eading up to the 6th Annual Retail Banking Africa Forum organized by Fleming Gulf Conferences on the 2 - 4 September 2014 in Johannesburg, South Africa, the team caught up with Mr. Kashif Naeem , EVP & Group Head Retail, SME & Microfinance:Bank of Khartoum - Sudan.

When asked about the culture of retail banking in Africa compared to other matured markets, Mr. Naeem said, "Africa is largely unbanked. With over 1 billion of population in Africa, 53% of the population consists of Muslims. I see major opportunities for the banks to grow and capture the unbaked. There is a demand for Retail and microfinance products. Banking penetration rate in Europe & Central Asia is 44%, Latin America & Caribbean at 28%, East Asia and Pacific 27%, Middle East & Northern Africa 24% and Sub-Saharan Africa is only 18%. This is for over all banking but also shows that what potential retail banks are missing on. Banks needs to carry heavy and detailed Retail face and focus on launching retail products like mortgage auto finance, takaful, saving plans , mobile money etc."

Mr. Naeem is a seasoned banker with more than 17 years of experience in the Industry. He has played a very significant role in the success story of Bank of Khartoum. While speaking to him about the fast growing mobile money in Africa and Bank of Khartoum initiative regarding the same, he quoted, "We are currently working on launching Mobile Money. This is going to be our biggest product and we will be launching mobile money by August 2014. As you know, for mobile money, apart from sophisticated back end software support, you need major and extensive network and we are working on both. This will definitely give us further edge and we are working closely with regulator, EBS (Electronic Banking Services) & MNOs to launch Mobile Money in Sudan. Sudan is a big country and it’s not easy for banks to reach / open branch or install ATM in all parts of Sudan, with mobile money and extensive agent network, we will be able to capture unbanked population."

Mr. Naeem is EVP & Group Head – Retail, SME & Microfinance for Bank of Khartoum, which is the oldest (over 100 years, 1913 – 2014) and largest bank in Sudan. 81% of the bank’s share holding comes from GCC /Middle East and Dubai Islamic Bank is the largest share holder. Kashif was hired by Dubai Islamic Bank UAE in 2006 and assigned to Bank of Khartoum as part of the transformation team to bring true retail banking to Sudan. He is responsible for BOK’s market leadership as the first bank in the Sudan to establish a full suite of innovative products and services in Retail, Private Banking, SME and
Microfinance.

To view Mr. Naeem's complete interview, visit the Fleming Gulf website.