COMPANY FOCUS
Bringing momentum to African integration projects
Q & A with Hugo Smit, Head of Africa South, SWIFT
HOW IS SWIFT’S AFRICA SOUTH
REGION STRUCTURED?
SWIFT is an international company with
a number of regional offices. The objective
of establishing regional offices is part of
SWIFT’s drive to become more customercentric and to develop an appreciation of market requirements in
different regions. The Africa South office is located in Johannesburg,
from where we service the majority of sub-Saharan countries. These
can broadly be defined as stretching from The Gambia in the West
to Kenya in the East, and all countries to the South. The region also
includes islands such as the Seychelles, Madagascar and Mauritius.
This is a vast region and it does pose a challenge to remain
“close to the market”. We have, therefore, allocated every country
to a country manager, who is responsible for all customers in that
country. We have also appointed a business partner, Trustlink, to
support our country managers in the different countries. In addition,
the SWIFT communities in different countries have formed their
own User Groups and we work closely with these. I believe that
this structure enables us to develop close relationships with
our customers in different countries and to proactively identify
challenges and opportunities so that we can provide the required
services to our customers.
HOW DOES THE BUSINESS YOU DO IN THE AFRICA
SOUTH REGION BREAK DOWN BY TYPE?
SWIFT is traditionally known for its secure and reliable financial
messaging service, and this remains core to our service offering. But
we have always strived to optimise the value that our customers derive
from SWIFT by reducing cost of ow