TN CyberTech Investments Holdings Limited (TNCIH) plans on integrating its services with supermarkets, asset managers, stockbrokers, insurance companies and mobile money platforms as part of its efforts to become a neobank, it has been revealed.
TNCIH banking subsidiary, TN CyberTech Bank, is on track to becoming Zimbabwe’s first neobank, with a balance sheet worth US$180,71 million as of February this year.
Presenting during the ongoing fourth edition of the In Conversation with Trevor Ideas Festival under the theme The Future of Human Capital, Innovation, and Ethics in the Age of AI yesterday, TNCIH chief executive officer Tawanda Nyambirai explained the group’s strategy.
The executive was presenting on Pioneering Neo-banking, AI, and the Ethical Evolution of Human Capital in Finance.
“We want to be a hub. And a hub that uses digital technologies and cyber tech technologies for purposes of delivering the banking service conveniently to our customers where they need them. That immediately presents us with a big challenge because we are an existing bank,” Nyambirai said.
“And as with all existing banks, you know banks are heavily invested in infrastructure, the branch network, which is the traditional mode of delivering banking services. We said to ourselves, we have to transition from that.”
He said the strategy leverages partnerships with consumer-facing businesses.
“We realise that our asset management company, TN Asset Management, manages portfolios for the majority of the bank’s high-net-worth individuals. So, we say, why do those people have to go to the bank to access banking services?
“Let’s appoint TN Asset Management as a banking agent so that those people whose portfolios are managed in TN Asset Management can access the banking services there,” Nyambirai explained.
“And we have an arrangement with TN Asset Management. And I clearly instructed my team to follow every asset manager, not only every asset manager, but also every stockbroker, so that those that focus on investing in the financial markets, in the stock markets, can access their banking services there at their broker, whether the broker reaches them physically or virtually.”
He said he also instructed the team to approach insurance companies, but not for bank assurance, as it was an old model.
“But, for an integration with the insurance companies so that the insurance companies have some access to our core banking system,” Nyambirai continued.
“And where you do your insurance, you can also access your banking services through that integration.”
He said he also talked to his team about approaching supermarkets.
“I’ve said to them, talk to the supermarkets not to deploy a POS [point of sale] machine because we’ve deployed so many of them, but to integrate our core banking system with their tilling system as a supermarket so that when they punch the till button, the money is automatically in their bank account, including the cash that has been paid and that is in the till,” Nyambirai explained.
“That results in a transference of risk from the supermarkets because they’re not experts at managing risks that are financial, to the bank, then we can do our day-end. Then, we can install vaults within the supermarket so that when they flash the cash, it is already in the bank.”
As mobile money remains central to the bank’s approach, Nyambirai highlighted a strategic collaboration that enabled more than 200 000 pensioners to access nano-loans last year.
While Zimbabwe has more than 10 million people with access to some form of financial service, more than the adult population, he said formal bank account penetration remained low.
Recognising these realities, TN CyberTech Bank is focused on providing accessible, convenient services.
“People are not looking for a banking experience. They want to carry on with their lives and have the bank follow them,” Nyambirai said.
The bank is also modernising its physical branches, with traditional branches being converted into self-service centres equipped with interactive CCTV systems, virtual teller services and centralised management.
“This transformation has reduced staff costs from 60% of revenue to 24%, with a target of 10%, allowing cost savings to be passed to customers,” Nyambirai said.
“Employees affected by branch consolidation are being retrained as banking agents, converting potential job losses into entrepreneurial opportunities in a largely informal economy.” – News Day