Inlaks has been managing the Ghana project for over six years. The project involves the implementation of a solution that aggregates 140 Microfinance Banks [MFBs] with about 800 branches onto one shared platform. The objective is to promote financial inclusion in Ghana through the MFBs.
However, how did Inlaks get the nod to manage the project for Bank of Ghana – [BoG]? As told by the MD/CEO of Inlaks, Femi Adeoti, the BoG setup a subsidiary called the Apex Bank of Ghana, which is similar to the Central bank of Nigeria [CBN]. The BoG published a tender. Inlaks applied. Inlaks was shortlisted. Inlaks won the project.
The CBN adopted similar bidding process for its National Microfinance Banks Unified IT Platform [NAMBUIT] project in Nigeria. Like the Ghanaian counterpart, the CBN published an open bid in the national newspapers. Inlaks bid. Inlaks won.
According to Adeoti who manages the Africa operations for Inlaks in seven countries of Nigeria, Guinea, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Gambia, and Kenya, when the Bank of Ghana considered the project and noticed that it has more financial inclusion gains, it approached the World Bank and the World Bank funded the initiative.
“But every year the BoG have added more licenses and more banks have come onboard. The next phase is that the MFBs of Ghana would commence the issuing of cards and have their own ATMs”.
He explained that the BoG project is a similar project to what Inlaks is embarking upon for the CBN. “The components of the Ghanaian project are also part of the Nigerian project. We are working with a road map,” he said.
The above national projects did not come easy as Inlaks has been operating in Nigeria for over 32 years working quietly in the financial technology space.
Adeoti said, “After we re-branded the company, more people are aware of what we do. With our professionalism and innovation to projects, the industry is beginning to recognize what we stand for as an organization”.