Klaus Mueller is the CEO of AB Microfinance Nigeria since January 2018. He has spent many years as a CRO and CEO of microfinance and commercial banks in East Europe, in particular in Serbia (ProCredit Bank) and the Ukraine (Prominvestbank). Before going abroad, Klaus worked in the Treasury of KfW.
Banks in the AccessGroup are well equipped from a technological and capacity perspective to deal with the impacts on the C19 pandemic and react to clients’ needs with innovative financial services in a pro-active and agile manner. The necessary foundations have been laid and heavily invested in since 2016 under the Access2Access Programme (“A2A”), co-funded by the MasterCard Foundation with USD 15.5 million over a period of six years.
Anna Aslanova, AccessHolding Senior Expert in Learning and Development and Manager of Access Campus has joined us almost two years ago, after more than 10 years in Credo Bank where she worked in different leadership positions in HR department. Her last project was establishing Learning and Development unit within the company. Anna has a Master's degree in Business Administration (M.B.A.) from Caucasus School of Business. She is a strong human resource professional with more than 12 years of experience. Anna has moved to Berlin from Tbilisi 2 years ago with her family - husband and two sons.
In the microfinance sector, we rely significantly on the honesty of our employees and clients. A range of factors force us to depend on trust, but most of it comes down to information. Only rarely do we have third party-verified data, meaning we must do the verification work ourselves. While almost all clients and employees are honest, there are always a few willing to abuse the trust of the company.
The COVID-19 emergency might have shut classrooms worldwide, but that doesn't stop AccessHolding's Learning and Development unit being innovative and adapting to changed circumstances. In May, the very first AccessCampus virtual classroom training session went live to 21 participants across the network proving that AccessCampus is indeed always accessible.
On 29th of May 2020 AB Bank Zambia launched its own mobile wallet, eTumba. eTumba offers real-time banking and combines the user-friendliness and convenience of a mobile wallet with the security and reliability of a bank account. It offers easy and instant self-registration via USSD or Android app.
The COVID-19 pandemic represents an existential threat to our customers and to our staff. While all countries in the world are concerned, it touches Africa in a very specific way.
Because the COVID-19 emergency limits mobility and increases the need for people to work from home, the cyber-security perimeter has rapidly expanded. What was previously deemed sufficient to address existing and ever-growing cyber-threats has had to be re-evaluated.