Bank of Kigali Plc has selected Temenos (SIX: TEMN), the banking software company, to power its digital transformation journey in order to support its regional growth plans and realize its financial inclusion objectives.
With Temenos’ packaged and upgradeable banking software, Bank of Kigali Plc will gain business agility and dramatically lower the cost of deployment. The bank will be able to deliver innovative products and services specifically to underserved segments of the economy and key population demographics like the youth and the unbanked. Bank of Kigali Plc plans to grow the number of customers to one million by 2021.
Bank of Kigali Plc is transforming its legacy IT systems using Temenos T24 Transact, the next generation core banking software product, including the Advanced Analytics, Reporting, Risk and Compliance modules; additional capabilities will be provided by the Temenos Payments product.
Incorporated in Rwanda on December 22, 1966 and a customer of Temenos since 2016, Bank of Kigali has grown to become the country’s largest commercial bank with a branch network of 68 locations, 99 ATMs, 1,427 banking agents and over 1,200 staff. Bank of Kigali Plc is currently looking to drive its transactional growth revenue through both retail and insurance and brokerage business. Temenos functionally rich and scalable banking software will help Bank of Kigali to simplify and automate its processes, significantly grow its digital banking customer base and provide a 360-degree customer view through a single digital banking platform. By implementing Temenos’ software, the bank will be able to introduce innovative products and services more quickly to support its growth ambitions and continue to pursue its vision of becoming the financial institution of choice.
The bank will leverage Temenos' global expertise and 25 years of banking software experience as well as Temenos' commitment to invest 20 percent of revenues into research and development every year, which is the highest in the industry.
Dr. Diane Karusisi, CEO of Bank of Kigali Plc, said: “We are excited to expand our relationship with Temenos, which will form the foundation to drive our three-year digital transformation strategy. Temenos' cloud-native and cloud-agnostic banking software will help reduce deployment costs and drive simplicity and efficiency of operations. The new open digital banking platform will enable us to gain a deeper understanding of our customers’ needs and allow us to provide the best-in-class customer experience.”
Jean-Paul Mergeai, Managing Director Middle East & Africa at Temenos, said: “As the bank’s technology partner during this exciting time of digital transformation, we look forward to working hand in hand with Bank of Kigali Plc as they strive to provide the most innovative financial solutions in the region. We believe that financial institutions can only become truly digital when they transform their end-to-end operations, and we are the best provider to help them realize their digital vision.
“With Temenos' most complete packaged functionality and advanced cloud technology, Bank of Kigali Plc will be in an ideal position to drastically reduce time to market and cost. At the same time the bank will be able to expand its digital customer base and promote financial inclusion both in Rwanda and throughout the region.”