Nairobi to host banking conference in Feb

Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya's deputy prime minister and minister of finance and Professor Njuguna Ndung'u, governor of the Central Bank of Kenya are some of the speakers expected at the conference. The theme of the conference is “Leadership through Innovation” and will play an important part in reinforcing Nairobi's role as the region's financial services centre.

Announcing the conference, Sean Moroney, chairman of AITEC, said the event is an important platform to showcase the exciting mobile payments innovations currently being implemented in Africa. “When we started this conference series four years ago, the emphasis was on East Africa learning from the rest of the world, now bankers, mobile operators and others wanting to learn about mobile banking will be coming to Nairobi to learn from innovators in the region.”

Other keynote speakers at the event include Charles Niehaus, MD of Visa sub-Saharan Africa, who will speak on “The benefits of electronic payments in driving economies” and Cormac Petit, banking industry leader, IBM Institute for Business Value in the Netherlands whose presentation is entitled “Fit, focused and ready to fight: How banks can get in shape for the battle ahead”.

The conference has widespread industry support, with the Paynet Group as platinum sponsor, Sun Microsystems and Technology Associates as gold sponsors and S1 as silver sponsor. Supporting organisations for the event include the Kenya Bankers Association and the Kenya ICT Board.

The conference will have 19 specialised sessions over the two days, with over 70 speakers. “We are assembling a faculty of banking, microfinance and mobile payment experts with an unparalleled level of expertise. Speakers from 14 countries will be sharing their knowledge with financial service professionals from throughout the COMESA region.” Session topics range from “Compliance and risk management in the post-meltdown world” to “Interbank payment reforms - new transaction and settlement systems”.

The event will also include a specialised exhibition on products and services for the financial services sector, with over 40 local and international exhibitors.