CRDB Bank, Tanzania’s biggest bank by assets, has completed a migration of its core banking system from Fusion Banking Essence (FBE), owned by London-based Finastra, to Temenos T24, a move the lender says was necessary to keep pace with regional competitors and prepare for expansion outside East Africa.
CRDB’s chief executive, Abdulmajid Nsekela, told TechCabal that the system migration—which occurred in the first weekend of September—is crucial to the bank’s expansion plans.
CRDB already operates in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and is finalising arrangements to enter Dubai, where it expects to serve both diaspora and cross-border clients.
“You cannot provide services in all these countries without having a robust system that safeguards customer information and enables transactions with high efficiency,” Nsekela said.
CRDB joins a growing list of African lenders running on Temenos T24, the Swiss-built, front-to-back core banking platform used by institutions like Kenya’s KCB Group and Stanbic Bank, which operate across multiple jurisdictions.
Such systems are increasingly vital as regional banks integrate operations and compete for cross-border clients.
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Nsekela said the upgraded platform now supports transactions in multiple languages and currencies, from Swahili and English in Tanzania to French, Kirundi, and Arabic in other markets.
Core banking migrations remain fraught exercises. Unlike front-end app upgrades, they involve the wholesale transfer of millions of sensitive customer records. In markets where trust in banks can be fragile, even short disruptions risk denting reputations.
CRDB’s 72-hour migration exercise experienced some glitches with customers reporting discrepancies in balances, which the bank attributed to large data transfers between the systems.
The bank’s investment is a continuation of East African lenders’ efforts to modernise their technology backbones. KCB, Equity Group, DTB, and NCBA Group already run multi-market operations on Temenos T24 or similar systems, enabling faster product rollouts across jurisdictions.
By joining their ranks, CRDB hopes to compete for corporate clients and cross-border business as it marks its 30th anniversary. The Dubai expansion is expected to target diaspora remittances and trade finance between the Gulf and East Africa.
The Bank of Tanzania (BoT) is also pushing local banks to upgrade their systems as part of wider financial sector reforms.
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