NEWS
SAP Africa, Deloitte, NTT DATA return as key sponsors of Africa’ s SAP user event
Nazia Pillay
Anticipation is building as SAPHILA 2025, the African SAP User Group’ s, local SAP user conference, approaches. It is set to take place from 01 to 03 June 2025 at Sun City in South Africa’ s North-West Province, the event will bring together business and technology leaders from across the continent for two days of innovation, insight and highimpact networking.
Key sponsors returning for the 2025 edition include SAP Africa, Deloitte and NTT DATA: all reaffirming their commitment to Africa’ s growing SAP ecosystem and the digital transformation of local enterprises.
SAP once again takes pride of place as the event’ s Collaboration Sponsor, maintaining its enduring partnership with AFSUG and continued commitment to the growth of Africa’ s SAP community through the SAPHILA platform.
Nazia Pillay, ad interim Managing Director for SAP in Southern Africa, says:“ SAPHILA is a critically important customer and partner event for SAP, in that it provides an unparallelled, one-stop shop for all our African customers and partners. We would like to thank AFSUG for driving this flagship industry and networking event, suited to any customer or partner wishing to know the latest about SAP, its AI vision, future focus, product offerings and solutions.
“ When it comes to the SAP Africa events calendar, SAPHILA is arguably the most important networking opportunity of the year,” she adds.
Pillay’ s sentiments are echoed by Lauren Wortmann, Vice President: Applications and Cloud at NTT DATA Middle East and Africa, SAPHILA 2025’ s Diamond Sponsor, who highlights the strategic value that the event brings.
“ SAPHILA is all about bringing SAP users and vendors together to connect, create and collaborate. It provides a fantastic opportunity to share knowledge on the latest innovations, implementations and best practices in the SAP world.”
Standard Chartered opens representative office in Morocco expanding footprint in North Africa
Standard Chartered announced the opening of its new representative office in Morocco, further expanding its footprint across the Middle East and North Africa region. The launch follows the licence approval from Bank Al-Maghrib and the award of the Casablanca Finance City status by the Casablanca Finance City Authority.
The representative office will be led by Cynthia El Asmar, who has been appointed CEO and Head of Coverage for Morrocco, subject to regulatory approvals. She brings extensive experience in client coverage across the region and will be responsible for driving the Bank’ s local strategy and deepening client relationships.
This expansion underscores Standard Chartered’ s long-term commitment to the region and reflects its strategy of supporting clients in high-growth, internationally connected markets. Morocco’ s strong economic fundamentals and strategic location position it as an increasingly important destination for global trade and investment.
Standard Chartered’ s new representative office Morocco follows the launch of a fullyfledged banking operation in Egypt in early 2024 and Saudi Arabia in 2021. The office
Cynthia El Asmar will enable Standard Chartered to broaden and deepen relationships with international businesses, particularly in the agro-industrial, automotive, aeronautics, and renewable energy sectors.
Morocco is the sixth largest economy in Africa. Its economy expanded 3.2 percent in 2024 and GDP growth is expected to increase to around 3.7 percent over the next few years. This is supported by a new series of infrastructure projects and the continued implementation of the country’ s structural reform agenda.
Over the past decade, Standard Chartered has collaborated closely with the banking sector in Morocco, developing strong relationships with all major players. The representative office will serve as a platform to deepen those partnerships and deliver tailored banking solutions to multinational and regional clients.
12 INTELLIGENTCIO AFRICA www. intelligentcio. com