Welcome to the latest issue of Interface magazine!
MTN MoMo: Empowering Africa Through FinTech
Hermann Tischendorf is the Chief Information & Technology Officer at MTN MoMo (the telco’s mobile money division). He reveals a bold roadmap for leveraging FinTech to drive financial inclusion across the African continent.
“MoMo is comparable in monthly active users to some of the top ten FinTechs globally. We’re playing in the same league as Revolut or Nubank – but in much more complex markets,” notes Hermann. “Access to financial services is fundamental. Without it, people are excluded from the global economy. Our services are the equaliser. They allow individuals in frontier markets to participate in trade, store value, and ultimately improve their quality of life.”
Pima Community College: Digital Transformation on a Public Sector budget
Higher education is typically seen through this lens. Slow to adopt new technologies, traditionally inflexible, and held back by a lack of funding. At Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona, a quiet revolution is underway that subverts these expectations. The college is a publicly funded, two-year higher education institution. Serving Pima County and beyond, it has an annual student body of 38,000 served by almost 2,500 faculty and staff.
Led by Isaac Abbs, Assistant Vice Chancellor for IT and CIO, the college is undergoing an extensive IT transformation. This has unlocked immense value through bold, visionary leadership. Crucially, it is being achieved without a major increase in budget explains Abbs.
“If, as an IT leader, you become a truly innovative partner and move the organisation forward, the dollars are there.”
State of Missouri: Security as a Foundation for Innovation
Megan Stokes, Director of Cloud Security & Strategy at State of Missouri, digs into the many ways in which the agency is leveraging technology – and how it’s keeping the citizens of Missouri at the forefront.
“I have the opportunity to guide agencies through best practices, helping them access the right resources, the right expertise, and make sure that the solutions they’re building on are really secure and well architected going forward,” she explains. “That includes a focus on risk management, access control, optimisation, governance and compliance, and long-term strategy. There’s always something new to think through, and that keeps the role really exciting and engaging. There’s always lots of work to be done.”
RAKBANK: A Banking Transformation in the UAE
Our cover story explores the digital transformation journey of RAKBANK in the UAE. Head of Digital Transformation, Antony Burrows, reveals the agile practices, enterprise-wide enablement and people-first culture delivering digital banking with a human touch.
“Culture is the cornerstone,” Antony stresses. RAKBANK codifies this into its Four Cs Framework – Connect, Communicate, Collaborate and Celebrate. “Here in the UAE, banks are pivoting from a model of ‘we know everything’ to recognising that one of the best ways to deliver continuous change and value to customers is through partnerships with startups and FinTechs. It’s no longer banks versus startups – it’s banks and startups, working together for the customer. This shift is especially meaningful as banks expand beyond traditional services to focus on customers’ broader financial lives.”
