Page 41 - SAMENA Trends - September 2023

REGIONAL & MEMBERS UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

project. Growing demand for online services customers with a seamless experience. digital sales channel that now contribute
and platforms is another factor supporting The bank’s early adoption of digital 48% of the bank’s total annual CDs/TDs
Egypt’s digital economy. With around 60% banking products and services was a booking in terms of volume and 44% in
of its more than 100 million population crucial advantage, especially during the terms of value. This has enabled CIB to
under the age of 30, the country’s large and pandemic when its digitization program reduce branch traffic and enhance the
youthful market offers immense potential was accelerated. This led to the creation customer experience. The launch of the
for digital adoption and innovation as of the Bank of the Future program in late Bank of the Future program has helped CIB
more people use smartphones, social 2020, the six key pillars of which are service to encourage greater use of digital services
media and e-commerce platforms to digitization; operations centralization; as an alternative to traditional banking
access information, entertainment, and robotics; branch digital experience; methods. Two-thirds of its customer base
purchases. “A dynamic start-up ecosystem branch classification; and digital sales. now uses online banking, with 2.2 million
has emerged in recent years,” adds Abaza. The program has impacted a number of internet banking transactions valued at
“The country has been gearing itself to customer service areas including internal approximately EGP65.6 billion executed
become a hub for entrepreneurship and and external fund transfer migration rates, last year, a 13% y-o-y increase. The online
innovation, attracting local and foreign cost synergies, and transaction volumes. banking customer base reached 1.3
investors, accelerators and incubators. Last year the program was extended to million users in 2022 (25% higher than in
This digital transformation offers immense business banking customers where robotic the previous year) while mobile banking
potential for economic growth, as well as process automation (RPA) has contributed transactions increased by 57% to 11.4
for delivering social and public services to productivity enhancement, saving time, million. Zaki the Bot – CBI’s AI-powered chat
more efficiently and inclusively.” CIB effort, and costs. The total number of bot - conducted over 488,000 interactions
has played a significant role in Egypt’s transactions processed via RPA reached on both the public website and Facebook
digital transformation, investing heavily 1.25 million by the end of 2022. Online Messenger.
in technology and innovation to provide platforms have become a highly effective

Bahrain’s Leadership Backs Digital Transformation

Bahrain is on the path to make use of emerg- vices to ensure the continuity of operations is complemented by enhanced participa-
ing technologies such as Big Data, artificial in both the public and private sectors. ICT- tion through social media, electronic and
intelligence (AI) and blockchain in govern- led growth Additionally, ICT has contributed field surveys, blogs, and more. The forum's
ment services in line with the 2030 Sus- to growth that surpasses expectations in vi- topics also addressed the importance of
tainable Development Goals (SDGs), said a tal areas such as e-commerce and distance building a competent workforce capable
top official. Information & eGovernment Au- learning. He highlighted the kingdom’s no- of harnessing and adapting emerging tech-
thority (iGA) Chief Executive, Mohammed table experience in this area demonstrated nologies to improve government systems
Ali Al Qaed told the ‘World Economic Forum by the National Suggestion & Complaint and services. Al Qaed highlighted the sig-
“GovTech Network” in Geneva, Switzerland system - Tawasul, which allows the public nificance of human resource development
the unwavering support for digital transfor- to engage with government entities and in this field, particularly the Technical De-
mation by Bahrain’s senior leadership has submit their complaints, inquiries, and sug- velopment Program, which is carried out in
led to the development of many services, gestions interactively through digital chan- collaboration with concerned government
applications and government systems. Al nels. Tawasul has fostered the community entities, and aims to cultivate a skilled and
Qaed said the Covid-19 pandemic was a participation by the active response to the experienced national ICT workforce.
key driver in accelerating the adoption of suggestions and complaints while promot-
emerging technologies in government ser- ing engagement across all segments. This Cloud computing
During a session on ‘Government Ecosys-
tem’, Al Qaed discussed potential and inno-
vative solutions for government operations
offered by cloud computing. He highlighted
the importance of enhancing collaboration
with leading global players, explaining that
Bahrain has actively pursued this through
its partnership with Amazon Web Ser-
vices (AWS) to provide the infrastructure
for hosting government services on cloud.
This partnership has strengthened the abil-
ity of government entities to innovate, im-
prove operational efficiency, and expand
their storage capacities. He added that it
41 SEPTEMBER 2023