Absa Group chief information and technology officer Johnson Idesoh Absa Group has impaired a further R200-million in software assets in the six months to 30 June 2026, five months after a R2.4-billion write-down that the bank blamed on a strategy rethink and faster-than-expected technology obsolescence. The latest charge, disclosed in interim results published on Tuesday,…
Buried in the partner list of a new consortium building a dollar currency for the machine economy – backed by Visa, Mastercard, Stripe and BlackRock – are three familiar names: FNB, Absa and Nedbank. South Africa’s banks have quietly joined the most ambitious attempt yet to solve a problem the internet has ignored for 30…
Absa managing executive Nick Nkosi Eight months after telling TechCentral it was readying the launch of a mobile virtual network operator, Absa is giving very little away about how those plans are progressing – or when South Africans can expect to see an Absa-branded Sim card. Last October, Nick Nkosi, Absa’s managing executive for transactional…
Absa Group CITO Johnson Idesoh Johnson Idesoh, group chief information and technology officer at Absa, says AI in all its forms – generative, agentic and the AI now being wielded by cybercriminals – is the single biggest topic on his desk, but cautions that it remains a tool that has to be tied directly to…
Absa has officially added Shell to its loyalty network, significantly expanding the footprint where customers can optimize their fuel spending. Under this new partnership, Absa Rewards members filling up at participating Shell service stations across South Africa can earn up to 30% cashback while simultaneously “double-dipping” into Shell’s native V+ loyalty ecosystem to claim an…
Absa Pay gives fintech firms and e-commerce platforms a safe, authenticated way to engage with the bank, says Absa. Cross Switch has collaborated with Absa to enable online merchants on its platform to offer their customers Absa Pay, a secure, bank-authenticated payment option. According to a statement, unlike traditional online payments, Absa Pay does not…
Absa CTIO Johnson Idesoh Absa Group’s decision to take a R2.4-billion software impairment hit for the year ended 31 December 2025 is not solely because of AI – itself an accelerator of software obsolescence – but also due broader technological trends and a strategic shift in the bank’s outlook on technology. According to Absa Group…
Absa Group has written off R2.4-billion in software assets after a revision of its overall strategy led to changes in investment priorities and faster-than-expected technology obsolescence, its annual financial statements show. The software impairments – more than 13 times the R179-million written off a year earlier – were spread across the group, with the largest…
Lauren Wortmann, MD of application services at NTT Data in Middle East and Africa. NTT Data has signed a five-year contract extension with Absa to continue providing application management services for the bank’s SAP S/4HANA financial consolidation and reporting systems. The deal covers the technology landscape Absa uses for group-wide financial control. According to the…
Absa Group has announced a series of executive leadership changes, headlined by the appointment of former M-Pesa Africa MD Sitoyo Lopokoiyit as CEO of its personal and private banking division. Lopokoiyit, who takes up the role on 1 April, joins from Safaricom, where he led the strategy and growth of M-Pesa, Africa’s largest fintech platform….
