Reuters writes that a severe shortage of computer skills in SA has left the country’s major banks fighting over a limited pool of people with the skills they need to upgrade technology platforms and keep pace with changing customer demands and competition from new rivals.  

The country’s four biggest lenders – Absa, Standard Bank, Nedbank and FirstRand – indicated that it was hard to access the skills they needed to rapidly digitise – a response to growing demand for online and mobile banking and the arrival of a host of digital-only banks trying to steal their customers with slick apps and cut-price fees.  All four said they had taken a number of measures to address the shortage.  These included changing their hiring strategies, for example by implementing ‘speed dating’ style events where large numbers of candidates underwent short interviews in one go, and by developing training programmes.  But in some cases lenders said it still took months to hire and they were paying ever-rising salaries to attract talent.  The problem was particularly acute for positions that did not exist just a few years ago, such as cloud engineers, said Standard Bank Group Chief Information Officer Alpheus Mangale.  Banks could expect to pay a 20-30% premium when they do find such skills, he indicated.  Specialist recruitment agency Acuity Consultants said salaries for software developers had also leapt by up to 30% over the past year.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Emma Rumney and Naledi Mashishi at Moneyweb

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