Kabir Ruhee
CEO of Rogers Capital
Finance / Mauritius
“Digital and mobile payments will be the new transactional battleground”
A leading Mauritian provider of fiduciary, technology and financial services, Rogers Capital is the fintech arm of the Rogers Group, charged with developing emerging technology. Kabir Ruhee, CEO of Rogers Capital, tells us more about how financial innovation is set to impact Africa.
What are the most disruptive examples of fintech emerging in Africa today?
The affordability of low-cost cloud platforms, the strong penetration of high performance mobile solutions and devices and the maturing of payment technologies such as e-wallets and tokenization are creating a universe where physical cards are and will be increasingly irrelevant. Digital and mobile payments will be the new transactional battleground as banks and fintech companies battle their way to ‘own’ their customers’ ‘habits and affinity’. Customer experience is proving to be the name of the game, as e-wallets will hold multiple cards or accounts from multiple financial institutions.
What is Rogers Capital’s strategy for installing knowledge of emerging technologies to a new generation of financiers?
Rogers Capital does not believe in selling products but selling high value added and proven solutions. We are taking the lead in rolling-out ambitious credit, payments and other cutting-edge technology infrastructure, which will be the beacon of our skills and expertise as well as the foundation of our future growth.
What African markets does Rogers Capital consider ripe for financial innovation?
We consider South Africa, Nigeria, Rwanda, Ghana and the Ivory Coast as markets that are ripe for financial innovation. South Africa is probably in a different league compared to the other countries, but Rwanda, the Ivory Coast and Ghana have reached a level of development and governance, which make them interesting markets for us. Our strategy will include partnering with key local players to ensure complementarity. Other than these countries, we plan not to neglect other African countries as we are aware how technological innovation can leapfrog the development status of a country and allow opportunities to quickly unfold.
How is your partnership with Blockcerts (signed May 16) shaping how you can offer emerging blockchain solutions?
The BlockCerts blockchain platform is a business process platform that includes the most important business functions. These can be easily customized to customers’ requirements. Once the Fintech regulations are finalised, a live node of the BlockCerts blockchain will be set up in Mauritius. In the meantime, BlockCerts and Rogers Capital are now working on a number of projects in the banking and healthcare sectors.
How is Mauritius nurturing its financial eco-system in terms of human capital training and development?
Not a week goes by in Mauritius without some training or conference being held to specifically address up-skilling professionals in the financial services sector. This demonstrates the level of consciousness that the sector has reached in recognising that training and continuous learning is key to maintaining our competitiveness and relevance in an ever-evolving sector. At Rogers Capital, we are setting up a Training Academy that will have a significant budget for training and development.
