NILE BANK LIMITED

INFORMATION

TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY

Nile Bank IT Strategy Page 1 of 6 November 2004

Information Technology Strategy

Scope
The Information Strategy affects all aspects of the Bank. It covers all information of
interest to the Bank, and all processes and organisational structures.

Objectives
1. To provide a framework enabling the Bank to meet its mission and strategic aims.
2. To enable the Bank and its component faculties and support services to operate
effectively and efficiently.
3. To provide optimal processes to manage inter-linked information flows, avoiding
unnecessary duplication of effort and the use of incompatible information systems.
4. To foster a culture of information sharing.
5. To ensure that timely, fit-for-purpose information is readily available to those
requiring it, enabling members of the Bank to per form their operational roles and
make effective decisions concerning the Bank’s business.
6. To create a Bank-wide acceptance of the importance of information by:
 defining, and encouraging the implementation of, the principles of good
information management;
 widening access to information;
 encouraging dissemination of information;
 ensuring high levels of information-handling competence.
7. To integrate Information Systems and Information Technology strategies with the
Bank’s Strategic Plan.

Strategy
The Bank expects information to be:
 collected at the appropriate time by the appropriate person;
 held once only;
 accurate and relevant (current, consistent, complete and authentic);
 seen as a Bank resource to be made readily accessible to all, unless there are
good reasons for confidentiality;
 usable;
 secure.

The Bank further expects:

 access to information and service provision to be cost-effective and consistent
across the Bank for users in similar categories;
 it to be clear who owns a piece of information, who has the right to alter it and
who is permitted access to it;
 members of the Bank to understand why information is required, the benefits
to the Bank arising from its use and how those benefits may be realised;
 members of the Bank to know and exercise their responsibilities towards
information;
 the creation/receipt, storage, processing and dissemination of information to
conform to legal, regulator y and ethical standards and Bank guidelines and
policies.

Nile Bank IT Strategy Page 2 of 6 November 2004

The Bank will:
 ensure that its business processes are both effective and efficient, and will not
assume that computerising an existing business process will resolve business
problems; it recognises that the effectiveness and efficiency of its information
systems depend upon the effectiveness and efficiency of the business
processes that the information systems support;
 ensure that all staff are aware of the range of the Bank’s information
resources, and that appropriate training is provided to enable staff to use
information systems effectively and efficiently;
 promote an information-sharing culture within the institution and with trusted
partners, and will facilitate the widest possible access from outside the Bank to
all information intended to market and promote the Bank.

Information Systems Strategy

Scope
 seek to enhance the transparency, seamlessness business processes by
introducing appropriate information systems; The Information Systems
Strategy covers all information systems within the Bank
 seek to assure the integrity and security of the central corporate information
systems

Information systems acquisition

Objectives

1. To provide effective and efficient, responsive and flexible information systems and
information systems services to meet current and future business and legislative
requirements. Wherever possible and practicable acquire packages which:
 meet an acceptable proportion of requirements;
 are supplied by professional software companies with the ability to provide
long-term development and support;
 may be implemented without recourse to a third party;
 provide flexible reporting facilities
 reserve its information systems development

2. To support processes rather than merely record data.

3. To focus information systems staff resource on project management, business
analysis, interface and added-value developments, and day-to-day user support
4. To ensure that staff are enabled to manage and administer information systems, and
are aware of their responsibilities relating to those systems.
5. To provide support for the development and implementation of the Bank’s
Information Strategy, and pointers for the development of the resource for the
purpose of adding value, and will develop systems in-house when no suitable
package is available.

Nile Bank IT Strategy Page 3 of 6 November 2004

.
Bank’s Information Technology Strategy.

The Bank will:

 adopt information systems that are effective, efficient, usable, responsive,
flexible and represent good value for money; it will seek to achieve such
adoption by means of the analysis, review and, where appropriate, the
replacement of existing systems;
 introduce systems which recognise that administration is an integral part of the
Bank’s business, and which support business processes;

The corporate database

The Bank recognises that its corporate data should be held once only within a
corporate, centrally-managed database. It will therefore:
 discourage the acquisition and creation of local and different databases;
 seek to introduce corporate information systems which, by meeting a greater
percentage of Bank requirements, reduce the need to download data to PC-
based databases and spreadsheets.

Corporate IT infrastructure

The Bank recognises the desirability of web deployment and will increasingly seek to
use web deployment to deliver its systems. It further recognises that full web
deployment is unlikely to prove practicable in the near future and will therefore:
 align its information systems acquisitions/developments with the Bank’s
desktop standard(s) and expect users of corporate information systems to
adopt such standard(s);
 prioritise web deployment:
 for simple business processes;
 for systems the user has a real need to access over the Internet;

The Bank recognises that cost benefits are to be derived from adopting more general
information technology infrastructural standards and will seek to align its system
acquisitions and system developments with those standards.

Project management
The Bank will:
 develop and implement a project management methodology modelled on best
practice, and which includes setting objectives, scoping projects, identifying
responsibilities, monitoring progress, and reviewing projects after system
implementation;
 apply that methodology to the management of all corporate information
systems projects;
 not guarantee central support to those departments and sections who choose to
purchase their own local systems.

Nile Bank IT Strategy Page 4 of 6 November 2004

Information systems staff and infrastructure
The Bank recognises that:

 to be effective and efficient, its information systems staff need an up-to-date,

quality information systems environment and that this requires ongoing
financial investment;
 to make full use of that environment, it needs appropriate recruitment,
training, re-training and retention strategies for information systems staff.

Bank staff
The Bank expects staff to use the information systems it provides, and will ensure
that:
 appropriate equipment and training are provided to enable all staff to use
information systems effectively and efficiently;
 access to systems is the same across the Bank for users in similar categories;
 staff know and exercise their responsibilities towards information systems.

Network
Scope

The Information Technology Strategy covers all of the information technology which
underpins the Bank's computerised information systems, business processes and
information requirements and relates to all equipment, whether in branches or mini
branches, owned, operated or supported
 All Bank premises will have a minimum level of internal networking
infrastructure for both data and voice networking, the minimum level to be
agreed by the Bank in line with its strategic objectives.
 All internal building networks will be provided with a resilient connection to
the Banks local area network

Objectives

1. To provide and sustain an information technology framework to enable the Bank to

meet its mission and strategic aims.
 Support will be developed for emerging mobile, wireless technologies, for
example, converged mobile phones / hand-held computers, where this is in
support of key Bank strategies.

2. To enable the Bank and its component faculties and support services to operate
effectively and efficiently by:
 the adoption and implementation of appropriate information technology
standards where such are available;
 The rapid convergence of telephone and computer technologies in all areas,
including networking, desktop and mobile systems will be exploited in support
of the Bank’s strategies

Nile Bank IT Strategy Page 5 of 6 November 2004

  providing a reliable, secure and resilient information technology infrastructure.
 The proliferation of server operating systems in support of information
systems will be minimised, consistent with Bank business needs, in order both
to reduce security risks and to control the costs of supporting and integrating
such systems.

3. To position the Bank for the appropriate deployment of e-commerce, e-learning, e-

science and, generally, to provide effective and flexible information technology
support for Bank activities.
.
 The Bank recognises that high levels of interoperability will be achieved most
effectively and efficiently through the adoption of appropriate standards.
 Desktop and notebook computers used by staff or provided for staff use must
conform with standards which allow them to provide full access to all Bank,
information-technology-based, information services except where this
conflicts with other specific business requirements, such as specialised
teaching or research. Full access cannot be guaranteed for non-standard
computers used for specialised activities.

Nile Bank IT Strategy Page 6 of 6 November 2004