UNITED BANK FOR AFRICA TRANSFORMS IT’S TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM

Pro� leUnited Bank for Africa Plc is a leading fi nancial services group in sub-Saharan Africa, with presence in 20 African countries, as well as the United Kingdom, the United States of America and France.

From a single country operation founded in 1949 in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, UBA has emerged as a pan-African provider of banking and other fi nancial services, to over 15 million customers globally, through one of the most diverse service channels in sub-Sahara Africa; over 1000 branches and customer touch points, 2400 ATMs, 13,500 PoS, and a robust online and mobile banking platform.

UBA was the fi rst Nigerian bank to make an Initial Public Off ering (IPO), following its listing on the NSE in1970. It was also the fi rst Nigerian bank to issue Global Depository Receipts (GDRs). The shares of UBA are publicly traded on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and the bank has a well-diversifi ed shareholder base, including foreign and local institutional investors as well as individual shareholders.

OverviewIn April 2014, UBA embarked on a major systems upgrade to the latest version of Finacle to simplify its processes and signifi cantly improve customer experience across all channels. The ambitious project envisaged a big bang implementation in phases across UBA’s operations in 19 countries. The project involved a lot of complexities, such as: migrating a data of 14TB for Nigeria alone, migrating 5000+ customizations, multilingual deployments (English, French and Portuguese), and training more than 11,000 users spread over the African continent. The fi rst country went live on Finacle within a year of

project commencement. The remaining 18 rollouts in as many countries were completed in the next 14 months. The extremely quick implementation was a result of meticulous planning, enabling

simultaneous roll outs across 4 countries.

Key Business Drivers UBA realized it needed a state-of-the-

art banking platform to support its

transformation plans, which would

enable it to consolidate its strategic

positioning and capitalize on the

extensive opportunities in the African

market. The chosen platform would

not only have to provide the desired

functionality but do so in several

languages. The multilingual, multi-entity

features of Finacle made it an ideal

choice.

Implementation HighlightsThe project scope covered

implementation of core banking,

online banking and treasury systems

for the bank’s 19 country operations.

UBA was keen on a short timeline,

especially for the core banking and

online banking implementations. The 19

implementations – 10 French,

1 Portuguese and 8 English – were

grouped into 5 multi-entity deployments.

The bank was recommended to leverage

a data replication tool to replicate data

to ensure that they didn’t have to go

through an intermediate migration cycle.

The latter allowed UBA to undertake a big

bang migration to the latest version of

Finacle.

Standardization of migration, porting

and testing activities enabled optimum

$12.4 billion in assets

Operates in 23 countries

One of the largest banks in sub-Saharan Africa

Serves over 15 million customers globally

Consolidate its strategic advantage across 19 countries

Build a strong technology foundation to capitalize on the impending opportunity in Africa

Deliver delightful digital experiences to the new generation of customers

Achieve extensive automation to be agile in the digital world

Comply with continuously evolving regulatory and compliance requirements

Objective

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utilization of human and other resources.

Everything was meticulously planned, and

particular attention was paid to predicting

major risks, their mitigation, and backup

plans. A secure, shared portal was used for

tracking all requirements and issues online

helped to keep the rollout on track, despite

problems such as fuel shortages.

The bank’s internal team comprised a cross-

functional permanent core of 48 staff and

another 65 members from key departments

such as, Operations, Information Technology,

Audit, Internal Control, Finance, Trade, Risk

Management, E-banking, and Treasury, who

pitched in when required. There were also

representatives from other African countries

(besides Nigeria) on the core team.

The Finacle team comprised of 20 members

along with the 10 members from the alliance

partner Computer Warehouse Group. The

fact that all three teams – UBA, Finacle and

CWG – worked as one was instrumental in

the project being delivered in a record time

of 26 months.

The Finacle Core Banking and Online

Banking implementations at UBA were

a huge success. Finacle Treasury was

implemented in Nigeria and other

subsidiaries even before Finacle Core

Banking.

Business Bene� ts The speedy rollout in about 26 months

saved UBA considerable time and money.

Continuous delivery and testing of

customization, porting line items by the

bank ensured smooth SIT/UAT/Rollout

phases. The implementation allowed UBA to

discontinue many old systems and thereby

save USD 350,000 per annum.

The project automated processes and

integrated information to signifi cantly

lower the transaction processing time by

over 30%. The time to open a new account

is now just two minutes. With a single view

of customer information, the bank has

improved the turnaround time and customer

sales and sales capability. The system also

enables document capture to digital images

reducing paper dependence.

There were also several qualitative

benefi ts, such as the closing of regulatory

and compliance gaps, avoidance of

regulatory sanctions, as well as addressing

Approach

To set up a strong foundation with core banking and online banking platform

The platform based on functionality, fl exibility and multi-lingual support

Clustered roll outs to achieve multi country, multi lingual implementations in shortest span of time

Extensive transformation across 19 countries within 26 months

Leverage comprehensive unifi ed view on customer for deeper engagement

Integrated multiple disparate systems for increased automation

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technological obsolescence.

Quantitative Bene� ts• Increase in customer base: UBA

experienced a quantum leap in its

customer base with an increase of over

28%.

• There was an increase in the number of

new products that were introduced into

the market

• Faster time to market for new products:

Launching a new product and rolling it to

the market takes just one week whereas it

used to take a month earlier. In addition,

social media integration has contributed

to faster roll out of products with fewer

resources employed.

• Increased revenues: UBA has seen

an increase in revenue with the bank

introducing contemporary value adding

products and service off erings

• Faster customer service: With the

advantage of 360-degree view of the

customer, the customer service time has

dropped drastically by 67%.

• Greater operational e� ciency: The

bank has witnessed immense operational

benefi ts due to process optimization. For

instance, the time to open a new account

has decreased by over 67%, while the cost

of transaction across channels has reduced

by 80%, post core transformation.

• Greater agility: United Bank for Africa

is now able to launch new branch in a

single day vis-à-vis four days it used to take

earlier.

• Achieving greater scalability: The

transaction peak load capacity has now

increased by over 25%. The average

number of transactions processed in a day

has also more than doubled since go live.

• Optimization of cost across channels

The unifi cation of various touch points with

a digital engagement platform has helped

UBA better understand customer behavior

across segments, as well as their product and

channel preferences. The upgraded Finacle

solution helped them optimize channel

usage and migrate low cost transactions to

low cost channels.

Outcome

UBA witnessed a 28% leap in its customer base

Time to market for new products reduced by 77%

Increase in revenue by introducing contemporary value added products and services

With 360-degree view of the customer, the service time has reduced by 67%

Time to open a new account has decreased by 67%

Cost of transaction across channels has reduced by 80%

Time to launch new branch decreased by 75%

Transaction peak load capacity increased by 25%

Average number of transactions processed in a day has more than doubled

Transaction processing time has reduced by 30%

“At UBA, we have always looked to drive greater fi nancial inclusion across Africa.

It has become vital for banks to have a strong technology architecture in place

to provide a customer experience at par with digital disruptors across channels

while accelerating innovations across new business models. With Infosys Finacle,

we now have a strong digital suite that enables the bank to drive growth

while providing a exceptional banking experience to our growing retail, SME,

institutional, and corporate customers”.

Kennedy Uzoka

Group Managing Director, UBA Group

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