CR2, one of the top financial technologies companies operating in Ethiopia, has been awarded the tender to roll out Zemen Bank’s mobile banking with Bank World, its digital banking platform, CR2 said.
As a major leap forward for the Bank’s digital banking plans and augments their existing internet banking offering with the addition of mobile to expand their digital capability. This digital strategy is now even more relevant with a spike in customers across all sectors and demographics using digital channels due to the CoVid-19 pandemic, according to the press statement from CR2. “The project, which commenced in March, is being deployed and managed remotely so that the delivery schedule has not been impacted by the current pandemic,” it said.
Following an extensive competitive evaluation of solution providers, Zemen Bank, one of Ethiopia’s leading banks, chose CR2 due to the company’s proven track record in delivering robust and scalable digital banking platforms that drive growth and meet customer expectations. Ethiopia is one of the fastest growing economies in Africa, with more than half of its population of 105 million under the age of 18, and is set to yield tremendous opportunity in the digital banking and business/SME banking space. With CR2, Zemen Bank is now ideally positioned to provide cutting edge technology to meet this demand.
On the announcement of this landmark win for CR2, Fintan Byrne, CEO of CR2 commented: “CR2 has a strong footprint of success across the African continent, including a strong customer presence in Ethiopia. We are excited to continue and grow our relationship with Zemen Bank by providing our mobile banking and payments solution and be a key player in their transformation in becoming a digital first bank.”
Zemen Bank selected CR2 as the outright winner due to the company’s Bank World Digital Banking platform which offers a rich feature set including swift onboarding, payments suite, and customer focused UX design and business banking features. Having worked closely together on other projects (ATM, Cards, POS and Internet Banking channels) Zemen Bank knows that their swift, seamless implementation process will enable the Bank to accelerate their digital plans.
On this exciting development and roll out for Zemen Bank, the Bank’s President, Dereje Zebene said: “We are excited to launch our next generation digital banking services across Ethiopia. Adopting CR2’s mobile solution enables us to quickly and efficiently onboard new customers, giving them digital access to our range of product and services through their mobile devices and supporting them in their daily lives whether they are retail or business customers. Our experience of working with CR2 in the past gives us the confidence that this project will be implemented smoothly and on time.”
With CR2’s Bank World Mobile platform, Zemen Bank will be able to leverage an efficient and seamless customer onboarding process to increase customer acquisition and accelerate adoption rates. Offering customers the ability to manage their payments within their banking app ensures that Zemen Bank is providing a service that is both useful and relevant for their banking customers today. With the ability to send and receive money in seconds with P2P payments, providing personal financial management capabilities, as well as business banking and card control, the Bank is enabling a fast and simple mobile banking solution for their customers without the need to visit a branch.
These are exciting times for the banking sector in Ethiopia and the collaboration between Zemen Bank and CR2 will allow the Bank to support its market leadership position in the provision of financial digital services.