Zenith Bank, a Tier-1 Nigerian bank with a market capitalisation of ₦1.19 trillion, will finalise the migration of its core banking platform in October after a glitch in the process disrupted online banking services and left customers unable to access their accounts.
The bank, which previously used Phoenix, a software developed by London-based Finastra, is migrating to Oracle’s Flexcube. At least eight Nigerian banks use Flexcube.
Two people familiar with the matter claimed Zenith Bank is switching platforms because Phoenix could no longer meet its growing technological and customisation needs.
Zenith Bank did not respond to a request for comments.
For banks, switching their core banking software is a significant change that requires transferring large amounts of data. The volume of data and the unique features of each system make this step particularly complex, increasing the risk of disruptions. Data migration also requires extra steps like revalidation to prevent human errors and functionality checks to ensure accuracy.
One person with banking platform migrating experience told TechCabal that an error during this stage typically causes glitches and might have led to Zenith pausing its migration plans.
“If you can solve data migration, then the rest [of the migration process] is straightforward,” one banking software engineer told TechCabal.
Zenith Bank is part of a growing list of Nigerian banks changing their core banking platform. While some migrations, like GTBank’s switch to Finacle, have gone smoothly, others, such as Sterling Bank’s move to a custom-built platform, left customers unable to access banking services.
