Growing up in Empangeni, a small town in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal Province, Sashin Sookroo had already decided that he wanted to be an engineer. It was a straightforward ambition for a boy drawn to technology. But somewhere between school and university, Sookroo found himself becoming fascinated by something else: commerce. A last-minute decision in matric, the final year of high school in South Africa, diverted him toward commerce — and eventually into FNB’s graduate programme, after he was headhunted at university.

Today, Sookroo sits at the exact intersection of banking and telecommunications as chief executive officer of FNB Connect, the bank’s connectivity business — living proof that a mobile device is much more than a way to check a bank balance or receive a one-time password (OTP).

In this edition of Coffee With…, PHATHISANI MOYO sits down with the FNB Connect CEO to discuss how FNB turned a bank app into a digital platform driving R28.6 billion ($1.8 billion) in customer value, why digital inclusion is just as vital as financial inclusion, and how the phone in a customer’s pocket becomes a launchpad for work, education and entrepreneurship.

From engineering ambitions to a commerce bursary

The engineering plan never quite made it to the finish line. Instead of pursuing that childhood ambition, Sookroo opted for commerce, a decision he now describes with a sense of symmetry.

“Interestingly, I qualified for multiple bursaries from a telco but chose a commerce bursary. Being in telecommunications today feels like a true full-circle moment and very respectful of the impact allcos and other partners have on people,” Sookroo told TechCabal.

More than a career change, the pivot became the beginning of a long relationship with a bank that would eventually place him at the intersection of technology and people — the two things that had interested him from the start.

The numbers behind FNB Connect

Sookroo now leads FNB Connect, which has grown into a significant part of FNB’s broader ecosystem. In the latest financial year results, the business and its associated services recorded R28.6 billion ($1.8 billion) in customer value and sales, up 18%, while gross revenue rose 14% to more than R3 billion ($184.6 million).

Mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) data consumption reached approximately 50 petabytes, up by more than 85% year-on-year, while FNB Connect’s business lines count about three million transacting customers and roughly 1.02 million active SIMs.

The numbers show how far FNB Connect has moved beyond being a peripheral service alongside the bank’s core products. They also point to something broader: a changing relationship between the lender, the cellphone and the customer carrying it.

“Two important parts of everyday life”

For Sookroo, that relationship starts with a simple observation. “Banking and connectivity are two important parts of everyday life,” he stated. “They are both essential services for millions of people every day.”

That is a long way from a world in which a bank could think of connectivity as something that happened outside its walls. Sookroo sees the cellphone as more than a device through which a customer receives a one-time password or checks a balance. It is where people steadily work, learn, transact, communicate, search for information and build businesses.

“Connectivity is no longer a luxury,” he explained. “It’s now one of the primary ways that customers access financial services.”

The distinction matters because FNB Connect is built around a customer who may not think about banking, telecommunications or digital services as separate categories in the first place. Through the zero-rated FNB App, customers can access banking services, buy voice and data bundles, earn rewards and use those rewards across a range of value-added solutions. For the customer, it is one experience; for FNB, it is an ecosystem.

From banking to connectivity

Sookroo’s own journey mirrors that convergence. After joining FNB’s graduate programme, he stayed. One opportunity led to another, and he describes his progression within the organisation as a product of exposure to “so many great thinkers” and strong leadership.

“I have been very fortunate and lucky to leverage from so many great thinkers within the group, great leadership, and have had so many opportunities on my side, culminating in FNB Connect,” he said.

There is a useful irony in the path. The boy who wanted to become an engineer ended up spending his career inside a bank, only to find himself running a business that requires the same instinct for technology and systems that initially attracted him to engineering. But Sookroo is less interested in technology for its own sake. His focus is what it allows people to do.

“If you think about how digital services then impact customers, they’re using it for all aspects of their lives,” he stated. “They’re using it to find and create opportunities, whether it’s work, studies, connecting with friends and family or loved ones.”

This is where Sookroo draws a line between financial inclusion and digital inclusion. “Banking can help create access, but connectivity can help you participate more in life overall,” he said.

It is an important distinction on a continent where access to technology still varies sharply between people and communities. A bank account can give someone a place to store money, make payments or receive income. A connected device can give that same person access to information, education, work, communication and markets. But the two are no longer separate experiences: the phone that connects someone to a job opportunity, a customer or a classroom can also be the device they use to receive money, pay a bill or move funds between accounts.

The cellphone in your pocket

Sookroo describes digital channels as effectively putting “a branch or wallet or a marketplace in your pocket”. There is an everyday reality behind that description. “People are now more likely to leave home without their wallet than their cellphone,” he said. The cellphone has become the object through which many other parts of life are organised.

That has implications for FNB’s strategy, because the bank already has something telecommunications companies spend years building: an established relationship with millions of customers. Money, Sookroo points out, is deeply personal. Customers may not tell family members what they earn or how they spend it, but they trust the bank with that information. FNB is trying to extend some of that trust into connectivity.

“You have got an app that always works. You have got a channel that always works. You have got a team that always helps you from a financial services perspective,” he explained to TechCabal. “When you see this always-on connectivity and great deals and great value that connectivity can offer, it’s a brand you already know and trust.”

That trust, he says, is one reason customers are choosing FNB Connect. The results provide some evidence of the behaviour he is describing: data consumption increased sharply, device sales volumes grew 18.4% and average revenue per user rose 7.6%, according to figures supplied by FNB. For Sookroo, the important part is not simply that customers are buying more. It is that they appear to be finding reasons to use more of what they have.

Playing a different game

FNB Connect operates in a market where established telecommunications companies already control much of the physical infrastructure and network capability — territory that might seem unfamiliar for a bank. Sookroo is careful not to dismiss the incumbents’ role.

“The telcos play a very important role in providing infrastructure and creating the network services we use,” he noted. FNB, he adds, works with multiple partners across the industry.

So what does a bank bring to connectivity that a traditional telco may not? For Sookroo, the answer is less about owning infrastructure and more about understanding the customer relationship. “Where we’ve really excelled is actually in customer value,” he declared.

That means testing experiences, refining them and making sure customers receive tangible value through pricing, rewards, convenience and the broader FNB ecosystem. “Competition is always welcome because it helps us refine,” he said. “It helps us stay on top of what customers really need.”

Sookroo’s approach is deliberately inward-looking. Rather than too much time watching competitors, he says the focus should remain on whether FNB is meeting customer needs. “With lots of competition, the clarity is focusing on the customer and not necessarily watching all the peers next to you,” he stated.

That philosophy also explains the role of rewards in the Connect proposition. For every rand a customer spends across Connect and its associated businesses, Sookroo says there is a multiplier effect: a saving on a bill, a better deal or more rewards. Those savings or rewards can then be used to buy airtime, data or devices, creating a cycle that he believes encourages customers to keep using more of the services.

What the numbers don’t show

It would be easy to read the latest results as a collection of data points, from nearly 50 petabytes of data and more than a million active SIMs to millions of transacting customers and billions of rand moving through the business. Sookroo wants people to look behind those numbers.

“Behind that is a person planning to stay connected to either their family, their business, or some opportunities,” he stated.

It is perhaps the most revealing comment of the conversation, because it explains why he keeps returning to people rather than products. The person using 5G or buying a smartphone is not necessarily thinking about digital inclusion. They may simply be trying to finish a university assignment, speak to family, run a small business or find another source of income. Technology is the infrastructure underneath that activity.

Sookroo sees the same dynamic in the continued demand for smartphones, even as device prices rise. “People are still upgrading, people are still choosing better phones,” he said. The reason is that a smartphone has become much more than a communications device: a better camera can help someone start a photography business, a more capable device can open up applications and services that were previously inaccessible, and internet access can create a pathway to learning or work.

“You could use it for getting a good camera on a phone, which means that you don’t need to invest in a side hustle; maybe that’s your photography business,” he noted. “Getting a quality device means that you can also potentially do a lot more with it.”

This is where his childhood ambition and his current work quietly meet. The boy from Empangeni who wanted to become an engineer was interested in what technology could do. The FNB Connect CEO is now interested in what happens when ordinary people can actually use that technology.

The next layer

Sookroo expects FNB Connect to continue pushing on value, but he also sees connectivity, smartphones and artificial intelligence becoming more deeply woven into everyday financial and digital experiences.

“Customers don’t wake up thinking about telecommunications or banking,” he stated. “Our job is to make those moments easier.” That could mean helping someone stay connected to family, access Google, use AI, study, work or manage a business.

His formulation is that financial inclusion helps people participate in the economy, while digital inclusion helps them participate in life. For a business that began as a connectivity proposition inside a bank, that is a much broader ambition.

FNB’s latest results suggest the proposition is gaining traction. But the more interesting measure may be what customers are doing with that connectivity once they have it. Sookroo returns to that point when he talks about the impact of spending more time in the business.

“The more I spend time in the business, the more we realise the impact we can have, not only from an economic perspective, but social and various aspects of people’s lives.”

For someone who once expected his career to be built around engineering, it is an unexpected place to arrive: inside a bank, working on a telecommunications business, and thinking less about the SIM card than about the person on the other side of it.

And perhaps that is the real story behind FNB Connect’s numbers. The business is selling connectivity, but its customers are buying access to everything that connectivity makes possible.