Banking software provider Temenos plans to open an office in Côte d’Ivoire or Senegal to target francophone clients.
There is “absolutely” a pipeline of demand from banks in French-speaking countries, Alexandre Menage, Temenos managing director for Africa, says from Cape Town. The plan is to open the office “in the very near future”, but no final decision has been taken, he says.
The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed Cloud-based software from a “nice to have” extra to a “must have”, Menage says. Cloud means that digital banking offers can be maintained without the risk of infrastructure such as data centres failing, he adds.
Temenos, which trades on the Swiss stock exchange, claims 3,000 clients globally, including 41 of the world’s top 50 banks. The company has 160 clients in Africa, the majority in English-speaking countries. Menage expects that a balance between English and French-speaking clients will soon be reached. The plan is to open the new office and then gradually increase the number of people. “The demand justifies it. It was only a matter of time.”
Orange Bank has been a Temenos client in West Africa since late 2019. The bank went live with a Temenos solution in July. African clients also include Sombank, an Islamic bank in Somalia, Libya’s Assaray Trade and Investment Bank, and Barko, a microfinance institution in South Africa.
Using Cloud-based software allows banks to spend more money on innovation rather than on maintaining legacy infrastructure, Menage says. Temenos keeps its own costs down by relying on client systems to implement software. That allows the company to reinvest 20% of global revenue in new products.
