London, UK//- MFS Africa, Africa’s largest digital payments network, has appointed Christian Bwakira as Chief Executive Officer of its recently acquired subsidiary Global Technology Partners (GTP).
GTP is the number one processor of prepaid cards in Africa with over 80 banks – including UBA, Ecobank, BIA, Stanbic, Coris, NSIA and Zenith Bank – using its platform.
Mr. Bwakira joins GTP from Ingenico. As Managing Director, Middle East & Africa, he oversaw the strategic development and fast growth of the company’s regional business with P&L accountability for the Middle East & Africa cluster comprised of 70+ countries.
Previously, he was Vice President & Area Business Head East Africa at Mastercard Inc. with responsibility for leading all regional business activities across the region.
Christian has also been Country Manager at Visa Inc. Sub Sahara Africa covering several markets including the Indian Ocean Islands, Lusophone countries, Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Namibia, amongst others.
Dare Okoudjou, founder and CEO of MFS Africa, said, “I am delighted to welcome Christian Bwakira as CEO of our subsidiary Global Technology Partners. He brings a wealth of relevant expertise across many facets of the payment industry and will be instrumental in delivering on our ambitious growth strategy for GTP. With his leadership we aim to further expand GTP’s market dominance in prepaid card processing across Africa.”
Commenting about his appointment, Christian Bwakira stated that: “When Dare [Okoudjou] explained the vision and impressive growth intentions for GTP I had no hesitation in deciding to sign up.
From expanding its geographical network across Africa, onboarding new clients to service, and adding new features and functionalities to our processing platform, we are poised to further extend our value propositions of last-mile connectivity and card connectivity across Africa.”
MFS Africa has also made three additional senior executives appointments:
- Julian Adkins has been appointed as Group Chief Financial Officer. He joins MFS Africa, from Millicom (Tigo), where he was the CFO of the Africa region, responsible for building sustainable businesses across the region. Prior to that, he held a number of international finance roles in various sectors.
- Fade Ayorinde has been appointed Chief Financial Officer at MFS Africa’s Nigerian super-agent network subsidiary Baxi. She joins from mobile payment company Paga, where she held several roles, including CFO for Paga Nigeria. She has 20 years of experience in various executive finance positions in the UK, US and Nigeria, across business sectors.
- Lauren McDougall, a qualified chartered accountant, has joined MFS Africa as Head of Internal Audit. She has over 17 years auditing experience in the financial services sector for banks, private equity and fintech companies.
African Eye Report