Chairperson of the Commercial International Bank (CIB), Hisham Ezz Al-Arab, Egypt’s largest private sector bank, said it was now time for everyone to invest in the continent, as the main driver of global growth, stressing the importance of developing systematic frameworks to achieve that goal.
The statements of Ezz Al-Arab came during his participation in the Transform Africa 2019 conference held in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, under the theme “Promoting the digital economy of Africa,” to discuss ways to further advanced digital innovations in Africa and promote the digital economy. The summit will continue for four consecutive days.
The summit was held under the auspices of the JICA and the World Bank with the presence of a number of African leaders, headed by President of the Republic of Rwanda Paul Kagame and the presidents of Kenya and Mali. Egyptian Minister of Communication, Amr Talaat, is attending the event as a representative of President Abdel Fattah Sisi.
Ezz Al-Arab participated as a keynote speaker in the session, which included the leaders of the countries participating in the summit. He stressed the importance of using the Blockchain technology applied by the CIB, being the safest technology to date.
He added that there are many African countries which have started to use this technology, such as the state of Sierra Leone, west Africa.
Furthermore, Ezz Al-Arab also stressed that Blockchain technology represents a new era that is comparable to the invention of the internet in terms of data preservation, banking operations, and transactions between customers and banks, or between banking institutions and each other.
During the summit, Ezz Al-Arab signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Smart Africa in the field of information and communication technology (ICT).
Under the memorandum, CIB and Smart Africa will work together to promote and develop literacy in the field of ICT and activate e-services awareness and digital leadership.
The first summit of the “transformation of Africa” was held in the Rwandan capital of Kigali in October 2013 under the auspices and in the presence of the President of Rwanda with the participation of the Presidents of Mali, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Kenya, Southern Sudan, Uganda, and Gabon.
During this summit, the Smart Africa initiative was launched aimed at using means of communication and information technology to promote economic and social development of the African continent and to meet the challenges of sustainable development in the continent’s countries.
Egypt joined the initiative in November 2016.
Ezz Al-Arab participated in the conference in recognition of the bank’s efforts and commitment toward introducing innovative products and services, as well as its continued support to entrepreneurs and emerging companies, especially in the field of financial services technology and efforts to develop high quality banking services tailored to the needs of all customers.
