Seminar paper from the year 2019 in the subject Business economics - Banking, Stock Exchanges, Insurance, Accounting, grade: A, Kenyatta University, language: English, abstract: This paper explores the impact of new technology and mobile banking in the entire financial sector in Africa. The paper focuses on the case of Standard Bank South Africa to assist in understanding the challenges faced by the major commercial banks in adopting new banking technologies in less developed worlds, such as Africa. To realize the primary goal of this paper, the researcher discusses how technology can help Standard Bank to move forward in the aftermath of the 2008/9 financial crisis and the new opportunities for the bank to grow its financial service businesses. Furthermore, the research suggests how new technological applications in the financial services sector can help Africans to escape poverty and if diversification is appropriate for a diverse bank, such as Standard Bank. Technology has immensely transformed business-to-business and within business transactions and interactions. Technological applications are enabling reconfiguration of design, production, marketing, and service delivery in most businesses. For instance, the design reconfigurations have allowed for the implementation of online marketplaces, mobile business activities, such as mobile banking, and better risk assessment. In the emerging financial markets of Africa, disruptive market innovations and reconstituted value chains have become key drivers of the growingfinancial services industry. Despite the huge benefits of financial innovations, conventional financial services providers, such as banks, finance companies, microfinance institutions, and insurance must be wary of the new risks and challenges posed by these financial technologies. For a major bank like the Standard Bank, financial innovations, such as e-banking and mobile banking present both new opportunities and threats to its core businesses.

Access to financial services is recognised across the world as a powerful contributor to economic growth and poverty alleviation in developing countries. This is a collection of case studies of innovation in Africa's financial markets, presenting vivid testimony from across the continent of how profit-seeking organisations are experimenting with new products and models of distribution in their quest for new markets at the bottom of the financial pyramid. Written from the perspective of service providers, this book explores the factors that make financial sector innovation succeed in often very challenging circumstances. It shows that on the continent with the worst levels of financial access in the world, there is plenty to celebrate.

This Element is an excerpt from Africa Rising: How 900 Million African Consumers Offer More Than You Think (ISBN: 9780132339421) by Vijay Mahajan. Available in print and digital formats. How African entrepreneurs are using cell phones and small-scale finance to drive remarkable business innovation. Finance and communications are the foundations for successful markets. The rapid growth of cell phones and banking across Africa is not only an indication of the success of these industries but also creates a platform for further growth. Many small businesses have already been established by placing a cell phone and a microloan in the hands of industrious entrepreneurs....

Based on case studies launched by the United Nation's Economic Commission for Africa in South Africa, Kenya, and Senegal, this informative record explores the banking revolution brought about by mobile phones in Africa. A well-researched and unique account, this study assesses a variety of aspects of m-commerce, including the status of the infrastructures and services, the state of the mobile services market, and the collaboration arrangements between the mobile-operators, financial institutions, and content and applications developers. In addition, this report formulates necessary policies to help move developments forward and argues that Africa is well placed for exploring and exploiting the new opportunities presented by m-commerce.

This is the eBook version of the printed book. This Element is an excerpt from Africa Rising: How 900 Million African Consumers Offer More Than You Think (9780132339421) by Vijay Mahajan. Available in print and digital formats. Discover Africa, the world’s fastest-growing cellphone market—and learn how those cellphones are creating a foundation for breakthrough growth. There are now more than 130 million Africans with cell phone subscriptions, and it is the fastest growing mobile phone market in the world. A 2007 study by the Africa Media Development Initiative found that cell phones were achieving a compound annual growth rate of 85 percent or more in 10 of the 17 African nations surveyed...

FinTech is a major force shaping the structure of the financial industry in sub-Saharan Africa. New technologies are being developed and implemented in sub-Saharan Africa with the potential to change the competitive landscape in the financial industry. While it raises concerns on the emergence of vulnerabilities, FinTech challenges traditional structures and creates efficiency gains by opening up the financial services value chain. Today, FinTech is emerging as a technological enabler in the region, improving financial inclusion and serving as a catalyst for the emergence of innovations in other sectors, such as agriculture and infrastructure.