Hakim Ouzzani, the Managing Director of Societe Generale Ghana, has indicated that the bank’s digital transformation center dubbed ‘Innovation Hub’ will help to boost the bank’s performance on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE).
According to the Managing Director, the world is fast drifting away from the manual way of doing things to the digital one. Therefore, he noted the new digital center will help the bank go completely digital to help investors make informed decisions to invest heavily in the company’s stocks.
“The world is changing fast and we are observing a form of convergence of different technologies and solutions with the aim of making the usage less complex. As a Bank, we owe it to ourselves to contribute to this convergence. Today, solutions from the banking world are more and more integrated with solutions from other domains such as insurance, telecommunications, Geo location, Identification and so on. This will further strengthen the stock base of the bank on the Ghana Stock Exchange.”
Hakim Ouzzani
Societe Generale continues outstanding performance in 2021
Mr Hakim Ouzzani disclosed that Societe Generale recorded a 51 percent growth in earnings in the third quarter of 2021, as profit surged to GH¢142 million.
He noted that a significant reduction in cost (interest expense, operating expense, and bad loans) helped the listed bank to record outstanding growth in its ‘bottom-line’.
The Managing Director averred that the bank’s stock is the second best on the Ghana Stock Exchange in 2021, appreciating in value by more than 87 percent to GHC¢1.20 per share. “The bank has Earnings Per Share of GH¢0.2671 on GSE and a market capitalization of GH¢837 million.”
According to its Third Quarter Financial Statement, Societe Generale recorded an interest income of ¢376.5 million at the end of September 2021, as against ¢381.7 million during the same period last year. However interest expense during the period was considerably lower than same period last year.
Operating expense was also very low, contributing to growth in earnings, he explained.
The Launch of ‘Innovation Hub’
Societe Generale Ghana has launched its digital transformation center dubbed ‘Innovation Hub’ which is a convergence of different technologies that will facilitate the end-to-end electronic transactions for customers.
Located in its corporate office at Kokomlemle, the center will drive the digital transformation agenda of the bank with a touch of class, as it will provide convenience and comfort for both retail and corporate customers to undertake automated transactions.
The building has been designed as a “cross-functional” technology hub, as innovation has been designed to be quicker between its data, IT security and IT systems architecture teams; and the departments that work closely with these tech teams.
Speaking at the launch, Hakim Ouzzani stated that his outfit will continue to play a major role in the banking industry, hence its decision to launch the ‘Innovation Hub’ that will provide customer centric services.
He explained further that “we also have a responsibility, within the framework of our corporate and social responsibility, to play a role in the identification of talents, promising initiatives and to accompany some of them in their journey to meet their potential markets.”
The Societe Generale Ghana Innovation Hub has already began forming key strategic partnerships with players in the digital and innovative ecosystem both locally and internationally namely: MEST, Ghana Tech Lab, Oze and Inclusive Tech.
The Head of Fintech and Innovation at the Bank of Ghana, Kwame Oppong reminded banks and other financial institutions to be mindful of threats to financial services, including cyber security and anti-money laundering, as they launch aggressively into the digital financial space.
Mr Oppong assured the Central Bank will continue to enhance digital financial services in order to build a modern financial services sector, going forward.
The Fintech Head commended Societe Generale for extending access to digital financial services to its customers.
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