Njabulo Ndaba, Head of IT at the JSE

The responsibility rests heavily with the constant pressure to ensure that nothing goes wrong, and he is pivotal to the strategy as the JSE has become a nimble, agile operation, with ever increasing value-add accumulating substance to its portfolio of products and services.

However, Ndaba is a man who thrives on a challenge and, in his words, the bigger the problem, the better and happier he is to solve.

“Every day I get to do what I love to do and every day is different,” says Ndaba. “It gives me so much personal satisfaction turning challenges into opportunities. ICT is the lifeblood of this organisation and plays a crucial role, along with the people who make technology and innovation possible. “We have brought an organisation established in 1887 into the digital age, revolutionising how trading works – and we’re not stopping. Already we are able to offer efficient trading and electronic transactions from anywhere, also providing pertinent market information through real-time data, surveillance and monitoring.

“With digitisation comes cybersecurity risk; we are very bold in our cybersecurity efforts, which include constant internal awareness and training to support the tools and controls in place, as well as ensuring compliance and alignment with regulatory requirements. The JSE is determined that trading is absolutely fair and transparent. As we apply AI, data science and emerging technologies, we can assist our customers in such ways as providing patterns and market information, in real-time.”

Ndaba says that during the peak of Covid-19, markets did see a reduction in trading activity, but that this has been steadily improving. The other headwinds and challenges he has had to overcome include ensuring always-up electricity and internet communications – the latter being where MTN plays a role. OPEX is spent on robust continuity measures to ensure minimal impact by interruptions.

With the change in the way of work, he adds, being able to tap into the talent pool is a real challenge, especially as talent is being poached from other countries, lured by dollars.

“We are trying to mitigate this by reinforcing our employee value proposition (EVP) as we truly value our IT team and want to retain and attract skills. The world as we know it is changing with such technologies as AI, blockchain and machine learning and skills are integral to staying ahead in terms of customer experience. “Challenges, in my mind, are opportunities to shift the dial to do things in a more innovative way and become increasingly proactive in the way we do business.

“For example, companies come to the JSE to go public for the purposes of raising capital and we can now assist SMEs through a JSE subsidiary, JSE Private Placement (JPP), which helps companies realise private capital or investing to enable their expansion.” Asked how his role has evolved and changed, Ndaba says it has become much more customer-centric and partnership-orientated in terms of the business verticals, requiring deep insight into business activities and becoming more strategic and interactive.

“I have also become a part of customer meetings, which enables me to get a first-hand perspective on customer needs and my role has become more consultative, crafting business direction,” he concludes.

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