Qore, Africa’s leading Banking-as-a-Service platform provider, has announced plans to roll out homegrown financial solutions that will address the issues of foreign exchange outflows on foreign software.
This is as statistics from the International Trade Centre (ITC) showed that $1.09 billion was spent on software acquisition and importation of computer services into Nigeria in the past five years.
The Chief Operating Officer and Co-founder at Qore, Mudiaga Umukoro, who disclosed the plan at the inaugural Nexus 2023 customer experience event, hosted by Qore in Lagos, said most core banking technology used by Tier 1 banks in Africa could be considered legacy, which is a major problem.
At a time when the need for Forex is at an all time high, Umukoro revealed that banks were paying it out to sustain banking infrastructure.
Umukoro however announced the company’s plans to roll out an enterprise grade core banking system, targeted at commercial banks, even as he disclosed that Qore is positioned to break the strangle-hold that foreign core banking software providers like Infosys, Temenos, and Oracle, have on the commercial banks.
He stated that the decision to provide an alternative to the incumbents servicing the commercial bank space, resulted from a desire to spare the country needless foreign exchange outflows on account of payments for solutions that have better homegrown alternatives.
“Legacy Core Systems have resulted in slow response, as banks with legacy technology are usually late to every party in terms of renewal and with the naira fluctuating, planning is near impossible. Also, Fintechs and digital banks are now gaining on retail market share,” Umukoro further explained.
He said Qore, the premium cloud-native core banking system was built in Africa and for Africans. “Some of the benefits of adopting Qore includes the fact that most banks on Qore CBA will be able to rollout new products and integrations will be way faster. “Banks on Qore will enjoy greater efficiency from more comprehensive process automation and technology costs will no longer fluctuate and will become reliable as bills are settled in Naira,” he added.
In his opening remarks, the Co-founder and CEO, Qore, Emeka Emetarom, said the 2023 inaugural NEXUS event served as a platform for Qore to showcase its innovative suite of software solutions while offering attendees a glimpse into the future of technology for financial services.
Emetarom unveiled Qore’s comprehensive product portfolio, which includes Digital Core Banking Automation, Omnichannel Self-Service Solutions, Lending Automation, Card Issuance Automation, and Merchant Services/Agent Banking solutions.
During the Nexus 2023 event, Qore introduced the Nexus Awards, aimed at recognising financial institutions that actively contribute to the mission of digitizing and automating banking in Africa.
The winners of the inaugural Nexus Awards in the Commercial Banks category are United Bank for Africa (UBA), who clinched the Proficiency Award for the Best Commercial Bank in Service Delivery Automation; First City Monument Bank (FCMB) won the Courage Award for the Most Technology Pioneering Commercial Bank, while Sterling Bank won the Innovation Award for the Most Innovative Commercial Bank.
First Bank won the Mission Award for the Best Commercial Bank in Driving Technology Adoption Across the African Continent; Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) clinched the Vision Award for the Overall Best Commercial Bank in Digital Banking Solution Delivery, while Access Bank won the Purpose Award for the Best Commercial Bank in Financial Inclusion, among others.
