hyper-connected customers are driving the development of the open digital economy. To remain competitive in this space and deliver a superior customer experience, banks need to move out of their comfort zone, partnering with mobile providers, retailers, governments, and players outside the financial industry.
What will it take for banks to make this leap successfully? How do they reduce competition while developing their own partner ecosystems and ensuring that they remain competitive?
Dr. Twinemanzi, Executive Director Supervision, Bank of Uganda
Navigating regional and cultural financial complexities
How are different evolving customer expectations managed?
Despite growth in the African banking industry, banks need to understand cultural consumer behaviours in order to sustain growth and manage expectations. Customer needs vary across African countries, yet it is crucial to identify a set of common characteristics to better serve our consumers.
Improving customer relationships is top of mind for banks, fintechs, and many other industry players today. How are different evolving customer expectations managed? Will their strategic approaches increase value proposition for consumers and alleviate customer pains across the continent?
Ayotunde Kuponiyi, Managing Director/CEO, Hope Payment Service Bank Limited
Jack Ngare, Managing Director, Microsoft African Development Centre
Sitah Lang'o, Business development manager, East Africa, Swift
The shift from domestic to cross-border payments – the customer perspective
And what role does industry collaboration play in ensuring a seamless transition?
For any financial institution in the payments space, being able to provide customers with a fast, trackable and predictable cross-border payments service can create significant business opportunities.
In this session, hear from industry peers on their experiences and learn about the challenges of linking domestic and cross-border payments. How has this shift enabled institutions to reach beyond Africa? And what role does industry collaboration play in ensuring a seamless transition?
Sayonara El Asmar, Chief Operation Officer, Banque MISR
Pauline Macharia, Chief Customer Experience Officer (CCXO), SBM Bank (K)
Muhannad Tamemi, Senior Account Director, Swift
In conversation with Swift’s Chief Product Officer, Stephen Gilderdale
Moving to a frictionless world
The digital era is driving demand for faster, smarter and more efficient domestic payment systems. Markets across the continent have ambitious plans to modernise and take financial services into the future, breaking down barriers and removing friction to deliver efficient and more accessible financial services to all.
What are the challenges that different African markets face? Will collaboration and information sharing across the continent be instrumental to achieving a frictionless payments world? And how is Swift’s innovative new strategy supporting this vision to prepare our industry for this future?
Stephen Gilderdale, Chief Product Officer, Swift
Tanja Haase, Customer Engagement Lead, Transaction Management, Swift
Be part of the next generation of financial services
Olivier Lens, Head of Sub Saharan Africa, Swift
Onur Ozan, Regional Head, Middle East, North Africa & Turkey, Swift
Customer insights with QNB Alahli - Making low value payments fast, trackable and transparent with Swift Go
Annick Roelants, Initiatives Expert at Swift, together with Rania Khera, Head of Incoming Transfers at QNB Alahli, will provide insights on the new Swift Go service, its functions and the customer journey, including what benefits it brings to the African financial community.
Your ISO 20022 adoption journey for payments – an exploration with Swift
With the move to ISO 20022 gathering pace for payments, financial institutions are on an adoption journey. In this session, hear from Nasir Ahmed, the lead for Swift’s ISO 20022 adoption programme for cross-border payments and reporting, about the benefits of adoption and the steps institutions need to take to make this journey a success. Nasir is joined by Christian Fraedrich, Head of Cash Business Architecture at Deutsche Bank and Nick Soo, Director, Regional Head of Payment Products, GLCM at HSBC to discuss some of the challenges typically faced along the way and how to address them to benefits from the rich data offered by ISO 20022.
Live Q&A with Muhannad Tamemi, Senior Account Director, Swift
