Kenya Commercial Bank upgrades IT system

The 18-month wait for a more efficient system at Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) is finally over after a confirmed migration to the T24 system, supplied by Temenos of Switzerland.

Temenos announced the sale of the system in May last year, but the Internet-based system has faced implementation hitches with the bank's bandwidth.

"T24 will enable us to offer a faster, more effective service to our customers and deliver new technology-driven products such as Internet banking," said Martin Oduor-Otieno, CEO at KCB. "It will also provide the technology to support our planned expansion into territories such as Uganda and Rwanda, helping us to grow customer accounts to over 2 million in the next five years."

Upon successful migration to the new system, the bank will be able to consolidate a number of functions and automate revenue collection, Oduor-Otieno added.

The T24 system will also enable KCB to offer online real-time banking services to all customers in Kenya.

To avoid any problems, the bank has been training staff on the new system since February. Moreover, KCB will have the full support of Temenos.

"KCB is a major client, and to enable us support them effectively, we are establishing a regional office in Nairobi," said Temenos CEO Andreas Andreades. "Eastern and Central Africa is experiencing a resurgence of core banking replacement opportunities."