By Sandro Bucchianeri; Absa Group Chief Security Officer

The global COVID-19 storm has transformed the way the world conducts business and, more specifically, what can be accomplished digitally. And while we all long for the human touch and personal interaction, a post-pandemic world of greater online functioning is unfolding before our eyes. But, with greater digital dependency and reward, comes greater risk in the form of cyber threats.

Major corporates have sophisticated and multi-layered internal security systems to safeguard sensitive and valuable data, and to protect clients and customers. However, many small to medium enterprises (SMEs) across the continent don’t have access to, or budget for, sophisticated IT security infrastructure and highly skilled IT teams. It is also these small businesses that that are most at risk, viewed as easy targets by cybercriminals, especially during lockdown – a period of prevailing uncertainty and financial decline. Here are some of the latest scams and tactics that all small business owners should be aware of:

1.       Phishing

Phishing works by duping users into thinking that they are logging into a legitimate site (through spoofing), only to have them (unintentionally) share their private credentials or banking details with cybercriminals. Dubious links can be sent via email, SMS or WhatsApp and can give criminals access to mail systems, servers, customer data and the like. Employees working from home are particularly vulnerable as they may think that instructions come directly from employers. Make sure you encourage employees to immediately flag any suspicious correspondence, and educate customers about some of the currents scams that may be out there.

2.       Supply chain attacks

The risk comes with third and fourth parties and so on, who are just as exposed to the rise in cyber-attacks brought on by the pandemic. Corporates deal with thousands of suppliers and vendors, all governed and managed through strict frameworks and protocols. The situation is obviously vastly different for SMEs who need to realise that the moment a third party has access to business information, owners relinquish control. It is like giving the keys to your house to someone you trust. It’s great if this is a reliable person but what if that individual passes the keys on to someone else? How far does the trust extend? Make sure you have done your due diligence around external parties, including asking questions around data storage and privacy as well as cyber risk procedures.

3.       Human error and social engineering

The biggest problem is us – humans – and it will always be. From a Neurolinguistics Programme (NLP) perspective, humans are conditioned to react to certain prompts or signals. Even more so during lockdown, when fear and doubt are rife. If someone calls saying that he/she is contacting you from your financial institution and begins to list and ask details such as your business’ email address and passwords, your defence goes down. That is why we make customers aware that the bank will never ask you any of these questions, if you do receive a call like this, it is most certainly a criminal attempting to gain access to your critical information. If unsure, rather end the call and contact the bank directly (using official numbers). At Absa, we have enabled secure calling from our banking app, which also includes authentication. Social engineering also comes into play because most people use the same passwords across multiple platforms and applications. Make sure that passwords are hard to guess (but easy to remember), change them regularly and make use of a robust password management system.

4.       Data vulnerabilities

Ransomware (where access is restricted to a digital asset until a ransom, often in bitcoin, is paid) is also on the rise, with criminals taking full advantage of the current circumstances. These activities range from denying companies access to their servers, or a user to his/ her phone. Ultimately, the most important thing is making sure your data is secure and that you have a full backup. We are fast moving to what is called a Zero Trust Model, where stringent verification will be required for any device or person (internally and externally) attempting to access company resources or networks. Major corporates have virtual private networks (VPNs) with correct and certified configurations, two-factor authentication and a host of additional layers of security, which are continuously monitored and reviewed. Most SMEs won’t be in position to lay out significant security investments (especially now), as such, secure cloud services are an ideal and affordable option to allow data to be shared safely.

While the pandemic has exacerbated cyber exposures, criminals are constantly coming up with new online schemes. Long-term business sustainability and growth will depend on sustained risk mitigation. The first step would be to assess your business data and how effectively it is secured. Next, would be installing reputable antivirus software where possible, backing up files on a regular basis, making sure vulnerabilities are patched and updated routinely, and always carefully scanning the emails you receive. The golden rule of “if it seems too good to be true, then it usually is” still holds true.

Tshepo Maeko, Vice President and Head of Agri-Sales: Absa Regional Operations

There are few things more traditional and widespread than agriculture in Africa. While the continent holds around 60% of the world’s uncultivated arable land, Africa remains a substantial net importer of food and has a growing population to feed. Projections are that, by 2050, Africa will have almost doubled its population to two billion, and it is a given that agriculture will play a central role in sustaining and feeding its people.

Agriculture employs close to 50% of the working labour force on the continent, and in sub-Saharan Africa, the sector contributes 23% of GDP. So, why then is agriculture production and the attendant food security so precarious on a continent where farming is such a key feature of life and livelihoods? The one core systemic challenge of agriculture is one of financing the agri-ecosystem.

According to Shalom Ben-Or, Chief Executive Officer of AvenewsGT, developers of an Agri-App in partnership with Absa Bank, there is a need to increase finance to the sector. “Despite the size and contribution of the African agriculture sector, financial institutions such as banks contribute only between 2-7% of all lending to agri-businesses.”

This leads to an annual financing gap of USD 180 billion to the agriculture supply chain in Africa. This state of affairs also plays out in the global picture, as emerging markets require $450 billion annually, but receive only $9 billion in financing from financial institutions, leaving a yawning gap.

Tshepo Maeko, Vice President and Head of Agri-Sales: Absa Regional Operations, believes Africa needs to step up its game. Africa relies on more than USD 47 billion worth of food imports to supplement its own food supply, Maeko said.

The lack of consistent financing and support leads to inconsistent productivity and most African Agri-players will remain small-scale as they can only access small and medium enterprise funding and will never become commercial farmers, according to Maeko. Now Absa is hoping to help change the landscape of agriculture in Africa and create sustainable and impactful agri-businesses.

During a recent webinar hosted by Absa, participants, including Ben-Or and Maeko, spoke of the challenges the sector faces on the continent, but also of the digital solutions, which could help unlock the immense potential contained in Africa’s fertile soil.

One of areas cited as a large stumbling block is the hassle of paperwork; something no farmer has time to deal with when it’s the season to harvest.

The Avenews App allows for the digitisation of all trade documents such as purchase orders, contracts, inventory, invoices, payments, and business contacts, all in real-time. It also allows finance institutions such as Absa to provide tailored financing solutions based on reliable and accurate data.

According to Maeko, Absa is looking to deploy technology that will help Absa collect data, process information, and make informed decisions, which will help Africa fulfil its agriculture potential.

Ben-Or said the inability to increase yields for African farmers came down to trade engagements all along the agriculture value chain between farmers, buyers, and sellers, all of which were still conducted manually and, in some cases, via handwritten invoices.

If the farming entity approached a financing institution with this documentation wanting it validated, the banker will not be able to do so. The informal and poorly documented nature of Agri-trade is one of the primary reasons banks struggle to provide capital, Ben-Or said.

Absa and AvenewsGT have worked together since 2017, with AvenewsGT being part of the Bank’s tech incubator programme, and have launched the digital innovation product in Kenya, with further plans to roll out in Ghana, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia and the other markets in which Absa has a presence. Ben-Or said the Agri-finance innovation platform had already seen great results in Kenya and was easily adaptable to unique market situations and factors.

AvenewsGT, in collaboration with Absa, has created a digital infrastructure that allows for the exchange of documents and information governing the flow of goods and capital and making payments. This created business identities for each of the participants within the supply chain, all the way from the farmers to the large agri-businesses. These digital identities evolve over time and earn creditworthiness.

The Avenews App can be used on any feature-rich cellular device and includes mobile payment processes, allowing farmers to become digital businessmen and women with the ability to earn a creditworthiness identity, as well as access suitable financing services from supportive lending institutions such as Absa.

As a digital first bank and with a deep commitment to agriculture enterprise on the continent, Absa is determined to lead the way towards Africa realising the immense growth potential in the sector.

By Peter Matlare, Deputy Group CEO of the Absa Group Limited and Chief Executive of Absa Regional Operations

Working together requires an environment of trust and understanding, to leverage strengths for optimal value in working towards a common goal, writes Peter Matlare. 

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to persist in countries across the world, organisations have recognised that it is not, as many had first thought, a short-term problem simply needing a quick response. The extraordinary disruption precipitated by COVID-19 is driving deep structural shifts that will require businesses to make permanent changes to the way they operate.

It has brought to the fore a question asked in boardrooms around the world – what is the role of the corporation in society? And how can it contribute differently and constructively to a changing world?

COVID-19 has highlighted that fostering healthy and productive societies should be everyone’s concern. It has not only shown how vulnerable we are to health emergencies even in this modern age; it has also reminded us how intimately interconnected we are and of the importance of collaboration and co-operation in dealing with issues that affect us all. We are all as strong as our weakest link.

Organisations cannot abdicate their responsibility for facilitating a mutual duty of care. It is not a time for retreating into silos and only looking to health experts to lead the charge in addressing the challenges brought on by the pandemic. Efforts to remedy the health crisis; have triggered severe economic and social disjunctures, which in many developing nations has exacerbated fiscal vulnerabilities.

It is thus imperative that the private sector steps up to its responsibilities by directing its social spending, and re-orientates its strategic business priorities to address acute crises that may arise from time to time, and to contribute meaningfully to achieve long-term, global sustainable development goals.

Global cooperation and efforts directed at finding solutions to prevent the spread of the virus and to put in place longer-term solutions to fight the threat of future pandemics have been laudable.

In some respects, Africa was able to respond proactively to the pandemic, borrowing from lessons learned from managing other health emergencies. In South Africa, the need for a bold response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1990s informed the country’s comprehensive response to COVID-19. In other parts of Africa, the experience of managing the spread of the deadly Ebola virus, enabled countries to develop a similar response to containment, which has proved life-saving in this crisis.

However, the impact of COVID-19 on developing economies cannot be underestimated. The pandemic threatens to reverse the significant gains made in recent decades to address the socio-economic problems of poverty and income inequality and previously intractable healthcare challenges, such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

In the face of these perilous global risks, companies have had to carefully consider how to balance its role in the broader community while managing the impact of the pandemic on their businesses. At Absa, we quickly introduced a coordinated and comprehensive response to COVID-19 across 12 markets in Africa that prioritised the health and safety of our colleagues and customers, while at the same time tailoring implementation plans that addressed the unique socio-economic initiatives of stakeholders in each country.

To date, the Absa’s group contribution to relief efforts has been in the region of $4,5m (R76m), which has funded personal protective equipment, feeding schemes and facilitated access to remote learning. Customers were afforded  financial relief through measures such as debt repayment moratoria and reduced banking costs. Efforts to support and assist our colleagues and customers also precipated an accelerated transition to new ways of working and digital transformation.

Our agile response to the pandemic, however, brought into sharp relief an appreciation that we could not succeed in achieving our objectives alone. The importance of social partnerships – with governments, civil society and other business actors – are critical to crafting a holistic, customised and robust response.

New partnerships and alliances with subject-matter and sector level experts are crucial to helping companies convert internal crisis response efforts into wider organisational shifts, as they provide perspective and tap into the needs of stakeholders at the coalface.

In this regard, Absa has concluded a three-year pan-African Memorandum of Understanding with The Global Fund, a partnership organisation focused on accelerating the end of the AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria epidemics.  It invests billions of dollars every year to strengthen health systems in more than 100 countries in Africa and Asia, and supports a country’s efforts to prevent and treat the three diseases, as well as, more recently, COVID-19, for which it has made available a further $800m.

Recognising that behaviour change lies at the core of how we beat infectious diseases, Absa is working with the Global Fund, to leverage its voice, programs, communication platforms and financing expertise to promote healthy societies for healthy economies, with a particular focus on empowering adolescent girls and young women.  This is a group that is disproportionately impacted by HIV (and COVID-19) as a consequence of gender based violence, social dynamics and a lack of economic opportunities. Absa believes that empowering this group is one of the keys to unlocking the potential of the African continent.

Absa is also exploring how to support innovative finance initiatives undertaken by the Global Fund and it’s in-country principle recipients, to contribute to new and sustainable sources of funding for AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and COVID-19.

The partnership will initially be focused on supporting Global Fund programmes in South Africa, with an ambition to expand to other Absa countries in the near term.

Underpinning a successful social partnership to navigate social crises or to achieve sustainable long-term goals,  requires building an environment of trust between the different stakeholders so that each understands the others’ role in formulating successful solutions and an understanding of how their strengths can be leveraged to optimise value, while working towards a common goal.

COVID-19 has been a call to action on many levels. The unexpected impact of the pandemic has been to remind companies, governments and other actors of the tenuous links between global health security and economic prosperity; to consider aligning short-term responses with an eye to building longer-term resilience; to adopt a transformation mind set; to recognise the criticality of collaboration and communication to achieving common goals; and to ensure that we draw on leadership from all levels of the organisation and from all aspects of the community to craft robust and sustainable solutions.

Only through partnerships can we build a stronger and more resilient post-COVID world.

Shirley Webber, Head of Coverage: Natural Resources and Energy at the Corporate and Investment banking offering at Absa

A comprehensive mix of renewable and traditional power sources is the future. It’s happening now, and Africa can benefit immediately, writes Shirley Webber.

Africa will play a significant role in meeting the world’s growing oil and gas demands as investments in the resource-rich continent start gaining traction and more sources of energy are opened up. This will be in addition to Africa’s expected growth in renewables and other cleaner sources of energy such as natural gas.

Although COVID-19 and the lockdown regulations imposed to curb its spread have had adverse and far-reaching effects for many sectors, it has accelerated the energy transition from fossil fuels to greener, more sustainable energy, particularly across Africa.

To continue benefiting from this impetus, and to set Africa’s growth on a faster growth trajectory, we need to keep seeing investments and build onto the ones we have – because this is our continent.

As stakeholder and regulatory pressures increase for the world to seek alternative energy sources such as natural gas, wind and solar, we have seen pledges from global corporates to increase low carbon investments. However, that has the potential to decrease Africa’s economic outlook, especially in areas where oil and coal have played such a substantial role in powering local economies. Our continent, though, is also rich in energy metals and minerals used in batteries, like copper, lithium, cobalt and graphite. The investment into these resources will assist in ensuring the economic growth of the continent continues.

Many companies have made changes to how they operate and are cutting back on costs. Yet, to continue to operate in a low-price oil and gas environment, concessions need to be made by governments – especially when it comes to the ease of doing business and ensuring fiscal clarity and monetary stability.

Such behaviour could encourage more companies to invest in Africa as independent oil companies are under pressure to divest to meet their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) targets. Alternative investments from other upstream and midstream companies that are desperately needed could come from countries in Asia and the Middle East.

Africa will continue to see a demand for natural gas and oil and it could become one of the largest growth regions for the liquid, growing faster than the rest of the world, especially for LNG projects under construction or coming on stream in Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal and Mauritania.

Africa, traditionally, has lacked reliable and affordable energy. We are seeing increased access to power, especially with reference to the material liquefied natural gas projects mentioned, as well as greater investments in wind and solar energy, leading to a hybrid energy solution for Africa.

In fact, some see Dangote becoming the oil giant of the west of Africa from as soon as 2022 as new refining capacity comes on-stream for the first time since the 1960s. Undoubtedly, this will allow Africa to rebalance its supply and demand for refined petroleum products, possibly reducing the dependence on the rest of the world for imports.

With increased investment in gas, this means that gas can be supplied on a more competitive basis into these markets. Natural Gas can play a significant role in augmenting solar and wind power, which are dependent on conducive weather conditions. And unlike coal, for example, where the plants must be run around the clock to provide baseline power, natural gas is much more flexible and can be brought online as needed.

Looking a bit further into the future, stored power is also becoming increasingly prevalent. We’ve seen the cost of battery storage reducing quite significantly over the past three to four years. It is still probably on the more expensive side compared to other technologies, but we expect that over time, as prices decrease, countries and governments will start making more use of this technology. Our continent is rich in battery minerals and countries with these resources will be sought after well into the future.

This technology does have the potential to negatively impact gas, although that potential is a rather long way off. The apparent solution to future power needs is a balanced mix of all available generating sources. However, before countries can get there, governments need to do proper assessments of what the power needs will be over the long-term: 2030 and beyond.

Such an assessment needs to take into account new technologies, as well as the ones we anticipate coming to end-of-life, such as coal fired power plants that are expected to be mothballed. Countries also need to carefully assess each aspect of the value chain, from generation to distribution and consumption and determine which areas are lacking and what can be done to fix them (most sustainably and cost-effectively as possible.)

Energy, after all, is the bedrock of any economy, and Africa needs to start fixing its energy crisis. It is a crisis that could take us back many years from a developmental perspective. However, it is also a crisis that presents an opportunity because of the global acceleration towards alternative energy sources.

We can look beyond the current grid and to a future that promises a sustainable, cost-effective, energy mix for all Africans.

Interview with Arthur Goldstuck and Ina Steyn

In the latest edition of The Future Fast, Absa Group head of resilience Ina Steyn tells ARTHUR GOLDSTUCK why diversity is key to addressing the skills gap in the 2020s.

Globally, women make up 24% of the cybersecurity workforce. In Africa, that figure is a mere 9%. This represents a crisis of diversity, but also a massive opportunity.

Ina Steyn, head of resilience at Absa Group, suggests new thinking about the challenges facing business, and says she is passionate about the latter perspective.

“I was fortunate to attend the 2018 RSA (security) conference in San Francisco. When I arrived, I was overwhelmed with 42 000 attendees at that conference. But it also struck me that most of the presenters and most of the attendees were male, so there were very limited females during that conference.

“I was also lucky enough to be introduced to Jane Franklin from the UK, a renowned speaker on cybersecurity and specifically the challenges that women face. And that planted the seed. How can we address that across the African continent? It brings a unique opportunity for us.”

Within Absa, she started with a programme called Women in Engineering Services, focusing heavily on getting women more engaged in cybersecurity roles. Currently, 120 women are on the programme. While it’s a tiny number, it represents a beginning.

“There’s a very real opportunity for us. Men and women are, by their very nature, wired differently. The way we approach risk, the way we approach a problem, the way we manage tasks, are very different. And if you look across the African continent, we are so entrepreneurial on this continent, just looking at what happened with this pandemic and how people stepped up. We are probably one of the most diverse continents in the world. Can you imagine if we put all of that together in how we shape the future? What absolutely phenomenal outcomes we can achieve purely by tapping into the diversity that’s at our disposal?”

Steyn is deeply aware of the patriarchy that still rules across the African continent, in both traditional systems and the corporate environment, and had to fight her way through the so-called glass ceiling.

“I started right at the bottom of where you could possibly start in a bank. I grew up in an Afrikaans family where my mother was responsible for running the household and raising the kids. So when I entered the workforce at the age of 18, that was my frame of reference, that women won’t really progress in a career, because they have to choose between family and a career.

“I never even thought of pursuing a career in technology. Those are sort of the shackles that are still holding women back, because it’s passed on from one generation to the next. But I think that has shifted significantly. If I look at some of the younger women that I currently coach or mentor, that historic shackle is no longer prominent in how they choose careers, because they realise there’s a lot of support.

“I was very fortunate to have really phenomenal women as coaches and mentors, and I also had a very prominent male that played a significant role. So advocacy and sponsorship goes a long way.”

The opportunity lurking in the skills gap is not confined to one segment of the industry. However, the technologies underlying the fourth industrial revolution, like artificial intelligence, are completely outside the frame of reference of most youth across the continent. The question, then, is how we can we bring that kind of understanding of the opportunity to the grassroots?

“Poverty plays a big role in that,” says Steyn. “If the youth don’t have access to technology to explore it, or don’t have financial support to go and study in those fields, then they won’t know that. Our chief security officer Sandro Bucchianeri grew up on the Cape Flats and he always had this vision, although he worked around the world, to come back to Africa and establish a cybersecurity academy, which is done over the last three years. That Academy, in partnership with the Maharishi Institute, takes children from marginalised families and gives them the opportunity to be exposed to that type of technology.

The idea of the Academy is to take those children off the streets and put them through the Academy, get them interested, and then also help them in the job market once they graduate from the Academy, to find a meaningful job. Now, if we can multiply that across the continent, there’s such a huge opportunity to get more and more of the youth involved in how we craft the future.”

• For Ina Steyn’s full insights into how the skills opportunity can be realised across Africa, watch the full interview on YouTube here.
• Listen to the interview via  podcast here.

This interview was first published on Gadget Magazine.

Announced at the 2020 Global Retail Banking Innovation Awards

24 December 2020

In bringing its customers’ possibility to life, Absa Group Limited’s Regional Operations (ARO) has been recognised as leading industry player at this year’s, Global Retail Banking Innovation Awards (GRB). A Digital Banker initiative, the awards focus on commending cutting-edge banks that blend the best technology with service-oriented mindsets to raise the bar in consumer banking.

The judging panel – comprising experts from leading consultancies including EY and Forrester – selected ARO based on its significant achievements across Africa to date, including successfully completing one of the banking sector’s largest and most complex separation programmes from Barclays PLC. In addition, ARO demonstrated a swift and strategic response to the COVID-19 pandemic, not only assisting customers with payment relief initiatives but also contributing extensively to local social relief efforts.

This accolade also encompassed the bank’s role in driving financial inclusion across the continent. Says Vimal Kumar, Chief Executive of Retail and Business Banking, Digital and CX at Absa Regional Operations, “As a digitally-led bank, we collaborated with innovative partners such as technology platform provider, JUMO, and a mobile network operator, MTN, to provide loans to underserved customers via mobile in Zambia and Ghana. In addition, our Customer 360 data analytics platform has assisted us in anticipating the changing needs of our customers through predictive modelling and multifaceted data science approaches.”

According to Nirav Patel, Managing Director at The Digital Banker, digital has been an impetus to a wave of innovations, both in front-end and back-end. “This has allowed Absa, and its regional operation, to flourish as a leading and digital-first African financial services group. The bank is able to deliver customer experiences that are seamless, convenient and safe to use – and for that they truly deserved to win this award.”

Absa’s approach going forward will be to continue to place the customer at the heart of everything that it does. Adds Kumar, “For Absa, creating opportunities for our customers to make their possibility come alive is a mission always supported by action.”

For more about the awards, please visit: https://digitalbankeronline.com/awards/