Meet our Client
AB Bank Zambia is an African commercial bank founded in 2011. It’s a member of the Access Microfinance Holding AG network based in Berlin.
The bank focuses on supporting small businesses through 10+ branches across Zambia, a country in Sub-Saharan Africa. Since 2020, their services are also accessible through a mobile wallet.
AB Bank Zambia works to improve financial literacy among underserved populations in Zambia and has received several awards for its educational initiatives.
Banking in Africa and its peculiarities
Contrary to common opinion, reports like Finance in Africa by the European Investment Bank prove that Africa's banking industry is as competitive as that in high-income countries.
What distinguishes this region, though, is the fact that in some areas it has leap-frogged ahead of other continents.
Indeed, Africa is now the world’s mobile banking leader with the highest number of services, account holders, and transactions.
The reason for that is simple: there are many remote regions with no ATMs and brick-and-mortar branches. Mobile phones are the primary way to deliver financial services directly to customers.
Another unique feature is local community agents acting as mobile banking offices. In areas where people have never been to a real bank and have no trust in them, such agents are the only means to fulfill their financial needs.
Thus, to serve more customers and compete with large foreign institutions, local banks need to invest in advanced technologies like online banking and electronic transaction systems and promote financial inclusion.
Serving the SMEs to boost the economy
Over 87% of African banks prioritize small and medium enterprises. They make up over 90% of Africa's businesses and are key to innovation.
AB Bank Zambia primarily targets micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) with their services. Through them, the bank aims to enhance the country's economic growth and well-being.
“We are supporting the base of the Zambian economy by providing financing to MSMEs. In fact, we are one of the main players in this market, and the only commercial bank with MSME focus – each month we disburse between 1,000 and 1,500 loans.”
Naturally, most of the bank’s customers are not too tech-savvy and need a bank that can help them in the simplest possible way. Thus, a challenge arose for our Client: Provide financial services accessible to anyone with as little hassle as possible.
The digital transformation for better future
AB Bank discovered the solution: modern digital technologies.
In 2018, the bank initiated its digital transformation.
“We developed a hypothesis that builds on the fact that digitalization should positively influence costs, access, fit, and experience of our tools which in turn will increase customer value through increased uptake and usage. Through adapted customer behavior, efficiency gains and increased resilience can lead to increased income and business growth.”
Digitalization started with understanding customer demands, and then building the necessary technology and processes.
For that, they needed reliable tech partners.
Your vision, our expertise
Major banks already rely on us for their software needs
Partnering with SENLA
At the end of 2018, SENLA partnered with AccessHolding. From 2021 we work directly with AB Bank Zambia.
Why SENLA? As a mid-sized company, we were able to offer a competitive price-performance ratio while maintaining the highest quality standards.
Besides, the communication we established was clear and productive from the get go.
Before signing the contract, our engineers met offline with the Client’s representatives in Germany. We held meetings and workshops for two weeks to better understand the business needs and establish closer connections.
The solution: mobile wallet
SENLA was involved in the development of the bank’s e-wallet from conception through to its release and then support.
The wallet eTumba was launched in 2020 and serves for fund transfers, bill payments, loans, and savings.
In 2020, our QA specialists flew to Zambia for a 2-week on-site preparation for the go-live.
- For a week, we prepared the equipment, instructions, and files.
- Next, the team set up, configured, and released the application to a limited circle of users (around 1000).
- During the second week, our experts ensured everything worked right and tested key features while real people were using the app.
- Finally, we prepared a report on the application's readiness to support more users after the pilot phase.
“eTumba is AB Bank’s answer to country-wide financial inclusion. Our mission of financial inclusion is not anymore limited by our branch network. Anybody in Zambia can now open an account – instantly, anywhere, anytime and at no cost.”
What we do now
Currently, SENLA supports AB Bank Zambia by providing comprehensive outsourced testing for their digital services.
Our specialists, as the sole QA engineers on this project, perform:
- All kinds of testing for new releases and functionality.
- Identifying bugs and checking fixes.
- Writing autotests.
The scope includes several web portals for agents and administrators, the eTumba mobile application for Android (with many different variants), iOS, and the USSD communication protocol.
Why test USSD in 2024?
The widespread use of USSD technology in Africa is due to many people owning simple push-button phones that can use only USSD.
Additionally, internet connections are unstable, especially in rural areas, which is a problem for smartphones.
Testing USSD technology is challenging because deploying a full USSD mobile delivery version on a test stand isn’t possible. We use various emulation platforms to perform QA.
New releases
We conduct various types of testing, including regression, functional, non-functional, acceptance, and other.
For each release every 2-3 months, our responsibilities include the following tasks:
- Installing the new release on a test stand.
- Checking installation nuances to ensure they're considered for deployment to production.
- Running 300+ automated tests to verify the core functionality.
- Manually checking what can't be tested automatically, such as banking operations.
- Deploying the new version to production.
The automated tests are written in Java. Our testers use IntelliJ Idea to work with them, and Allure Report to generate reports.
Our experts update the autotests as needed when new features are added or existing functionality is improved and stabilized.
Loans
AB Bank Zambia's customers with good KYC ratings and credit histories can apply for loans without visiting the branch.
First, bank agents take a photo of the applying customer and send it to the bank for KYC evaluation. If the customer is eligible and receives a positive rating from the bank, they are assigned a special coefficient.
They now can enter the app and apply for a micro-loan directly through it, with no need to visit the bank. Farmers in rural areas benefit the most from this innovation.
Testing
Implementing this feature required thorough testing not only of the app and website functionality but also of the banking back end. Because it was there where the interest was calculated and the loan application was processed.
Work with local agents
With eTumba, AB Bank Zambia became accessible 24/7, but some limitations still applied. Local agents came to the rescue.
In Zambia, the spread of bank branches is limited by the remoteness of many areas. To address this, AB Bank Zambia cooperates with a network of more than 20.000 agents who travel across the country with a phone and a cash register to help people access bank services.
Customers can approach these agents with the eTumba app, which generates a special code. They share this code with the agent to withdraw or deposit money or perform other transactions.
Testing
Recently, the bank has been expanding the roles of these agents. We test the new hierarchy logic and agent commission calculations, as well as a separate portal for their operations.
More testing peculiarities
⦿ The main testing challenge is checking compatibility across various devices. For Android, this means using dozens of different smartphone models and screen sizes, as it's used by over 80% of all smartphone users in Zambia.
⦿ The testing must account for different internet speeds, from 2G upwards, since internet connectivity greatly varies between cities and regions in Africa.
We must consider all these factors during our testing process.
The value: 45% operations online and stable business growth
“The findings from research with eTumba clients supported our hypothesis that the digitalization of our network banks can lead to increased financial inclusion, increased income, and business growth.
And the results did not wait long to show: we went from being an exclusively brick-and-mortar business to now offering our clients a vast range of digital channels. As such, currently half of all our transactions are done via digital channels.”
SENLA has been AB Bank Zambia’s partner for 5+ years, reflecting our commitment to long-lasting relationships with our Clients.
The bank’s mobile wallet was launched in 2020 and won the European Investment Bank’s Innovation Award the same year.
Currently, more than 160.000 customers across the country use the app. After it went live, 45% of all transactions the bank processed became digital, saving time and effort.
The bank's digital transformation has brought other significant benefits:
- Accessibility. Digital solutions helped the bank overcome the challenges of location and timing. Banking services, available 24/7 even on weekends and holidays, significantly eased the strain on physical branches.
- Savings. Customers now save more often and earn higher interest. Reviews show that these innovations meet customers' needs and exceed their expectations, increasing loyalty to the bank.
- Loans. Access to loans has improved, offering better terms and eliminating the need to visit a branch. For many, this was a life-changing solution.
- Transactions. Customers are engaging more with financial products, making transactions faster. Shifting almost 50% of them online has lowered operational costs both for the bank, and the customers.
- Growth. The bank sees a steady growth in customers and transactions, leading to business expansion and higher revenues.
- Efficiency and resilience. Our Client has become more efficient and better able to withstand economic shocks after introducing advanced tech.
Locations can be remote, but technology and innovation shouldn’t be. Let SENLA support your business needs anywhere, anytime.