Aitec Africa Holds Banking & Mobile Money Conference

Aitec Africa, a leading ICT publishing, event management, professional development and training in Africa will hold its annual Banking & Mobile Money West Africa Conference from 11 to 12 May at the Eko Hotel & Suites.
The theme of this year’s Conference is “Thought leadership & innovation to survive & thrive in the new banking era,” responding do the challenges of the changed banking landscape in Nigeria.
The conference has an impressive line-up of over 40 international and local experts who will share their perspectives and knowledge with the over 300 delegates that will attend from the financial services sector.
The opening session of the conference is to be chaired by Adedotun Sulaiman, Chairman of Moneybox Africa and a pioneer of electronic payments in Nigeria.
The conference includes 20 international experts as speakers, supported by over 20 Nigerian speakers and moderators.
Briefing newsmen at a press conference, Sean Moroney, AITEC Chairman and the Conference Programme Director, said the main objective of the programme is to equip the region’s banking professionals and managers with the knowledge they need to succeed in a challenging new environment.
“We need to redirect the thinking of bankers from short-term, high-yield transactions, to more longer-term, inclusive banking operations where banks return to their roots of financing investment in entrepreneurship, growth and development.”
Moroney said this year’s AITEC Banking & Mobile Money Conference will be one of the first major events to be held in the Eko Hotel’s impressive new conference centre, which is opening at the end of April.
The event includes a two-day conference which provides a valuable educational forum for the financial services sector, updating CXOs and IS managers on latest international developments in payment technologies, best practices in IT project deployment, and latest trends in customer service delivery.
Bankers will be asked to share their insights into optimizing customer service through technology deployment. There will be an emphasis on case studies and vendor product promotion will be kept to a minimum, limiting them to clearly designated Commercial Presentations or Showcase Presentations.
AITEC Banking & Mobile Money West Africa 2010 will focus on customer experience in relation to all technology implementation and services, challenging suppliers and bankers alike to evaluate their systems in the light of customer needs and preferences.
The event will engage with bank customers by inviting them to attend the exhibition and experience the new services available today through the wide range of new payment technologies being offered by banks.
Banks will be invited to demonstrate their services by setting up mini-branches on the exhibition floor, using them as platforms not only to market their services but also to obtain valuable customer feedback and data. The Banking Mall of the exhibition will be a  live laboratory platform to demonstrate world class banking services powered by latest payment technologies.
The Technology Hub of the exhibition will provide a showcase for technology manufacturers and vendors to demonstrate their latest products and systems to enhance West Africa’s rapidly growing financial services sector.
The conference includes Panel discussion topics on Nigeria’s banking switch landscape: Building increased capacity and competition or an electronic Tower of Babel?  A mobile money panel discussion addressing the question: “Is integration and interoperability in mobile banking and money transfer achievable sooner rather than later?” And Bank CXO Panel Discussion on “Thought leadership & innovation in the new banking era”
Emmanuel Okoegwale, CEO, Mobile Money Africa said the conference is hosting the launch of the African Centre for Mobile Financial Inclusion, an exciting initiative to create an industry association and information clearing house for the continent’s rapidly expanding mobile money industry.
Sponsors of this year’s event are Mediterranean Smart Cards Company (MSCC), APC, Gateway Communications, The Phone Business and Altech West Africa.