The CBK team, comprising 9 senior Managers representing payment department and Temenos 24 upgrade Project team, stayed for a week at Bank of Abyssinia head office for experience sharing and peer learning activities to gain insights and gather knowledge from the bank that have successfully undertaken similar upgrade journeys and use newly released version (R22) of Temenos core banking system.

The CBK team had been discussing with Bank of Abyssinia Information Technology team to learn and exchange knowledge. And, they said, “They have gained valuable insights from the team and discovered best practices and success factors for an upgrade project.”

Bank of Abyssinia is their ideal choice for a number of reasons. The team said, “Firstly, in June 2022, BoA has implemented Temenos Infinity. In addition, BoA successfully upgraded its core banking system to the latest available version (R22), making BoA the only bank in Africa to do so. These factors make Bank of Abyssinia a standout choice for us to the project implementation experience sharing.”

According to the team, their main and specific visit objectives were, “to gain insights and hands-on experience in some of the key challenges experienced throughout the entire life cycle of the upgrade and the specific mitigation measures that were effective in managing the potential risks, Refine our requirements for the Infinity (IB) module, that is critical especially for Government Banking needs, especially in the areas of client – onboarding, user management, payments, access control, omni channels capabilities, customer dashboards, transaction, authorization limits, messaging/alert services and identification authentication e.g., biometrics and cyber security management.”

They also wanted to learn more about Infrastructure specifications that are currently in place to support the solution (Database, backup mechanism, storage, security features, architecture and designs, high availability, etc).
Moreover, feedback from attendees confirmed that the experience-sharing sessions were engaging and thought-provoking, offering valuable insights and new perspectives.

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) is a public institution established under Article 231 of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010. The Bank is responsible for formulating monetary policy to achieve and maintain price stability and issuing currency. Pursuant to the CBK Act, the Central Bank promotes financial stability through regulation, supervision and licensing of financial institutions under its mandate. The Bank also provides oversight of payment, clearing and settlement systems. All these efforts are geared towards fostering liquidity, solvency and proper functioning of the financial system. The Bank also formulates and implements foreign exchange policy and manages foreign exchange reserves. CBK is the banker for, adviser to, and fiscal agent of the Government.

In discharging its mandate, the Central Bank contributes to the country’s economic development and growth, and promotes the interest of the public. The Bank strives to carry out its statutory mandate effectively and efficiently guided by the principles of integrity and transparency.