Charles Washika has been named as the 2023 CIO of the Year. Mr. Washika who is the Director of ICT at the Co-operative Bank was crowned during the CIO 100 Awards event that was organized by African digital transformation program DX5.
Washika received recognition fafter surpassing industry competitors who included Peter Kanda from Gertrude’s Children’s Hospital, Gilbert Mutai from Car & General Group, Sachin Samant from NCBA Bank Kenya, Martin Mwarangu, the Chief Information Officer of KTDA, and James Nyakomitta who is the Chief Information Officer of APA Insurance.
The award celebrates organizations and individuals utilizing IT in innovative ways to deliver business value, whether by creating a competitive advantage, optimizing business processes, enabling growth, improving customer relationships, or digitally transforming the business.
Washika’s victory came after he successfully oversaw the execution of what is arguably the largest and most intricate IT project in the region.
This project involved the implementation and migration to the new Finacle core banking system, which went live on Monday, June 12th of this year.
This Core Banking Implementation project spanned multiple years and had a multi-million-dollar budget.
Co-op Bank makes Sh. 18.4 billion net profit in nine months
It also included numerous upgrades to peripheral systems, all aimed at supporting the Finacle system, which has been rated by Gartner as the best core banking system globally.
Washika’s win is the latest in a series of wins by Co-op Bank. Earlier this month, Co-op Bank was named as the overall winner in the Sustainable Finance Catalyst Awards 2023. These awards victory marked the fourth time in six years that Co-op Bank has won the prestigious awards.
“These Kenya Banker’s Association awards recognize financial institutions that excel in sustainable financial practices,” said Co-op Bank in a statement. “This is the 4th time in 6years that Co-op Bank has taken the award, confirming our commitment to financial sustainability.”
In September 2023 was named as the best financier of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Africa in 2023.
