Barclays Bank of Kenya (BBK) and the University of Nairobi today launched Host-To Host, an automated seamless cash management system for the over 60,000 students to eliminate the manual and labour-intensive payment processes.
The two-way data transfer service will allow high volume online banking usage by the university 24 hours a day and ensures end-to-end integration between UON’s treasury system and the bank system, cutting errors and rejects experienced from manual collections and payments processes.
The unique system is also flexible and accommodates mobile payments available from Barclays. Host–To-Host which is embedded in the Barclays Integrator (the bank’s Internet Banking solution), enhances transparency, security and high standards of accountability through readily available information that is also credible for audit purposes.
BBK Managing Director, Jeremy Awori said, “this is the first collaboration of its kind in this market, it not only cements our partnership with the University of Nairobi, but also creates new opportunities both for Barclays to meet our customers’ growing need for customized solutions that are aligned to their business model.”
“This development creates a win-win situation for both institutions; while the students will have access to first-class service from their finance office, as a bank we are able to showcase the impact of technology and banking convergence to the business,” he explained.
UON Vice Chancellor, Prof. George Magoha expects the students to pay fees at any of the BBK channels and receive auto receipts for their fees as well as automatic updates on their account status on the student portal.
“Without doubt, this will bolster efficiency across the various departments in the university considering that all our processes are interconnected with the finance office,” noted Prof. Magoha.
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The new solution, which also counters fraud by eliminating the physical slips from the payment process, comes at a time when the continent is grappling with how to optimize internal processes and ensure systems and hardware infrastructures are robust enough to mitigate the risks associated with fraud.
Regional web security watchdog, Cyber Security Africa says security systems risks have been identified as the biggest challenge for many organisations in the region. Though poor IT and banking security had infiltrated all levels businesses and individual lives, East Africa is well positioned to become the first region in Africa to develop comprehensive security for banks and IT systems.
