Societe Generale Securities Services (SGSS) in partnership with Societe Generale Ghana, has launched a new security custody by way of expanding its securities custody offering in Africa, drawing on the expertise of Societe Generale Ghana (GSE:SOGEGH), the Group’s subsidiary in the country.

This new securities services offer will allow the bank to strengthen its services for a local and international clientele of institutional investors and to develop its offer in Ghana, one of the main financial markets in West Africa.

Societe Generale Ghana and SGSS will provide custody services based on SGSS’ IT platform in Africa. Connected to the SWIFT inter-banking network, the ambition is to offer the best international standards in the management of securities instructions and transactions.

Meanwhile, this enriched offer will combine Societe Generale’s knowledge of the local market and SGSS’ expertise in the securities business in order to offer the best solutions in terms of custody.

These extended services in Ghana reinforce SGSS’ footprint on the continent, which already offers its services within the West African Economic and Monetary Union1 (WAEMU) from Côte d’Ivoire, within the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa2 (CEMAC) from Cameroon, as well as in Morocco and Tunisia.

Present in the country for nearly 20 years, Societe Generale Ghana is a key player in the Ghanaian banking market.

Digital Transformation Center

As part of the expansion drive, the bank also launched a digital transformation center dubbed ‘Innovation Hub’ to boost the bank’s performance on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE).

Explaining the Innovation Hub, the Managing Director of Societe Generale Ghana PLC, Hakim Ouzzani, indicated that 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.

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.

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.