Intelligent CIO Africa Issue 74 | Page 11

NEWS

Optasia collaborates with Ecobank and MTN for financial services in Guinea platform – providing valuable financial solutions to the unbanked and underbanked while strengthening the partnership between Optasia , MTN Group and Ecobank .

“ Expanding our offering to the people of Guinea through MTN and Ecobank is a significant step in our growth plan as a company ,” said Mark Muller , CEO of Optasia . “ Such high-profile collaboration with our strategic partners reinforces our belief in driving financial inclusion .”

Optasia , a leading FinTech services provider , has launched a microloan service via MTN Mobile Money ( MoMo ), with Ecobank in Guinea and MTN .

The launch comes as part of MTN ’ s BankTech strategy in Guinea with over 4.25 million subscribers and over 800,000 active mobile money wallet ( MoMo ) users .
The services will be offered to MTN ’ s subscribers in the country under the Ecobank product name ‘ Prêt Xpress ’, which is powered by Optasia ’ s AI-led technology
This deployment is the first MoMo loan service offered by MTN in the country and kicks off a series of deployments that Optasia will be rolled out with MTN in Uganda , Ivory Coast , Ghana and Benin . Guinea joins more than 30 countries where Optasia operates , supporting more than 560 million customers of mobile network operators and financial institutions through its AI-led platform .

Radware expands relationship with one of Africa ’ s leading banking groups

Radware , a leading provider of cybersecurity and application delivery solutions , has expanded its relationship with one of Africa ’ s leading banking groups .

As part of the new agreement , the customer added Radware ’ s Cloud Web Application Firewall ( WAF ) Service , Bot Manager and Emergency Response Team Services to its existing Radware solutions . The customer also uses Radware ’ s DefensePro DDoS Protection and hybrid Cloud DDoS Protection Service . With malicious bot attacks pressuring its infrastructure and disrupting user services , the bank turned to Radware to bolster its application security . The customer wanted to detect and distinguish between legit customers , good bots and bad bots and improve the mitigation of automated attacks more accurately . revenue drivers , growth and retention engines and main customer engagement platform ,” said Yoav Gazelle , Chief Business Officer , Radware . “ Radware ’ s one-stopshop for cloud security services keeps banks and their applications protected against emerging threat vectors as their business grows . We were able to expand this customer relationship due to the technical strength and ease of use of our products , quick response times , seamless onboarding and dashboard visibility .”
“ Applications are the core of a financial services business . They are the primary
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