ZB Bank to Commit $40 Million For Digital Banking

The banking landscape as we know it is changing in Zimbabwe and the world over. Digitisation is revolutionizing the way customers engage with their finances. As a result, banks are having to rethink the way they do business to deliver a better customer experience and remain competitive.

That is why ZB Bank is committing $40 million to fully implement digital banking as a way of reducing inefficiencies in the bank. The benefits of digitization in Zimbabwe’s banking sector are still growing, from low-cost delivery of banking services to drawing new customers. ZB Bank will look to catch up with banks such as Nedbank, Steward and many more that are going extremely digital. We have seen local banks parting with “paper banking” and starting to use USSDs and mobile applications as a way of digitizing.

But the move towards a more technologically driven banking implies that ZB Bank needs a different type of workforce. No wonder why ZB’s will allocate a “retraining budget” to train its employees to acquire needful skills for digital banking. ZB’s CEO, Ron Mutandagayi said;

People will be re-trained. There will be opportunities in other areas. While there may be losses in one area, it will be counter-balanced by another

There is less and less need for people to do manual and repetitive tasks, as these can increasingly be digitized. Accordingly, those who have been doing the repetitive tasks have to be laid off or retrained. On the other hand, ZB Bank will become increasingly reliant on heavily skilled technologists to develop and manage its digital banking platform. There a new type of labor will be employed.