Absa Group has announced a strategic partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to accelerate its cloud migration journey as part of its continuous digital transformation journey. This collaboration marks a significant milestone in Absa’s digital transformation strategy, aimed at delivering more agile, secure, and customer-focused financial services.
Building on a strategic relationship that began in 2015, Absa has expanded its collaboration with AWS to accelerate innovation and digital transformation in South Africa. This development reinforces Absa’s position as a cloud-native, digitally powered bank, delivering more agile, secure, and personalised customer service.
AWS will serve as Absa’s preferred cloud provider, enhancing the bank’s technological agility while ensuring it remains responsive to the evolving needs of its customers for frictionless, digital experiences. By leveraging the full breadth of AWS services, Absa aims to harness emerging technologies, accelerate digital transformation, and deliver secure, innovative, and customer-focused solutions across its markets.
Johnson Idesoh, Group Chief Information and Technology Officer at Absa said, “This partnership reflects our ambition to be a digitally powered financial institution that delivers exceptional value to our customers. We are excited to leverage AWS’ industry-leading banking and finance expertise for our digital transformation. Moving additional services to AWS will modernise our infrastructure, enable us to innovate faster, strengthen our resilience, enhance security, and offer more personalised, intuitive customer experiences.”
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Beyond technology, the partnership will continue to support inclusive growth through digital skills development and community investment. In collaboration with AWS, Absa has a longstanding relationship with the Women in Tech initiative, helping to bridge the gender gap in technology careers across the continent. This year marks the third consecutive year that the Women in Tech South Africa chapter has partnered with Absa and the AWS Skills Centre. The expanded programme will include 150 unemployed women from South Africa, Kenya, Botswana, Uganda, and Ghana, who will benefit from free AWS Cloud training and an Absa-sponsored exam fee (valued at $100) to become AWS Cloud Practitioner Certified.
“Our partnership with AWS goes beyond technology; it’s about driving continuous transformation. Together, we are investing in people, communities, and the future of inclusive digital economies across Africa. Choosing a cloud provider with a data centre on the continent is a deliberate decision to support investment in local communities. It’s also a step in our AI transformation journey as a financial services provider, by enabling smarter decision-making, hyper-personalised customer experiences, and greater operational efficiency—driving innovation while enhancing trust, speed, and scale,” added Idesoh.
Tanuja Randery, Vice President of Sales for Europe, Middle East, and Africa at AWS said, “We are excited to deepen our collaboration with Absa Group. This partnership exemplifies our shared commitment to driving innovation through cloud technology while building digital capabilities and equitable access to learning across Africa. Through our comprehensive training programmes and AI solutions, we’re supporting Absa’s technical transformation and helping to create a skilled workforce that supports the population as it embraces the digital future. The success we’ve seen with initiatives like Women in Tech demonstrates the powerful impact of combining cloud technology with skills development. We look forward to continuing our work with Absa to accelerate its cloud adoption and foster inclusive growth across the continent.”
Idesoh concludes by saying, “With a customer-obsessed mindset, we are committed to enabling SMEs, retail clients, and corporate partners by leveraging the benefits of scale and innovation ecosystems to meet their unique needs across Africa.”
Source: AWS