In 2024, Nigerian banks got more serious about tech, upgrading their core banking applications (CBAs) to keep up with surging digital transaction volumes. Most lenders, including tier-1 banks like GTBank and Access, turned to foreign platforms such as Finacle and Flexcube. Sterling Bank, a mid-tier lender, went the other way: it built its own CBA, SEABaaS.
Catch up: The rollout was rocky. Customers endured weeks of downtime and widespread frustration before the system came online. But a year later, Sterling says SEABaaS has processed 2 billion transactions without downtime.
Between the lines: Peerless Technologies, which co-built the platform, claims SEABaaS has already saved $10 million in operational costs for clients. Still, without clarity on Sterlingβs upfront investment, it is hard to benchmark costs against foreign platforms that dominate the market.
The βbuild vs buyβ debate flared last year, with advocates of local solutions arguing that homegrown systems reduce costs, create jobs, and offer better familiarity and after-sales support.
State of play: Critics called it risky. Yet, Sterling, one of the few banks running a locally built CBA, is betting the gamble pays off. Sterlingβs conviction might be paying off in cost savings. If it continues and the numbers on uptime, availability, and resiliency make sense beyond the surface headlines, other financial institutions could see reasons to go local.
Zoom out: The push raises a bigger question: could the same conviction spill over into other parts of Africaβs tech stack, like cloud services, that remain some of the biggest cost drains for startups?
