Lusaka’s prestigious members club hosted its first ever “Power Lunch” which brought together captains of industry and high net worth individuals to sit down discussion with thought leaders of both banking and fintech industries.
The Quorum which has fast become a venue of choice for hosting events for corporates and entities seeking an easily accessible yet high quality venue for functions. The “Power Lunch” ticked all the boxes when it came to the selection of speakers for the discussion, content of discussion, invited guests, so much more.
Sponsored by Stanbic Bank Zambia, the inaugural event’s discourse, which was moderated by Costa Mwansa of the Diamond TV fame, was centered around the impact of financial technology in the Zambian financial sector.
Fintech and the Banking sector have been on a product collision course that has seen consumers of the products benefit from innovation in service provision and access to basic financial services.
Speaking on aspects of the banking sector, Wisdom Shanengeta, Chief Technology & Operations Officer indicated that Stanbic Bank was one of the pioneers in the Zambian space when it came to aggressively adopting technological solutions for its customers. John Samaras, CEO of Samfuel, added that the advent of COVID 19 accelerated the adoption of financial technology services.
Fintech has no doubt created a new ecosystem for business that has a lot of scope that still needs to be exploited. Both speakers were in agreement as to the extent and possibilities that could be achieved whilst still maintaining a symbiotic relationship. Banking and Fintech can coexist and compliment each other.
On the aspect of Know Your Customer (KYC) which based on one of the questions from a distinguished guest pointed to banks being more organized around this aspect compared to Fintech, Samaras quickly pointed out that compliance of KYC was highly achievable from a fintech perspective using technology. Conversely, Shanengeta indicated that the bank was in fact adopting artificial intelligence in its loans approval process on its online platform.
Overall, the hosts of the event delivered yet another exquisite event which left this reader waiting in anticipation for the next event that will be hosted at The Quorum.
