13 November 2009
Windhoek — FNB hired the services of the presidential jet to bring vital client data from South Africa as the bank makes greater effort to make its operations local. The project will cost the bank N$120 million.
First National Bank of Namibia (FNB) has had its Namibian client data uploaded on to the Namibian IBM - Z series server.
Steven van Rhyn, head of IT at FNB said the new FNB IT infrastructure was finalised approximately two weeks ago.
"Our planning then began to get the Namibian customer data, which had until then been stored on a separate system in South Africa to our country as quickly, safely, cost effectively and efficiently as possible. The downloading of the FNB Namibia data took about three hours in SA. We then packed the box with 6 terabytes of data within half an hour, loaded it onto the Namibian government's Lear jet and within a matter of 1 hour and 20 minutes this precious cargo arrived in Namibia. By 22h56 last night (last Saturday), the uploading of the data onto the FNB Namibia system was complete."
FNB has been working on the localization process since the directive was issued by Bank of Namibia in August last year.
With more than 400 000 Namibian accounts, the magnitude of this project is almost incomprehensible. Dixon Norval, head of marketing of the bank, said, that one of the most amazing specifics about the localisation process has been the fact that throughout the whole development, the bank experienced only one hour downtime when the stand-in box and the new server had to be synchronised on Saturday night. "This means that clients effectively have been able to transact throughout the last 14 and a half months without the slightest hiccough on our side. This is truly an amazing achievement by our IT department and the support units at FNB SA and Internet Technologies Namibia."
No African country, except for SA, can boast with an IBM Z series server.
"While this N$ 120 million investment might not bring us immediate efficiency gains, as a Namibian bank it reinforces our commitment to this country and its people as we reiterate our promise to this country and our existing and potential clients. The localization project has also contributed to enhanced technological advancement as Namibians have gained invaluable knowledge and experience, while job creation in the IT industry is another bonus as FNB Namibia has employed new staff, while local resources also had to expand as they are being used to keep all operations going. One of the biggest advantages is probably the fact that should an optic cable to SA be out of action again, this will no longer affect us here," said Norval.
The governor of the Bank of Namibia said in August last year that the bank made it compulsory for all banks trading in Namibia to localize their core banking systems by 31 December 2009. This covers the core functional areas of banking institutions and includes all information technology systems and subsystems keeping and maintaining records and documents relating to the business, affairs, transactions, conditions, property, assets or liabilities of a banking institution.
The central bank position is that core banking systems must be localized in order to enable easier access by the bank to accounting and other banking records and also to support safety and efficiency.
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