Hicham DDANI
For over two decades I have been at the heart of transformation journeys, from the rise of cloud to the era of Open Banking and AI. My passion is turning complex technology into secure and scalable ecosystems that deliver real business impact. What defines me is not just strategy but a leadership style built on clarity, trust and execution — values that empower teams and make innovation sustainable.
Writing
My latest blog posts and opinion articles.
3 results
Why Africa Needs Open Banking Regulation Now7/28/2025More than 370 million African adults remain unbanked—yet mobile money penetration is among the highest globally. Open Banking is the missing bridge: a catalyst for inclusive economic growth and innovation across the continent.
OpenBankingFinancialInclusionAfricaTechAPIDPI
How Cloud, APIs, and AI Separate Banking’s Leaders from Laggards5/27/2025Banking is undergoing a fundamental shift. Systems that once delivered stability and scale are now limiting the speed, agility, and intelligence today's customers and markets demand.
Open BankingCloudAILeadership
Why Cloud Migration Fails — and How a Cloud Center of Excellence Saves It4/19/2025In financial services, cloud migration without strategy is like scaling a skyscraper with no blueprint: risky, expensive, and slow. To remain competitive, financial institutions must harness the cloud's potential to deliver cost savings, scale operations, and innovate.
CloudCCoEFinancial ServicesStrategyGovernance
CIO Diary
In this comic series, we meet Samir Tek, the fictional CIO of UnityBank — a character I created to spotlight real-world IT leadership challenges.
Episode #8 — When AI Becomes a Colleague9/9/2025🎙️ In this episode, Samir Tek — CIO of UnityBank — hears the global buzz about agentic AI . Not yet a reality in Africa or the Middle East, but coming faster than many expect.
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Episode #7 — Value creation in enterprise IT9/2/2025🎙️ 𝐈𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐝𝐞, 𝐒𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐫 𝐓𝐞𝐤 — 𝐂𝐈𝐎 𝐨𝐟 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐤 — 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐚 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐈𝐓 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐯𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐟𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞.
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Episode #6 — People drive change not processes8/12/2025🎙️ In this episode, Samir Tek challenges a common myth in enterprise IT:
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Biography
I am a strategic technology leader with over two decades of experience driving digital transformation, enterprise cloud strategy, and platform innovation across diverse industries.
As Head of the Open Banking Center of Excellence at Société Générale, I lead cloud transformation programs and API-driven innovation across 13 African banks, aligning technology with business growth, regulatory compliance, and inclusion. My leadership has delivered measurable outcomes: reduced infrastructure costs by 20%, increased partner adoption by 30%, and enabled new digital revenue streams.
Recognized as an industry thought leader, I have spoken at the Arab-Afro Digital Payment Symposium and the MoneyCore Open Banking Panel, and I regularly publish insights on technology, innovation, and leadership. My expertise spans cloud-native architecture, API ecosystems, cybersecurity, regulatory compliance, and digital platforms.
Guided by the values of clarity, trust, and execution, I empower teams to deliver innovation at scale and build technology ecosystems that are secure, resilient, and inclusive. I am passionate about leveraging AI and modern paradigms like composable services to shape the future of digital transformation in financial services and beyond.