The sharpest minds in the banking and fintech worlds have put their talents to work to get more Africans access to finance.
We celebrate those who help grow informal businesses, and empower women and communities.
Coura Sène – WAEMU regional director of Wave
Coura Sène’s deep grasp of banking rules makes her the cornerstone of Wave, whose low-cost mobile-money services have swept francophone West Africa. She honed her skills at Aviso Consulting in Dakar and working with Omar Cissé at InTouch.
It is largely due to her that in five years, Wave, the startup created by the American duo Drew Durbin and Lincoln Quirk, has established a presence in six countries and hired close to 2,000 individuals.
In 2022, Wave handled 12,000trn transactions in Senegal and 11,000trn in Côte d’Ivoire. Wave is now used by 90% of the population in Senegal and has travelled beyond the WAEMU zone to Uganda and The Gambia. Sène’s next step is to develop more sophisticated financial products for Wave while retaining its loyal customers.
Nadia Fettah – Minister of the economy and finance, Morocco
Building on her track record of supporting small businesses as tourism minister during the pandemic, Nadia Fettah is now spearheading broad efforts to promote financial inclusion in Morocco. Under her guidance, several loan-guarantee initiatives, including Damane Oxygène, have been revamped to bolster small enterprises.
Fettah, who previously led Morocco’s largest insurer, Saham, is fostering cross-department collaboration through the Conseil National de l’Inclusion Financière. She wants to leverage Morocco’s substantial banking sector influence to extend the reach of financial inclusion initiatives across Africa and promote knowledge sharing.
Sitoyo Lopokoyit – CEO of M-Pesa
With M-Pesa jointly owned by Safaricom and Vodacom since 2020, Sitoyo Lopokoyit has full latitude to envision and develop the future applications of mobile money.
Joining Safaricom in 2011 to boost the already hugely successful Kenyan app, he crafted a strategy inspired by Asian super-apps like WeChat and transformed the platform into an almost indispensable counter for both private transactions and exchanges with the government.
Under his leadership M-Pesa has surpassed 30 million users across the continent for transactions totalling more than $242m at an average rate of 2,600 transactions per second.
John Rwangombwa – Governor of the National Bank of Rwanda
John Rwangombwa is one of the key figures behind Rwanda’s Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS I) –he supervised its formation during his time as minister of finance and economic planning in 2009.
Trained as an accountant, he is known for advocating a cashless economy, particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic. The financial inclusion rate has been steadily increasing since he started governing the National Bank of Rwanda. In the land of a thousand hills, there are now around 105 banking agents and more than 1,800 mobile-money agents per 100,000 inhabitants.
Shola Akinlade – Co-founder and CEO of Paystack
Established in 2015, Paystack aimed to make online transactions quick and affordable – enabling the informal businesses that are the backbone of the Nigerian economy to become legitimate companies. Stripe bought Paystack for more than $200m in 2020, and a year later, Paystack became the first African payment platform to partner with Apple Pay.
Today, the company is present in Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa and Kenya. It is set on deepening its pan-African presence but without losing touch with its roots. As Akinlade told the International Finance Corporation in 2020: “Our ambition is to give African merchants the tools and services they need to go toe-to-toe with the best businesses in the world – and win.”
James Mwangi – CEO of Equity Group Holdings
James Mwangi’s rags-to-riches story, and that of Equity Bank, run parallel: the Kenyan turned a loss-making building society into one of the largest banks in East and Central Africa. This principled CEO remains steadfast in his mission to financially empower grassroots communities across Africa.
Recently, its DRC subsidiary, EquityBCDC, witnessed remarkable growth, securing a significant position in the DRC’s banking sector. Mwangi emphasises the urgent need for a world where essential services and goods are accessible to all without hassles. In Kenya, Equity Bank dedicates a significant portion of its loan book to bolstering agriculture and food production, while its non-profit wing, the Equity Group Foundation, has uplifted nearly four million farmers from subsistence farming to agro-businesses. This dual approach of enhancing financial access and capacity building promises a resilient and inclusive future for Kenya and beyond.
Ruth Zaipuna- CEO of NMB Bank
NMB Bank is the only Tanzanian bank to have a branch in every district. But Ruth Zaipuna is keen to go much further. NMB has partnered with the government to reach far-flung rural savings groups through their mobile phones and offer individual accounts to the unbanked.
The benefits are seen at all levels; NMB is now a key stakeholder in tax collection. Zaipuna believes financial inclusion starts early. She has championed teaching children, especially girls, digital skills that will allow them to participate fully in the economy.
Understand Africa’s tomorrow… today
We believe that Africa is poorly represented, and badly under-estimated. Beyond the vast opportunity manifest in African markets, we highlight people who make a difference; leaders turning the tide, youth driving change, and an indefatigable business community. That is what we believe will change the continent, and that is what we report on. With hard-hitting investigations, innovative analysis and deep dives into countries and sectors, The Africa Report delivers the insight you need.
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