IBM has been operating in Africa for nearly six decades. It has also invested more than $US120million in the last two years as part of IBM's s strategy of focusing on the world's growth markets.

The investment includes a Johannesburg based Africa Innovation Centre, which includes a software solutions lab, a cloud computing capability, and a banking centre of excellence. IBM also donated a Blue Gene computing, to be used for research by institutions across sub-Saharan African.

IBM has initiated “Project Djembe “across Sub Saharan Africa, offering a secure desktop alternative for business, public and government clients, helping them leapfrog to the new 21st Century computing model. The model offers customization, collaboration and new intelligence capabilities. Through Project Djembe, IBM will also provide skills development and extend business opportunities to aspiring Business Partners in the region.

“The Sub-Saharan African market, including West Africa, is poised for continued growth flowing from the development and expansion of telecommunications networks, power grids and transport infrastructure,” said Mark Harris, General Manager, IBM Sub Saharan Africa.
“We are seeing continued private and public sector investment in the region, and IBM is well positioned to help create a smarter African economy to compete in the global marketplace,” he added.

Harris said the company was also providing resources to build capability for the delivery of intelligent IT solutions and services in the West African region. The appointment of Mr. Chiakpo is aligned with this objective, as he will drive business expansion and growth throughout Nigeria and the region.

“Africa, particularly the West African region, is an increasingly important area for IBM and I'm looking forward to broadening our partnerships with all stake holders to create value and growth for Nigeria and all of West Africa,” said Chiakpo who added that “by expanding our operations and deepening our commitment to the local market, we will better serve the needs of our growing customer base.”

African innovative payment chip and PIN, EMV complaint payment card.

By this development, Nigeria banks are expected to begin the process of conversion of the over 26million debit and credit cards in circulation to the chip & Pin platform since major payment card scheme in Europe, Middle East, South America and Africa have converted their cards to the secured smartcards platform.

The Verve Card can be used on mobile, ATMs, PoS, Web and the Internet payment platforms.
Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of Interswitch, Mitchell Elegbe at a media launch of the product said the expected change from magnetic strip to chip and Pin platform, was what gave rise to the release of the Verve Card into the financial market.

He said CBN's directive was made in the best interest of banks, merchant and cardholders because existing magnetic stripe cards have minimal storage space, cannot store applications, offer little flexibility for new product development, are easy to duplicate and offer minimal security features.

Verve card is secured with integrated circuit chip (ICC) and can carry enhanced data. The 'Chip' part refers to the smart card- a plastic payment card with an embedded microprocessor, which contains the same information as a magnetic stripe but it has additional processing capabilities and a secure memory.

In developing the Verve card, MasterCard MChip 4 technology was adopted. The card has bigger storage capacity, offline PIN verification and can perform cryptographic calculations.

“The microprocessor can hold multiple applications where an application may be a brand of credit card, loyalty card, gift card, staff discount card, etc; so a cardholder could have credit and debit applications, loyalty application and electronic ticketing on a single physical card''. Elegbe explained.
The Interswitch CEO informed that Verve cards can hold information securely and is difficult to copy or alter. This according to him is because the secure and EMV features in Verve card guarantees a higher level of security for payment transactions than magnetic strip card.

Interswitch has also come up with eight other security initiatives: Money Guard which allows cardholders send an sms from their phones to block their cards should they suspect any unusual activities; Fraud Watch, a portal and email for fraud reporting and information management, Fraud Guard, a fraud management and transaction security system, Fraud Insure (Card fraud insurance), Fraud Team (Risk Management team) and Data Guard (EMV Mchip 4).

The security features in Verve ensure confidentiality, authentication, integrity and non-repudiation. Confidentiality refers to the fact that information is accessible only to those authorized to have access, while integrity ensures information stored on Verve card remains the same throughout the life of transaction.

Authentication guarantees that the user is who he says he is. Non-repudiation ascertains that one party of a transaction cannot deny having received a transaction nor can the other party deny having sent a transaction. “Only Verve delivers more security features, more rewards, more channels, and more values to the users”, Elegbe said.

Other value-added services embedded in Verve according to him, include loyalty programme, which allows for differentiation. With the loyalty scheme, a merchant would be able to grow sales volume, retain profitable customers, stimulate superior shopping experience, generate market intelligence and build relationship with buyers as well as enable merchant improve customer service offerings. Verve cardholder would be able to receive instant reward, lower cost of services as well as recognition at the PoS.

While assuring that Verve's loyalty scheme would help to build competitive intelligence data across various market segments that will be useful for the banks and merchants, Elegbe added that “the security features are a major differentiating factor for Verve. Cardholders will feel more secured with Verve and will have additional benefits,” he said.

Neptune Software has launched Orbit ASP, an outsourced banking software solution based on their award-winning Orbit Banking System. The service, aimed at microfinance institutions and cooperative societies (Sacco's) is intended to make proven modern world-class software and related technical services affordable to these financial institutions.

Neptune's ASP solution offers the best of both worlds the convenient, maintenance-free financial e-systems management from a service provider and the integration, flexibility and control from in-house banking software.

Financial institutions get complete integrated front office, deposits, loans regulatory reporting, reconciliation and relationship management. All delivered through their Web browser, without having to maintain complex banking software.

Speaking at the event, Chibuzo Ene, Neptune's Managing Director for East Africa said that “The trend today is towards the outsourcing of non-core processes and many of the biggest financial institutions globally are already taking advantage. There are numerous tangible and intangible benefits and the few disadvantages can be managed by security features such as encryption, access privileges and processes.

“Our product is tested and has been running for several years in small and large 2m+ customer institutions. Basically, we are offering a tried and proven solution in a practical and affordable format.”

Jason Maingi, Neptune's Business Development Manager added that “With the cost of telecommunications coming down, entrusting a third party with business data is left standing as the single objection to outsourcing. We believe we have reduced that perceived risk by partnering with Kenya Commerce Exchange Service Bureau Ltd (KENEX) to host the software.

“KENEX currently provides similar services to banks, and is the only provider of outsourced SWIFT connectivity to the banking industry in East Africa, serving over 40 banks.”

Neptune's outsourced solution offers microfinance institutions increased functionality and better customer management features. The solution has a 4-star rating from CGAP and will allow them offer their customer access to service delivery channels such as ATMs, SMS Banking, Mobile Banking, Telephone Banking and Internet Banking, on demand.

Stephen Roberts, Neptune's Executive Director listed some of these benefits including cost-effective IT infrastructure, improved efficiency, reliability, improved risk management, access to best practices, local support, proactive software enhancement, representation on the Advisory Council for the service, amongst others.