First anniversary of Absa Bank Seychelles launch A year of innovation, passion and altruism |13 February 2021

February 10, 2021 marked a year since the launch of Absa Bank Seychelles with a glittering display of lights and colourful arrays of Absa branded umbrellas along Independence Avenue – affectionately nicknamed ‘Absa Avenue’ for the occasion.

The same stretch of road hosted a colourful ‘parade of possibilities’ that same weekend displaying the bank’s promising projects that would soon change the world of banking in Seychelles.

The shaping of a forward-looking, digitally-led African bank in Seychelles had begun. The project was a challenging, long but rewarding venture; one that the bank took head on – spearheading one of the biggest re-branding projects on the African continent.

Absa employees came together over the last three years – a journey beginning in 2017 – to help the bank complete the separation journey successfully while managing to land the Absa brand in Seychelles.

Here’s a quick look at what went down in the bank’s first year as Absa Seychelles.

An accelerated digital footprint

Absa Seychelles took strides in introducing the revolutionary biometric Absa mobile banking App that allowed customers to access their accounts with facial recognition or fingerprint, saving them time and allowing them to do their banking in a fast, safe and convenient way.

Banking with Artificial Intelligence

The bank went further to release the second phase of its Chat Banking project which allowed a new Absa Personal Digital Banker (Abby) to interact with customers, helping them to know their balance, pay their bills and transfer money to their beneficiaries.

Paving the way to a cashless society

During 2020, with the growing concerns over the spread of Covid-19 virus that had begun affecting millions across the world, Absa Seychelles accelerated its digital transformation. The bank introduced the ability for customers to conduct cardless cash deposits on select ATMs as well as using contactless Absa cards for retail purchases.

Offering relief in an uncertain time

Despite Absa Seychelles achieving enormous milestones and pulling off one of the largest tech and brand migrations across the continent, the devastating financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic continued to affect all sectors of the economy including the bank’s customers.

In response to the pandemic, the Bank introduced payment holidays and loan restructuring in addition to the Central Bank relief scheme – for individuals, SMEs and corporates.

In the spirit of coming together for the good of the country, the Bank also joined local relief efforts and went all out with spreading public awareness of the virus and ways to mitigate it by printing more than 1,700 social distancing floor stickers, which were handed over to the department of health, businesses and institutions for distribution across the country.

“It has been a challenging, demanding but also educational year,” said Johan Van Schalkwyk, managing director of Absa Bank Seychelles. “We are taking the lessons learnt during this amazing journey – the feedback we received from both our customers and our colleagues – and taking it forward into this new episode of our journey as Absa Bank Seychelles.”

“With digitally-led organisations paving the way for a ‘new normal’ way of life, we couldn’t be more proud and excited for the new and revolutionary leaps that banking in Seychelles will no doubt experience in the coming years,” Mr Van Schalkwyk added.

Contributed by Absa Bank Seychelles