Zambia digital drive to boost Standard Bank
Investment might be sign of things to come in Africa
Standard Bank's Zambian business, Stanbic Zambia, has invested 660-million kwacha (about R667m) to digitise its operations with the hope of tapping into the unbanked population. Analysts say investing in digital platforms could be the key ingredient Standard Bank needs to start increasing contributions from operations elsewhere on the continent. Increasing contribution from other geographies has become critical for SA’s traditional banks as the local operations are grappling with a sluggish economy and intensifying competition for transactional banking revenues since new entrants such as TymeBank are disrupting the sector with no-fee accounts. The rest of Africa's contribution to Standard Bank’s headline earnings has grown from 25% in 2016 to 31% at the end of 2018. In 2008 the rest of Africa contributed just 13% to the group’s R14.1bn headline earnings at the time. With just over 150,000 customers and a net profit that is roughly 1.4% of the Standard Bank Group’s R27.9bn hea...
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