The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Long-term transformation
McKinsey & Company say, for long-term structural change, banks can focus on measures to embrace digital transformation and accelerate financial inclusion. They can achieve this by driving mobile finance and scaling up services to SMEs.
Specific key actions could include cementing bancarization or increase access to the bank’s services for new client segments, developing Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) platforms, and adopting the right operating model to support tech-enabled innovation.
According to McKinsey & Company, the COVID-19 crisis has opened opportunities to accelerate financial inclusion that could be used as a catalyst to define attractive and profitable products and value propositions for mass segments and SMEs. In particular, banks can address the needs of the low-income population and small businesses cost-effectively by integrating mobile financial services into their channel offer more comprehensively.
Globally, organisations are innovating to expand their offerings, including increasing payment alternatives and supporting SMEs by adapting their business models during this disruptive time. For example, i Flutterwave and DPO—two payment providers in Africa—have launched products to enable a seamless transition to e-sales for their African SME customers during the crisis. More broadly, payments is one of the fastest growing product categories in Africa. We believe it is imperative to capture this electronic-payment growth, as banks will be able to provide broader value-added services directly through their payment platforms for SMEs.
Meanwhile innovation in addressing customer needs will be critical in designing new products and services. It will also be essential that banks have the necessary infrastructure to support the digital transformation needed for a new delivery model centered around customers’ needs. A new relationship between business and tech can ensure fast time-to-market.
“For instance, a cross-functional style operating model can enable banks to rapidly innovate, adopt, execute, and scale up new products and services, as well as new ways of working,” say McKinsey & Company.
****
