Interview with Leon Isaacs from DMA Global | IPR Global 2023
We interviewed Leon Isaacs, the CEO & Founder of DMA Global, during our Innovation in Payments and Remittances (IPR) Global event, to share his insights into FinTech regional hotspots, the future of RegTech in Africa and the Middle East, what sets IPR apart and more.
Leon holds over 30 years’ hands-on experience and is a business leader in the payments and international development fields, with a particular expertise in migrant remittances.
Watch the full video to find out his views.
RemitONE – AZA Partnership to Provide an End-to-End Money Transfer Solution
RemitONE, the leading provider of money transfer software solutions, announces its partnership with AZA, Africa’s largest non-bank currency broker.
This symbiotic partnership is a compelling proposition for money transfer operators sending money to Africa. Customers can now benefit from both RemitONE’s multi-channel money transfer platform and the ability to send money, airtime, bank transfers, and mobile transfers to Africa through AZA’s payout network.
AZA is a fully regulated Authorised payment institution by the FCA for the UK & Bank of Spain for Europe that specializes in both P2P & B2B last-mile payouts through its API solution across eight regions namely Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Uganda, Morocco, South Africa, UK and SEPA Region. It has immediate plans to expand to Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Togo, Cameroon, DRC & Egypt within this year. AZA currently works with top-tier MTOs including Western Union, World Remit, Azimo, IDT (Boss Revolution), and is excited to add RemitONE to their list of partners.
“Our partnership with RemitONE takes us one step closer to simplifying cross-border payments in frontier markets,” says AZA CEO Elizabeth Rossiello. “Being a market maker, our focus has always been to offer the most competitive pricing to our customers and we are looking forward to serving more customers globally in partnership with RemitONE.”
RemitONE customers who are looking to take advantage of AZA’s competitive rates and payout network can easily integrate with AZA’s plug-and-play solution and gain access to these benefits immediately.
“We are very excited about this partnership, RemitONE and AZA are aligned on the core value of using technology to empower remittance and our aim to make it easy and cost-effective for people to send money home,” says RemitONE CEO Anwar H Saleem. “Our services complement each other and our partnership will ensure that we deliver a rich customer experience.”
Customers can benefit from both RemitONE’s highly successful and compliant money transfer platform as well as the ability to send money, airtime, banks transfer, and mobile transfers to Africa through AZA’s vast payout network.
Take advantage of the RemitONE and AZA partnership by contacting marketing@remitone.com
About AZA
AZA is an established provider of currency trading solutions that accelerate global access to frontier markets through an innovative infrastructure. By leveraging cutting-edge technology in their flagship products, TransferZero and BFX, they are able to significantly lower the cost and increase the speed of business payments to and from frontier markets. TransferZero is their B2B2C product, which provides both wholesale currency purchase and retail settlement via their robust API. BFX is their B2B over-the-counter platform for businesses with wholesale currency needs, especially those paying partners and suppliers. Their partners utilize AZA’s hybrid financial infrastructure and deep local knowledge to manage liquidity and send payments to dozens of bank networks and mobile money operators across Africa. They are licensed by the UK’s FCA and the Bank of Spain. For more information, visit: www.azafinance.com
About RemitONE
RemitONE is the leading provider of money transfer software solutions for banks, telcos, and money transfer operators (MTOs) worldwide. Organisations of all sizes use the RemitONE platform to run their remittance operations with ease and efficiency by reaching out to their customers via multiple channels including agent, online and mobile. For more information on RemitONE, please email marketing@remitone.com
Mobile Money in Africa
Africa is something of an anomaly in the developing world. It’s a continent that many people forget is not a single country but 55 individual countries with dozens of currencies. It’s also a continent where around 66% of the adult population remain unbanked. However, while more than half of the continent has no access to a bank account, the mobile economy is booming. Indeed, Sub-Saharan Africa is the world’s fastest-growing mobile phone market. For the remittance sector, this poses a pretty enticing opportunity.
While the typical customer living out in rural Kenya might live several days away from the nearest bank, they are likely to have direct access to a mobile phone that can be used to send and receive digital payments. This is why the mobile money systems in the region have spread so fast. But how will MTOs cope with increasing digitisation and compliance issues as more customers go online and start using mobile apps to send their money?
To dive deeper into the current mobile money climate in Africa, RemitONE Associate Sales Director Oussama Kseibati recently hosted a webinar attended by esteemed panelists with expert knowledge of the regional remittance landscape. Muhammad M. Jagana, CEO of Kuringo, Sidharth Gautam, Head of Sales at AZA Finance, Leon Issacs, Managing Director of DMA Global, and Linus Adaba, Head of Group Remittance Distribution at Ecobank lent us their thoughts and feelings on compliance and mobile money in Africa in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Muhammad M. Jagana
In larger cities and towns, there really is no issue when it comes to mobile adoption. Where we’ll face significant challenges is in the last mile of the inclusion journey; the towns or villages that are maybe 200 miles away from a major city.
How do you onboard these clients so they can use mobile money in their local shops and businesses and how will a small local shopkeeper take that payment and convert it into cash to pay their supplier? It’s one of those situations where unless everybody goes digital at the same time, there’s always going to be those at the bottom of the ladder missing out.
For these people, some of whom might not even be aware of the benefits of mobile money, it’s going to be a case of not only education but ensuring that regulators can make it easier for them. For example, in the Gambia, we have two mobile money operators and those two operators are incompatible with one another because they are direct competitors.
Rather than trying to shoehorn everyone onto the same network, we need to ensure there are regulations in place that allow for integration between different networks. It’s up to the regulators to figure out the logistics, of course, but the banks and agents need to play their part too. Something akin to the PSD2 regulations would make the most sense but realistically that’s a rather large hill to climb.
Sidharth Gautam
I completely believe that digitisation and mobile adoption is the key going forward in Africa. At the moment, cash is still king but there is a sea change on the horizon. There are hordes of challenges standing in the way of this change, of course. There are liquidity issues even on the cash pickup front, particularly in Western Africa, as well as the KYC process to sort out, user interface and customer satisfaction. It all comes into play.
There are a lot of plates that need to keep spinning, so to speak. And the regulator has to be on top of it all; the engine leading the train. It’s not an easy task to bring the offline to online puzzle together but it’s not insurmountable either.
Linus Adaba
Personally, I’ve always enjoyed working things into silos and that’s partly how I see mobile money adoption in remittance filtering through into the African market. I see one silo of mobile money that is state-led and the other that’s more private or enterprise led and we are seeing so much more innovation on the private enterprise side because of the lack of regulation.
In order for the state-led operators to catch up, they need to start investing in better compliance tools and putting good compliance managers in place. This way they can ensure people who are using mobile money are at the level of KYC that regulators expect.
When we’re talking about the last mile of the inclusion journey, as Muhammad mentioned, telecommunications companies are selling SIM cards even in the most remote villages, so the infrastructure is definitely there. The problem is that they need to subject themselves to the central bank in each country and there is a lot of technology that’s allowing nimble KYC to be done.
For remittance businesses, meanwhile, there needs to be something of a threshold. Because if it’s just remittance across borders, the full KYC protocol is simply not necessary. In this case, there could perhaps be some sort of a ‘KYC light’ solution. I also see a strong headwind in countries where you have a national ID system in place and we’re currently looking at ways to link this ID with SIM cards to help with faster and better KYC.
Oussama Kseibati
To lead on from Linus mentioning SIM cards and national ID. I think it would be hugely beneficial for the African mobile money market if there was a database such as PSD2 in Europe. With this database in place, once you’ve reached a certain compliance standard with your systems and technologies and you’re ticking the right boxes, doors can open for you automatically.
If there was a centralised database working across countries all linked to SIM cards, you’d be able to use that to do KYC. But what would need to happen first is for a standard to be implemented that will make it easier and more open for people to trade with each other. And that probably isn’t going to happen anytime soon.
For now, instant payments with instant delivery is the way forward for the region I feel. M-Pesa is a positive sign of things to come. It was a major success for Africa throughout the pandemic and the adoption of mobile wallets is continuing to rise in general. Indeed, digitally ready players have seen business growth through the roof as people are migrating towards mobile payments to remain safe from the virus. However, there has to be action in terms of regulation and regulatory frameworks.
Reaching the Great Unbanked
Everything is moving towards the digital market and many unbanked customers are using mobile platforms. That large influx and the onboarding that needs to be done is going to require a lot of compliance and a lot of work but it’s almost certainly going to result in faster, better and more affordable remittance for Africa. Given the fact that remittance rates are so high in the continent right now thanks to a heavy reliance on cash payouts and physical infrastructure, that can only be a good thing.
To read more on what our panellists had to say regarding the more specific challenges facing mobile adoption in the region, click here for our companion piece or check out the full webinar here. If you are a money service business interested in expanding into the region, meanwhile, RemitONE is an award-winning provider of MSB technology.
If you need support with all your operational needs please contact us by emailing marketing@remitone.com to see how we can support you.
Video: Remittances in Africa – Market trends, regulation, challenges and opportunities
2020 was far from a banner year for many industries. But it is a year in which the remittance sector revealed itself to be defiantly resilient. The world bank projected a 20% fall in global remittance at the very start of the pandemic but by October they’d revised that figure to just a 7% drop, to be followed by another 7% drop this year (2021). This initially predicted fall was, by all accounts, supposed to have a particularly significant impact in Africa where migrant workers send around £11 billion per year.
RemitONE Associate Sales Director Oussama Kseibati feels that these are figures we always needed to take with a pinch of salt, not only because Africa is a region that is often underestimated on an economical level but because many countries there still lack the capability to capture data accurately. He adds: “Africa is also still a region where physical transfers are more common and it is harder to track physical transfers. That’s why these figures should be seen less as empirically accurate projections and more as rogue guidelines to give us a feel for how the market might be moving.”
To delve deeper into the current climate in Africa, Oussama recently hosted a webinar attended by four esteemed panellists with expert knowledge of the regional remittance landscape. Muhammad M. Jagana, CEO of Kuringo, Sidharth Gautam, Head of Sales at AZA Finance, Leon Issacs, CEO of DMA Global and Linus Adaba, Head of Group Remittance Distribution at Ecobank lent us their thoughts and feelings on the trends, regulations, challenges and opportunities facing Africa in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
To see the Q&A answers from our panellists click here.
Was 2020 as bad as expected?
If we’ve learned anything in the last 12 months, it’s that there’s always a risk in sticking your neck out for figures and projections. Nobody wants to die on that hill. In Africa, however, remittance continued to grow and thrive regardless of the pandemic and the World Bank’s scaremongering. Indeed, remittance was actually up by as much as 75% in the Gambia and 50% in Zimbabwe and even in developed countries such as Kenya, Morocco and Egypt, there were gains of around 12%.
Leon explains: “We’ve been hearing hundreds of positive stories of volumes from remittances across the region and we can only assume that’s because the migrants sending money home have a greater need to do so right now when we’re in the midst of a global crisis.”
Another key factor is the impact of the crisis on the informal market. Travel is particularly difficult right now and that means that many of the informal operators that were relying on physically moving cash just closed down after the pandemic forced travel to a standstill. The physical barriers put up between South Africa and Zimbabwe, for example, mean people were forced into using formal, regulated channels.
Leon adds: “Of course, there is also the major impact of digital to take into account, which makes it easier for people to transfer money and Africa has been dipping its toes into that particularly reservoir for a while now.”
How did Intra Africa remittances grow in 2020?
Linus feels that the remittance industry is a resilient one that tends to thrive in moments of crisis, so he’s not surprised it defied the World Bank projection. He explains: “Africans don’t forget home and they are very family-focused. That’s why I feel the African market grew so substantially in 2020. COVID provided a situation where, more than ever, people were willing to send money home.”
Where a partner has had a relationship with any other partner within the continent that allows transactions to happen between bank accounts or mobile wallets, that’s helped business for MTOs. More importantly, the government’s of most African countries saw remittances as COVID palliative. So they were quite willing to help facilitate these Intra African payments and even, in some cases, dedicated certain hours where people could queue and collect physical remittances while keeping safe and socially distanced.
Linus adds: “Some other countries like Kenya, for example, also increased the potential amount of each transaction per person. This not only meant less physical contact but it also meant that people were able to move more money more quickly between countries.” When you also factor in the various economic rules in place in various regions within Africa that allow for freedom of movement, it’s easy to see why Intra African remittances have been allowed to flourish.
As far as what needs to be done to boost the market, Leon adds: “To put it into context, the World Bank once estimated that for every $3 circulating within Africa, $2 originated within the continent. Most people look at Africa as one country rather than 55 and as somewhere that’s dependant on remittances from the rest of the world, but that’s not really the case.” He does believe, however, that there needs to be a regulatory shift in many countries to allow for easier transfer of money and this means allowing for different types of entities to operate alongside more traditional or formal channels.
How is technology going to help?
Currently, the cost of sending remittance to Africa is the highest rate in the world at around 9%. That’s around 5 times more costly than almost anywhere else and according to Oussama, the reason for this is simply because of the heavier reliance on cash payouts. Sidharth agrees, explaining: “For cash, you need so much more logistical support in terms of manpower, not to mention the actual physical locations. So technology is hopefully, in the long term, going to mean these costs reduce quite substantially, perhaps more in line with Southeast Asia where the rate is only around 2%.”
Leon believes that Africa is a hotbed for technology right now but that governments need to get involved on a deeper level to facilitate a safe space for transfers to happen between channels. This is something Mohammed also touches on, explaining that one of the problems is: “How many different currencies there are in Africa, which leads to issues with exchange rates.” He feels that a “single African currency” would be the most logical move. He adds: “We have 35 currencies in Africa and that’s always going to complicate remittances. The end user should not have to worry about exchange rates.”
This leads us quite neatly into the question of cryptocurrency. Sidharth has seen it being adopted in a big way through AZA’s separate crypto product, exploding from around $6,000 to $56,000 in just the last 2 quarters. He adds: “As regulations loosen up and mobile tech continues to build it will be more widely accepted as a means of payment, certainly within the next five years.”
Mohammed, meanwhile, feels adoption might be a little slower, mentioning that Nigeria recently stopped all crypto payments for B2B transactions. Leon, however, feels that it could become a big part of the solution in years to come but right now “people in Africa don’t have a good understanding of cryptocurrency yet.” That’s not to say they won’t in the future though and Oussama is hopeful that with time, that understanding will come. He believes that “a lot of end users right now are not using cryptocurrency as remittance but as more of an asset that will increase in value.” Education will undoubtedly play a major role in that regard.
How have the central bank measures promoting remittance impacted operations in Africa?
The regulation that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) issued in December last year was designed to boost US dollar supply into the economy and simplify remittances by ensuring the beneficiary always collects the money in dollars. Linus explains: “70% to 80% of remittances to Nigeria in the last two years have been to bank accounts because of the instant delivery the banks offer.” So, the central bank changing the currency from Nigerian Naira to Dollar makes a lot of sense but Linus stresses it’s not necessarily a Nigerian “dollarisation.” What the central bank is doing, he argues, is simply allowing the individual to negotiate rates themselves and trying to unify the exchange rate because they “can see how remittances can be used to help aid development.”
Sidharth agrees though he says that AZA is always going to be a firm that promotes local currencies. He feels the regulation is going to provide a major challenge for the Naira even though he thinks it will be good for remittance and things will improve in the long term. Leon, meanwhile, explains that DMA is currently “working with the British government to try and understand the impact on the UK to Nigeria remittance corridor and how it has impacted both the senders and receivers.”
Right now he says it’s been a bit of a mixed bag, with some saying the measures have led to an increase in remittance and others saying it’s led to a decline and some of that’s due to the fact there was no notice given to some of the operators.
Oussama adds that it’s all part of a broad approach by CBN to try and manage the different exchange rates and the parallel market that exists in Nigeria where the exchange rate could be as much as 20% different to the official rate because the Naira isn’t floating. Over time there will almost certainly be tweaks made to the policy that will fit into the much broader range of initiatives but in the short term, the CBN are at least now very much in a dialogue with the operators. If this continues then hopefully it won’t go the way of Zimbabwe a few years ago, where they had to essentially dollarise the whole economy because of rampant inflation and overvalued local currency.
Resilience of Remittance
Generally speaking, the future looks bright for the African remittance sector as long as local governments and banks are willing to invest in regulatory change and incentivise a shift towards digital payments. There are definitely a few significant challenges to overcome in terms of financial inclusion and KYC but advancement in technology is a perfect solution and Africa is by no means on the back foot as far as technology is concerned.
To read more on what our panellists have to say regarding the more specific challenges facing mobile adoption in the region, click here for our companion piece or check out the full webinar here. If you are a money service business interested in expanding into the region, meanwhile, RemitONE is an award-winning provider of MSB technology.
If you need support with all your operational needs please contact us by emailing marketing@remitone.com to see how we can support you.
Panel Q&A
Q1. Can you provide an overview of the licensing regime in Africa? What licences do PSPs and Telcoms need to be able to conduct intra-Africa and international payments?
Muhammad: I believe this is one area that African governments can use to unleash huge opportunities to elevate disruptions in this domain which can help propel ‘The last Mile of the Financial Inclusion Journey’. The challenge in most African countries is that most GSM/Telcos are so flushed with cash (capital) compared to new FinTech companies that sometimes the offerings from these big operators are difficult to match.
Also, because of legacy infrastructures (Anglophone, Francophone, different currencies, FX regulations) it makes it impossible to effectively promote intra-African remittances, and scale to the potentials that are there. For example, Kuringo was in discussions with a potential partner in Ghana to explore the GM/GH corridor. We faced several bottlenecks, such as both our currencies (Dalasi/Cedi) are not convertible and we opted to use USD. Then our partners required waivers from the Central Bank of Ghana because in order to settle us in the US they have to fulfil FX control restrictions. In the end we abandoned the project because of complicated regulatory issues.
Q2. How do the panellists evaluate intra-Africa transactions vis-a-vis AcFTA which was launched in January 2021?
Linus: It is a good initiative that is more than overdue. It will facilitate big ticket payments of goods and services. Major countries in Africa have executed the treaty which shows political will to make it a success.
Muhammad: Huge potential if only there could be a single digital currency that could be used to settle intra-Africa trade, hence mitigating exchange losses. With over 35 currencies used across Africa, SME who are the backbones of most economies would be able to fully benefit from AcFTA.
Q3. With regards to AML/CFT and remittances, is Africa a significant corridor and has the pandemic accelerated this; what new typologies have emerged in this past year?
Linus: Regarding AML/CFT Africa is certainly a significant corridor. AML/CFT has always been a concern for regulators which each remittance scheme is expected to put in place before the advent of Covid-19.
Q4. Have you seen an increase in remittance/FinTech partnerships since 2020 and is Ecobank looking at new ways to partner international players to increase value added services into Africa?
Linus: Yes certainly.
Q5. Do you believe central banks are likely to open up in the ways others have regarding Cryptocurrency? E.g. CBDCs?
Leon: Over time they will, but it’s unlikely to be in the near future.
Sidharth: Medium to long term, Crypto will gain momentum in Africa due to the high cost of sending remittances and over-relying on cash in the continent. But this has its own challenges like central banks, regulations and onramp/offramp from local currencies.
Q6. Inoperability is a big issue with Telcos in Africa, to boost remittances even within the same country. Is it a regulatory, technology or lack of will issue?
Linus: Interoperability required a clearing house to succeed. Some aggregators can offer this service, but there is need for a clearing framework within the region or country by the regulator to make this effective. Telcos are beginning to find ways on how to cooperate in this respect, but candidly the services on an impartial arbiter are required.
Leon: Completely agree. Most Telcos don’t want to cooperate, similiar to how MTOs were 15 years ago. Regulators need to get involved to make it happen.
Sidharth: Except Nigeria, where there is some sort of interoperability/common rails due to Interswitch, this is still a distant task and much is needed to make this happen. CBs/regulators have to play a pivotal role in making this happen both for bringing down the cost and making remittances happen real-time across the continent.
Q7. What are your views on Telcos doing some banking functions, given that Telcos have huge subscribers etc? Are banks not concerned about this for the future, as they appear to be doing banking work and revenues may dwindle for banks?
Linus: Telcos are assisting to expand financial includion and deploring affordable technologies or infrastructures where the banks cannot venture becayse of a typical bank operating model. I see collaboration between Telcos and banks rather than competition. Each part has assets to offer in the financial inclusion narrative.
Leon: Exactly right. Telcos will be the distribution channel and banks the service provider – these will be white-label product providers.
Q8. Do you think the new regulations in Nigeria are against African money transfer companies who are sendig from Africa to Nigeria?
Linus: No
Leon: It is not against African MTOs, indeed, it should be helpful to them.
Q9. Regarding one of Leon’s explanations of regulatory frameworks being challenging for intra-African remittances, how does this work with Crypto where there is no regulatory framework in place?
Leon: Great question. Unfortunately, because there is no framework there is no approval to operate these services. The only way around this is to obtain a letter of consent or to use sandboxes. It will take time but is not high priority at the moment for most central banks.
Q10. Do you think that Cryptocurrencies can be a solution to solve settlement problems for intra-Africa cross-border remittances?
Leon: They can help will illiquid currencies or imperfect settlement processes. But they are not an answer for consumers right now unless there are ways for people to exchange Crypto for local currency.
Q11. Will the change to USD in Nigeria have much impact especially slowing the black market traders? And what is the impact of this Naira to USD change?
Linus: There will be impact. More awareness on the current changes in remittance payout in Nigeria may change this. The beneficiary of the remittance is involved in the Naira value for the Dollar received which is determined by market forces rather than policy fiat.
Q12. Why do African Money Transfer players not want to play outside of Africa and directly service the African diaspora?
Linus: RapidTransfer, for example, is in Europe serving African diaspora. The success of this new addition to the 33 countries where Ecobank is operating in Africa could spur future expansion to other countries where we have diaspora presence.
Q13. Nigeria was implementing two exchange rates concurrently. What are the benefits and challenges of this policy? How can Ethiopia learn from stringent rules and regulations like this?
Linus: Yes, before the switch to USD payout by policy of November 30th 2020, the second official exchange rate is a premium above the first for Naira payout for inbound remittances into Nigeria. It was to reward the Nigeria diaspora to channel their hard-earned money back into the country and to use approved schemes and instruments. Central banks do share experiences, I would advise that tour central bank gets in touch with the Nigerian central bank to compare notes.
Q14. When and where can we obtain Leon’s consumer research?
Leon: Not sure of the exact timing, but we expect this to be around the end of April or early May. We’ll be happy to circulate it.
Q15. Do you think that remittance in our region is at the point that you expected it would be 5 years ago?
Leon: I think it is progressing faster than I would have expected.
Muhammad: The evolution of affordable smart phones and mobiles in general, we have seen a huge growth in the remittances both in the formal an informal market. Today most informal operators (within countries) are using WhatsApp, text message and mobile phone calls to move money within border and across/intra-Africa.
Q16. Regarding the bound on Crypto in Nigeria and the fat that people have to collect USD in place of Naira, what is the advice for a startup?
Linus: Play to the rules and seek partners and banks that share your business vision.
Q17. What are your views on the introduction of individual CBDCs and its effect on intra-Africa remittances and global remittances; what harmonisation is needed to move past the current status quo in terms of exchange rates?
Leon: A good but complex question. They can only be effective if there is much more digitisation in everyday payments in Africa. Ideally an intraregional currency would bring more stability.
Q18. What can be done to help the end users use their money in digital ways, but also have access to cash with more ATM machines?
Muhammad: The Last Mile Solutions for Africa might not be ATMs, but rather small corner/community shops that are dotted all over villages, towns, cities across Africa. How can we onboard them to accept digital payments and give them access to smart POS that would work on mobiles that can be used as withdrawal points (ATM, Payment Centres).
Leon: There needs to be much more digitisation in general life in African countries. This has to happen way before we worry about international payments. Remittances are relevant for payouts but only ride on domestic rails for this.
If you need support with any operational needs, or have further questions, please contact us by emailing marketing@remitone.com to see how we can support you.
Meet Ababacar Seck: Industry Expert
Company Role
Managing Director Africa
Favourite Quote
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together” – African proverb
“If you think you are too small to make a difference, spend a night with a mosquito” – African proverb
Top Podcasts/Books
“Amkoullel, l’enfant Peul” by Amadou Hampathe Ba.
The Collected Poetry by Leopold Sedar Senghor
What is something people in your industry have to deal with that you want to fix?
One of the current biggest challenges we have in Africa is the inoperability of mobile money platforms. The growth of mobile money in Africa has been tremendous, with no such experience elsewhere, but still the potential is held back because of this issue and the lack of important actors in the ecosystems.
What do you do at RemitONE?
I am the managing director for the African market in the company. This consists of recruiting clients such as Banks, Central Banks, Money Transfer Operators and Telcos who want to use our different solutions. We cover the whole continent and make sure our clients are happy and growing with our products and support.
What are your credentials and experience for working in your position?
Before joining RemitONE, I worked for several companies in the African private sector. I’ve been working in the remittance business for many years. I was the CFO and afterwards the CEO of Money Express SA, a leading African player, for several years. I also was the CEO of Connect Africa Payments, and Rainbow Ltd.
What do you like about working at RemitONE?
I love the team spirit, the variety of culture and the ambition of the company. I also like the challenge for Africa and the opportunity we have to become a great sought after stakeholder of the African remittance ecosystem.
What are the values that drive you?
Things I value most are honesty, humility, empathy and accountability. They help me improve in my day to day life and work as a person and a professional
What’s your background and what do you enjoy doing when you are not working?
I studied Finance (MBA) and Business Management (Master) and have been working in these fields the last 30 years at senior positions. I did all my studies in Senegal (University of Dakar and CESAG), and ended them in the USA (Boston University).
Aside of my professional work, I’ve been volunteering since college in development programs like environment, community development, youth empowerment, health, microfinance for the poor, etc.
I enjoy going for camping and discovering rural areas. I am also passionate about sports and I still play basket-ball despite my sore ankles!
