MWC23 Kigali – FinTech Summit

Brian is the FinTech Vertical Lead at GSMA leading activities to enhance collaboration between the Financial Services vertical and the mobile eco-system. This reflects the strategy requested by the GSMA board to get closer to key verticals and better understand their needs.

His career includes product and commercial management in banking and mobile telecoms including O2, Lloyds and Barclays. As well as Telecomms, heading up the Digital Product team, Commerce, at Telefonica UK.

Paula is an Associate Director within Deloitte Consulting Africa. Her clients include MNOs, banks, regulators, retailers, fintechs and payment service providers.  She consults largely on payments and fintech strategies within the financial services and telco sectors, and is passionate about the role that these sectors can play in driving sustainable impact in society.

Paula has co-authored and contributed to several Deloitte papers: ‘The Regenesis of SA Payments: What needs to change?’, ‘The future of payments in South Africa: Enabling financial inclusion in a converging world’, ‘Global Payments remade by Covid19’, ‘The evolution of the payments value model’ and ‘The expanding role of non-banks in South Africa’.

She holds an MBA from Wits Business School, and Bachelor’s and Honour’s degrees from the University of Johannesburg. She is currently a PhD candidate at the Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria.

Dr. Diane Karusisi is the CEO of Bank of Kigali Plc, Rwanda’s largest commercial bank. She led the bank’s digital transformation and expansion of BK Group into General Insurance, Investment Banking, and Technology. With a background in economics, she held key positions at the National Institute of Statistics and the office of the President of Rwanda. Dr. Karusisi serves as a non-executive director on various boards, including Rwanda Development Board and the university of Rwanda. Her leadership drives growth and innovation, making her a respected figure in Rwanda’s financial industry.

Rajesh is a seasoned Fintech, digital media, and communication services executive with over 20 years of international experience using digital transformative technologies in sales, technical, business, partnerships, and leadership roles for driving growth. Rajesh worked and lived in several countries in Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America and has significant operating experience in shaping growth strategies, program management, business development, opening new markets, and driving turnaround in Asia Pacific and beyond.

Rajesh currently oversees global sales, partnerships, and marketing activities for Telcoin. Most recently, Rajesh together with his team was responsible for building the partnerships, digital merchants, distribution, and government accounts from scratch into a fast growing, multi million dollar annual revenue generating business for Mastercard’s Data and Advisory Services business in Asia Pacific.

Rajesh has also been responsible for international expansion of various AI/big data, managed services, roaming, and telecom services companies and launched three companies’ operations in Japan. Rajesh started his career designing telecom networks (IP/MPLS, GPON etc.) Rajesh did his Masters in Business Administration from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business (High Hons), earned an AI Graduate certificate from Stanford, a B.S. in Computer Engineering from National University of Singapore, and is a CFA charter holder.

Owureku is versatile Senior Banker and Digital Transformation Special expert with over 20 years of deep involvement and experience in Digital and Retail Banking, Corporate & Transaction Banking, Commercial Banking and Credit Risk Management. Previous experience includes regional roles within Ecobank Anglophone West Africa Region, and Senior Management roles within Ecobank Ghana. Part of the team that envisioned and implemented Ecobank’s Digital Financial Services strategy to achieve industry wide leadership over a 14-year period. Led Ecobank’s Mobile Money Partnership with Airtel Money and MTN Mobile Money Services in Africa. Key lead on the introduction of Solutions that have helped deepen payments and access to digital financial services for MSMEs across Africa.

Puneet Chopra is the founding member and Chief Growth Officer at Yabx. He has over fifteen years of experience in the mobile telecommunications and fintech industry across consulting, market expansion and business development. Technology and Innovation have been the core themes and passion across his professional journey of launching greenfield telecom operators, transforming technology stacks and delivering new age solutions to solve real life problems for both B2B and B2B2C.

Yabx is a fintech venture, leveraging technology and analytics to reduce the cost of delivering financial services in a scalable and sustainable manner. Yabx enables banks and micro finance institutions to acquire and service tens of millions of new customers in a pure digital model in partnerships with telecom and other consumer networks.

Brian is the FinTech Vertical Lead at GSMA leading activities to enhance collaboration between the Financial Services vertical and the mobile eco-system. This reflects the strategy requested by the GSMA board to get closer to key verticals and better understand their needs.

His career includes product and commercial management in banking and mobile telecoms including O2, Lloyds and Barclays. As well as Telecomms, heading up the Digital Product team, Commerce, at Telefonica UK.

Samuel is the currently CEO of TransUnion Rwanda & Head of Growth for Africa Regions a position he has assumed recently in 2022. Just before taking this role Sam has been Head of Products & Analytics in our Africa regions driving our product growth and analytics capabilities in the Africa Regions. He serves as local ambassador for the African regions for Financial Services including Insurance and Consumer products and is the primary link between the African regions and the Center-of-Excellence. Before TransUnion, Samuel was the Head of pricing for Corporate & SME schemes for PruHealth Insurance, a Discovery subsidiary, where he contributed to the formulation and implementation of the overall business strategy. He has a collective of 15 years in the financial service industry with key skills in risk management and data analytics.

Ms. Roselyn is the Head of Digital Business at NCBA Bank since 2021 overseeing the mobile savings and loan product known as, “MoKash”. Prior to her promotion, Roselyn spent three years managing the product’s portfolio, focusing on the loan book’s quality. With nearly a decade of experience in the banking sector, Roselyn has a diverse professional background. Before joining NCBA Rwanda, she worked in the Treasury Department in Guaranty Trust Bank Rwanda and in the E-Business Department in Access Bank Rwanda. Roselyn holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering, an MBA with a specialization in Finance, and certification in Digital Finance.

Mark started his IT career in 1996 and has worked in various roles including providing consultancy to various organizations in the Telecom/Service Providers and Financial Sectors. He worked in the UK, Netherlands, and Denmark before joining Ecobank Group in 2013. He was appointed the Group Chief Information Security Officer in 2021. Mark Holds a B.A (Hons) , Dip (Electronics& Computer Technology, and MSc Information Systems Engineering.

Brian is the FinTech Vertical Lead at GSMA leading activities to enhance collaboration between the Financial Services vertical and the mobile eco-system. This reflects the strategy requested by the GSMA board to get closer to key verticals and better understand their needs.

His career includes product and commercial management in banking and mobile telecoms including O2, Lloyds and Barclays. As well as Telecomms, heading up the Digital Product team, Commerce, at Telefonica UK.