When the Youth Gets Excited About Something Serious…. Something Serious Happens!
Nothing more presumptuous and unnatural as when one Millennial/Gen Z decides to write about his own generation pretending to have a better understanding of his own peeps! Soooo, wish me luck. See, there is one common denominator that unites all millennials and Gen Zs around the world, they are all tech savvy! (Read: They all like online shopping and ordering avocado toasts and kale salads for lunch using Jumia Food, Uber Eats, or Deliveroo mobile apps) After all, there is a good reason why Gen Zs are commonly referred to as the ‘first true digital natives’ or ‘screenagers’. (Velasquez) When it comes to personal finance, these two generations further differ from Gen X (1965-1979) and Baby Boomers (1946-1964). My generation hates papers, paper trails, but definitely love paper (wink-wink, catch my drift?) Frankly, it is not that they have something against touching a piece of paper, they just do not like something un-interactive or simply how time-consuming bureaucratic paperwork can be. The Bank of Kigali (BoK) has entered into a digital transformation journey that will center around four areas: connectivity, automation, decision making, and innovation, and I say, “Go-go BoK, but how overdue!”
Rwanda is a tiny land-locked country but fertile for a digital transformation that the Bank of Kigali, Plc [BOK: RWF 275] is spearheading. The youth is very active on social media and would rather ask Google questions such as “how to buy bonds in Kigali while sitting at Bourbon Coffee Shop, Java House, or Magda Cafe?” instead of you calling them stup**d-ous. Unlike their parents who want nothing to do with the Rwanda Stock Exchange, these ‘boujee’ youths have trust in the capital markets and they are actively looking for ways to be involved without leaving their comforts or queuing to open an investment account. Their thirst is reflected in the types of products they help design and questions they keep asking me after work at BK Capital. In a nutshell, the looming digital transformation at BoK has gotten the Rwandan youth excited, and they are bound to do something serious with it.
