Owen Malambo learned early in life that financial security and access to financial information are a basic need. Today, he is the Director of Digital and Technology Transformation at Absa Bank Zambia PLC, with 20 years of experience in the financial industry.
Over his successful career, Owen has built a reputation for impactful leadership and foresight, leveraging technology and anticipating customer preferences. He has formulated a lot of solutions to multifaceted problems, including digital transformation of customer touch points, system usability enhancements, and improvements to overall business operations.
Leveraging Technology with Heart and Intention
Owen’s journey into digital and technology transformation within the banking sector was catalyzed by his belief that technology, when applied with heart and intention, can be one of the most powerful equalizers in society. Growing up, he recalls walking long distances into town just to check if his mother had been paid. Often, he came back with no answers, just uncertainty. That experience made something clear to him early on: access to financial information isn’t a luxury, it’s a basic need.
Starting his career as a teller in Choma, a small town in southern Zambia, gave Owen a front-row seat to how people engage with the financial system, sometimes with hope, often with frustration. That experience was what drew him into digital inoovation. His passion was not just to modernize banking, but to make it more human, more inclusive, and more responsive to the lives we’re meant to serve.
As an example, Owen notes that mobile connections in Zambia were equivalent to 78.7 percent of the total population in January 2024, with the digital payments economy in Africa projected to hit $1.5 trillion by 2030 in zambia. With mobile money transaction values in Zambia expected to rise from USD 18.08 billion to over USD 21.4 billion, he considers it a privilege to be able to build platforms that are not only digital but also scalable, inclusive, and built for real-time economies.
These statistics make his mission feel more urgent and more possible than ever, and he considers it a massive opportunity to be part of the journey to transform his country and the world by applying his knowledge of technology to transform the banking industry.
Seamlessly Integrating Technology and Business
Owen possesses relentless and unwavering attention to detail that has allowed him to provide clarity and sharpen focus on desired outcomes, be it through the design of user-friendly banking systems or while steering transformative team-based activities across business functions. Considered an expert at understanding customer preferences, market movements, and stakeholder agendas, he delivers value by integrating technology and business to build a seamless operation.
In the course of his career, Owen played an important role in focusing on organizational and cross-organizational collaborations that drove impact for example changing core systems and channels for the bank. This, in turn, positively impacted growth and operational efficiency. Because of his deep understanding of the customers, the market, and the stakeholders, and expertise in cultivating impactful collaborations both outside the company and within, he was able to seamlessly integrate business with technology to significantly improve growth and operational efficiency.
Owen’s motivation to broaden his professional connections has made him a an excellent networker, and his desire to look for new strategies for industry-wide transformation initiatives in digital technology helps him bring the latest innovations to his role.
Shaping Innovation to Make Lives Easy and Purposeful
Owen considers access, convenience, and simplification as crucial factors in his goal of empowerment through technology in the African banking context. He notes that while innovation was once reactive, today we actively shape it to improve our lives and add purpose. “In the past, we treated innovation as something to react to. Today, we shape it,” he observes. “There is always something to be done through innovation to make our lives easy and full of purpose.”
Owen’s role has evolved from managing projects to leading bold transformation across systems, people, and partnerships.
“Keep it simple.”
Business Transformation Powered by Data, Trust, and Artificial Inteligence
Owen notes that Absa Bank Zambia’s digital transformation is intentional, and its technology investments are deliberate. He believes in building a business powered by data, secured by trust, and elevated by AI. Everything he does is designed to create superior experiences for his clients and colleagues, while continuously evolving to meet the future faster.
Owen insists that transformation isn’t about catching up; it’s about leading forward, with purpose, and building systems that reflect the realities of African life – systems that are fast, secure, and deeply human. But what truly sets Absa Bank apart is the belief that partnership is the most recent innovation.
“We’ve embraced a full ecosystem model, collaborating with startups, developers, telcos, regulators, and even competitors, because we know that no single institution can solve Africa’s challenges alone,” he states.
Solving Real Problems, In Real Lives, In Real Time
Owen believes that co-creation is the greatest advantage in the drive to align Absa Bank Zambia’s innovations with customer needs and expectations. That innovation is not something that can be achieved in isolation, but something that must be built in collaboration with clients, partners, and the communities they serve.
He doesn’t believe in creating convenience for a few, but expanding access for the many. For Absa Bank Zambia, real empowerment means using technology to open doors that were previously closed for people who live offline, who don’t speak English, or who never imagined banking could work for them.
“Whether it’s helping an SME accept mobile payments or enabling someone in a rural village to transact without needing data, the goal is always the same: solve real problems, in real lives, in real time. That’s how we know we’re building what truly matters,” he reflects.
“Digital transformation has nothing to do with technology, but everything to do with people.”
We Rise By Lifting Others
Owen notes that while he has led many digital initiatives that have had a transformative impact over the years, two stand out for the depth and breadth of their impact. The first is the bank’s Business Management Tool for SMEs, which is a solution designed not just to digitize transactions, but to transform how small businesses operate, plan, and grow. It’s helping entrepreneurs manage their operations more efficiently, access insights, and build resilience in a digital economy.
The second is their Cybersecurity Hackathon, an initiative that didn’t just solve internal needs, but brought together regulators, fintechs, and fellow financial institutions to address industry-wide challenges. “That level of collaborative problem-solving is what the future of banking demands, and it’s the kind of leadership we’re proud to drive,” Owen declares.
He notes that the three biggest challenges facing digital transformation in African banking today are infrastructure, digital literacy, and cybersecurity. One can’t talk about innovation without also talking about electricity, device access, or trust. That’s why Absa Bank Zambia focuses on hybrid models, local languages, and public-private collaboration. They take cybersecurity seriously, not just as a risk, but as a shared responsibility across the ecosystem.
“I’ve always believed that when you rise, you carry others along. That’s why I’ve been deliberate about bringing the industry along, whether it’s collaborating with fellow banks on cybersecurity through the country’s first hackathon and symposium, or engaging regulators in early product design,” Owen insists. “I don’t believe in competition for the sake of it. I believe in collaboration for the benefit of all. My goal has always been to create ripple effects so that even if it doesn’t have Absa’s name on it, the impact is still felt by people, by businesses, and by the economy at large.”
Bridging Risk and Possibility to Drive Innovation
Owen explains that in banking, compliance and agility are not opposing forces. They must coexist. When balancing regulatory compliance with the need for agile tech development, the key is to balance and manage risk while still moving at the speed innovation demands.
One way he solves for this is through Absa Bank Zambia’s Innovation Hubs, which serve as safe spaces to test, refine, and validate ideas in partnership with both internal teams and external stakeholders, including regulators. These hubs aren’t just creative spaces; they’re bridges between risk and possibility.
Stay Calm and Focus On the Solution
Owen notes that digital transformation is a complex process that involves juggling legacy systems, emerging technologies, shifting regulations, and human emotions all at once. His formidable experience in anti-money laundering compliance and proactive fraud detection helps him thoroughly scan for blind spots in processes, showing exceptional attention to detail and foresight.
His ability to stay calm during crises while using his problem-solving skills is the most important personal leadership principle that guides his decision-making in high-stakes tech projects. “If I don’t stay grounded, my teams won’t either. Stay calm and focus on the solution, not the problem,” he says. “A calm leader creates space for others to think clearly, solve creatively, and grow confidently. That’s the kind of leadership I strive for every day.”
“The difference between people who succeed and people who don’t is in the level of discipline.”
Failure Is Just Feedback
Owen believes that innovation should never sit with just one team because the moment you call one unit “the innovation team,” you risk disconnecting creativity from the rest of the organization. This is something he’s been very intentional about, as he believes that to foster a culture of innovation and continuous learning, everyone should feel that they have a stake in shaping the future, whether they’re in compliance, operations, customer service, or finance.
At Absa Bank, he builds that culture by embedding experimentation into the way they work through design sprints, cross-functional challenges, and spaces like their Innovation Hubs, which are open to all. They also celebrate learning as much as they celebrate outcomes.
“Failure, to us, is just another form of data. The goal is to create an environment where people feel safe to test, ask, and improve because that’s how we build momentum that doesn’t rely on one person or one team, but moves the whole organization forward,” Owen observes.
“The opportunity to learn should never just be a formal one, and you must be intentional about it, very intentional. The moment you get to a point where you think you know everything, that becomes your end.”
Conclusion
Reflecting on his career in the financial industry, Owen hopes to leave a legacy in the world of digital banking, where he’s remembered not just as someone who built systems, but as someone who opened doors. A leader who made tech more human, who lifted others as he climbed, and who helped prove that world-class innovation can come from Choma, from Zambia, and Africa.
“A person who didn’t give up, even when they had every reason to.”