Intelligent CIO Africa Issue 23 | Page 8

NEWS Cutting-edge platform launched to boost telecom regulatory in Ghana Temenos establishes South African “Bank of the Future” Think Tank Temenos has launched its South African ‘Bank of the Future’ Think Tank G lobal Voice Group (GVG) has announced that a Common Platform (CP), using its state-of-the-art technologies, has been officially launched by Nana Akufo-Addo, President of Ghana. Delivered by Ghana-based firm Kelni-GVG, with the technical assistance of GVG, the mCP will be jointly used by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the National Communications Authority (NCA) to support and optimise their respective activities with respect to telecom and mobile money oversight and taxation. In his inaugural speech to the launch, President Akufo-Addo presented the CP as ‘an essential building block for the realisation of the government’s vision of a digitised Ghana.’ For GVG’s CEO, James Claude, this perfectly defines the very nature of the project. “The Common Platform is indeed all about digitisation,” he said. “It aims at replacing the old paper-based ways of doing things by cutting-edge technologies of the digital age that can really increase efficiency and enforce transparency in important sectors of the economy such as telecoms and digital financial services.” The telecom and mobile money markets of Ghana have a lot in common with those of other countries where GVG successfully implemented similar platforms over the last few years, such as Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda. They are characterised by an overall lack of transparency, high vulnerabilities to important risks such as revenue leakages, tax erosion, unfair competition from Internet- based OTTs and proliferation of international grey telephony. The CP is expected to have an immediate and lasting positive impact in all these regards. 8 INTELLIGENTCIO B anking software company Temenos has announced the launch of its South African ‘Bank of the Future’ think tank. The venture aims to address domestic and global challenges and opportunities facing financial institutions in the country. Over 60 experts from 30 banks and financial institutions are expected to take part in the initiative over the coming year, promoting knowledge creation and sharing as well as actively responding to the complex opportunities and challenges of today’s banking environment. Jean-Paul Mergeai, Managing Director Middle East and Africa at Temenos, said: “An important part of what we do at Temenos is to create and foster a community within the banking and fintech ecosystem. Our clients, partners and our MarketPlace technology providers form the most dynamic banking technology community. “Our industry is facing structural changes right now in terms of customer expectations, regulatory requirements and new entrants, as well as a genuine technological revolution. Through this think-tank, we are creating a forum where leading bankers from South Africa can come together to share knowledge and address the challenges and opportunities they face on a day-to-day basis. With some of the world’s most innovative and technologically advanced financial institutions coming from South Africa, this seemed like the perfect country to lead this conversation on what the Bank of the Future will look like.” www.intelligentcio.com