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Head of Information Technology Department in Wema Bank Plc, Mr. Adewale Saka has revealed four critical types of risks stemming from use of technology for banking services.

In an interview, he averred that “These risks could be due to human error, systems failure, fraud and cybercrimes”.

According to him, “Banks in Nigeria have lost a lot of money to various fraudulent practices perpetrated through electronic channels. Fraud attempts, successful frauds, hacks and scams have steadily increased as banking takes center-stage in the digital world”.

Just as details from latest banking reports have noted that Nigerian banks have lost huge sum of money traced to technology adoption with poor management techniques, Saka argued that “Count and volume of computer-related frauds has been on the upward trend”.

“This has not only created image issues for banks and the industry, but has also impacted the bottom-line of the effected banks. Banks are now made to invest massively in technology infrastructure, implement and maintain technology standards and frameworks and compliance generally. Cost of maintaining and sustaining most of these standards and frameworks have become a burden to many banks.

But to tame the surge in fraud attempts and success, the Head, Information Technology at Wema Bank said “I do not share a view that outsourcing or cloud computing or sharing a public infrastructure is less secured than on-premise deployment of infrastructure. All that is required for organisations are to go through a stringent process in selecting a cloud service provider and ensure a water-tight agreement is put in place to protect their businesses”.

According to him, “The benefits of outsourcing or cloud service are so enormous that a forward-looking organization cannot ignore. Organisations should rather look for ways to mitigate the risks that are associated with the cloud rather than avoiding the cloud”.

Saka added that “Some of the benefits of cloud computing includes; Agility, Cost efficiency, Scalability, etc. In summary, it offers responsiveness, effectiveness and efficiency in the delivery of IT services.

The technology expert argued that “except for data, infrastructure or solutions that have been mandatorily confined to banks, datacenters by way of regulation or government policies, every service or infrastructure can be outsourced or run from a public cloud. This will improve uptime and reduce cost significantly. It helps in managing cash flow by converting capital expenditure (CAPEX) to operating (OPEX) for organizations”.

Giving additional insights on leaps achieved in Wema Bank using technology, Saka argued further that “Wema is the bank to beat when it comes to innovation using technology”.

“As it stands today, Wema has made a bold statement with ALAT being the first truly digital Bank in the country. What is also unique about this is the fact that our digital bank and all other digital channels provided for customers’ comfort are fully owned by Wema (developed, maintained, supported and owned end-to-end by Wema).

“Our WemaMobile platform can be switched to SMS banking if you run out of data right from within the app. This is an amazing experience that is unique to Wema. Card Control integration to all our service points (ALAT, USSD Banking, WemaMobile, WemaOnline, etc) and giving customers of the bank absolute control over when, where and how their debit and credit cards are used without recourse to the bank is the first of its kind in the Nigerian Banking industry,” Adewale Saka, Head, Information Technology at Wema Bank revealed.