Mr. Jerome Ochieng has been appointed the new Principal Secretary for State Department of ICT & Innovation. Until his appointment, Mr. Ochieng was the Director of the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) at the National Treasury and a member, Board of Directors at the Information, Communication Authority.
Mr. Ochieng has 17 years’ work experience in the field of information and communication technology in the Public Service. Mr. Ochieng' has also served as ICT Manager with Public Procurement Oversight Authority for 6 years.
He holds a Masters’ Degree in Information Engineering from the University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa, Japan. He is a registered fellow of the Computer Society of Kenya and a Licentiate Member of the Institute of Management Information Systems (IMIS), UK
Bob Seeman is the Managing Partner of CyberCurb which advises business and government on the nexus of business, law and innovative technology. He is the author of the book “The Coinmen”, the most comprehensive critique of bitcoin, and speaks at investor, cybersecurity, money-laundering, regulatory and law-enforcement conferences throughout the world. Bob is a Senior Advisor at Endeavor which identifies and industrializes game changing technology for the US Government. He is also a co-founder of RIWI Corp., a global data analytics company, and has been a consultant to a cryptocurrency tracing company. He is a Director of the Cyber Future Foundation Canada and has also authored “Ransomware Risk Mitigation for the Board”. He is a California attorney, electrical engineer and entrepreneur, was a Head of Strategy for Microsoft in Europe, and a technical consultant to the European Commission. Bob previously practiced administrative law with the now Norton Rose Fulbright. He holds a Bachelor of Applied Science (Elec. Eng.) with Honours from the University of Toronto, a Master of Business Administration from EDHEC, and a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of British Columbia.
A global professional banking leader, internationally rated fintech ecosystem builder and thought leader with disruptive and enabling tech innovation mindset, respected Futurist and Chartered Arbitrator.
Chairman, Global Banking Education Standards Board, comprising professional banking institutes and related institutions in thirty six countries across all continents..from 2017 to date.
Lorna Hardie is Regional Director for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) at VMware. In this position, she is responsible for driving and running the end to end management of the business while at the same time sharing and executing against VMware’s vision and strategy in the region. Lorna leads VMware’s continued expansion in SSA and works with customers to drive innovation across a multi-cloud and increasingly digital landscape.
Lorna aligns herself to organisations that "embrace change and lead through innovation". A hands-on leader, she works with her sales, channel, marketing, professional services, and systems engineering teams to unpack the value of multi-cloud services for all apps. Passionate about customers, channel partnerships, communication and people development, she leads through coaching and mentoring her teams and developing and establishing solid customer and partner relationships across the board.
Lorna joined VMware in 2018 from Lenovo, where she headed up its Data Centre Group business across Southern Africa; this followed a circa 16 year tenure at HP/HPE where one of her roles included running the HP Networking, and then the HPE Software division. With over 20 years of industry experience, she started in the IT trenches physically laying cable, building machines and deploying software and then went on to grow her expertise to include business and channel development, management, marketing, sales and leadership.
Lorna in her spare time channels her artistic flair into fixing her home and other creative outlets. She enjoys being active and gyms, runs, and hikes - spending as much time outdoors with friends and family. According to Lorna, her most rewarding role in life is being a mother to her twin girls and spending time with loved ones.
Kelly Bentley, Chief Rebel, The Rebel Element
Kelly is the CEO of Dx5. Before that she was the Co-Founder and Chief rebel at the South African company Rebel Element which merged with CIO Africa this year to form Dx5. She has also worked as a Senior Road Traffic Accident Claims Advisor at Accident Advice Helpline and as a Marketing and Events Manager at Chief Nation. She then joined McDonald Butler Associates as a Senior Account Manager then later a Client Services Director for Africa. Kelly is enthusiastic about making a difference in Africa and is always considered a mentor and someone to look up to by upcoming women in the industry.
SC Ventures is Standard Chartered Bank’s Venture Capital arm, investing in FinTech companies in growing markets around the world.
Kennedy is a Financial Services Executive with banking and management expertise in various countries. Strategic engagement in financial sector systems exploring alternative business models leveraging mobile e-value networks, remote processing, internet banking and core banking platforms. Career track record demonstrates multifunctional expertise in financial services.
Joachim, CTO KCB Group is an experienced leader in Enterprise Technology. He has gained broad industry experience in financial services, telcos, aviation, utilities and public sector having worked for renowned companies like Oracle, Deutsche Bank and BMW. On his LinkedIn bio, he says he “speaks the language of CEOs and CFOs fluently and at the same time understands how enterprise technology sales and product strategy works at large technology companies”.
He is the founder and the executive director of Kenya-founded DEMO Africa, a launchpad for emerging technologies and trends on the continent. Hare is also the co-founder and director of the African eDevelopment Resource Centre; co-founder and director of Events Management Solutions. Harry has 25 years of experience in the tech industry.
Faith is a transformation and influential leader and professional in Fintech in the region with over 10 years
of experience. She is the go-to- leader and subject-matter-expert for positive transformation of
businesses and the people with digital revolution at the core of it.
Faith currently works for one of the leading Fintech and payments companies in Africa; Cellulant, as the
Country Director. Previously, she worked with the Oracle Corporation leading their Digital
Transformation efforts for the Public Sector. Equipped with strong track records of value-adding
contribution and oversight across Retail and Corporate banking, her last C-suite role in banking was as
the Director for Strategy, Monitoring and Transformation where she reported to the CEO and Board of
Sidian Bank (k) Ltd.
Faith sits on 4 boards. She is a board member for Technoserve, Women on Boards Network , Inuka Africa,
and LVCT Health. She is a Member of the African Women in Fintech and Payments, and Volunteers with
the Presidential Digital Talent program (PDTP) and the MPesa Foundation Academy.
Faith was recently nominated to join the Swedish institute Management Program representing
Kenya/Africa. In 2020, she graduated from Yale University and University of California, Berkeley with
Executive MBA’s in Leading effective decision making and Leading innovative change respectively. She
also has a Masters in Psychology, which has provided her an edge in leadership, people management,
managing strategic and c-level relationships, and a better understanding of customers and the markets
thereof.
Faith comes across as a strategic thinker and has a green thumb for insightful oversight and an eye for
‘the how of future readiness’. She is both curious and tolerates ambiguity and hence has the courage to
challenge current thoughts in the market and the mega trends therein
The unassuming Indian-Kenyan entrepreneur is working relentlessly towards putting African software on the global map, and he is succeeding.
More often than not, you find yourself using one of Craft Silicon, or Little Cab services without realizing it. That is an indicator as to how Kamal has created companies with a local base but aiming for global aspirations that are steadily making inroads in the world of financial technology.
Kamal is the Group CEO at Craft Silicon - which provides Banking and payment technologies across Africa and emerging Asia. He is also the founder of Little, a pan African Ride-hailing platform, now emerging into a Super App.
Allow us to introduce to you, the virtuoso of facilitating the integration of the virtual world into the physical world- the master digital transformation strategist.
Think of the difference between walking into a bank to request your balance and the ability to pull up that information in real-time on your phone and you’ll have a good idea of FinTech’s impact. This impact is something that is not always easily conveyed in a manner that is consumable, unless it is Lanre Bamisebi’s segment.
Lanre, apart from being a brilliant orator, is a highly experienced senior technology and banking Operations leader with proven results in driving transformation, digitizing operations for efficiency and seamless customer experience, creating business value from solutions that impact the bottom line, a trans-formative and visionary business leader with a proven track record of helping companies leverage technology to drive real business value.
Ahmed is the Founder and CEO Next Arabia. which is a leading advisory firm in developing, launching and operating impactful innovation ventures in MENA and beyond.
Ahmed was the Senior Advisor to Forbes Middle East, which is a licensed edition of Forbes Media, a global media company with a focus on news and information about business, investing, technology, entrepreneurship, leadership and affluent lifestyles.
He was also a Member of the Global Advisory Panel and the LeanStartup & Innovation Lecturer at The United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) in Al Ain/UAE.
Ahmed was a Senior Advisor to and Head of TURN8 Seed Accelerator & VC Fund in Dubai/U.A.E. TURN8 is a collaboration between enterprise and innovators to foster a global entrepreneurial and innovation culture.
He was previously the founding Head of the Incubation at Qatar Business Incubation Center (QBIC), the largest in the Arab world. Under his leadership more than 1,000 people participated in innovation and entrepreneurship activities, 90 new startups and high-growth companies were developed and coached, 20 startups and 10 high-growth companies were incubated, and the 20 incubated startups generated a combined QAR 2 Million in revenues in less than a year.
Prior Ahmed was the founding manager for the Entrepreneurship Center at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia. After two years of launching the center, KAUST was select as the Best Higher Education Institution in the Arab World supporting entrepreneurship in 2012 during the 3rd Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) in Dubai, UAE.
Earlier Ahmed was the CEO and Co-Founder of an international e-Learning and Intelligence startup company in Zurich/Switzerland and San Francisco/U.S.A., which was sold to one of the leading eLearning providers.
Prior Ahmed joined Siemens AG as Manager for Planning, Strategy and e-Business at the headquarters in Germany and Director Enterprise Networks in Siemens Saudi Arabia where he oversaw the operation's turnaround from a product business to a solution and service business.
Ahmed earned his MBA at the Arthur D. Little School of Management in Boston/M.A./U.S.A.
Eat, sleep, dream, play FINTECH, and Entrepreneurship.
Kevin’s goal is to positively impact 1 billion lives by 2030 through his entrepreneurial pursuits.
He identifies markets that have the potential to be $1bn markets in the next 10 years in Africa and begin executing 10 year plans to build and acquire significant market share in those markets.
Seun oversees the Technology and Operations directorate of Integrated Payments Services Limited (IPSL) responsible to drive innovations and improve IPSL strategy to deliver real-time payment services.
With 17+ years in developing and executing strategies for IT operations, e-banking technologies, payment systems and digital transformation, Seun previously worked at Nigeria Interbank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS) where he executed transformational projects to increase uptake of real-time payments products and services within the banking industry in Nigeria.
He holds two masters degree in Business Administration and Computer Systems from University of Ilorin, Nigeria and University of Ibadan, Nigeria respectively with a Bachelors degree in Computer Science from LAUTECH, Nigeria. He also attended advanced programme in operations management at University of Warwick, UK and Strategic management at DePaul University, Chicago.
Elijah, the current Regional CIO at Standard Bank Group, has a demonstrated history of working in the financial services industry. He has managed to foster congenial relations with CIOs and enable strategic activities and consultancy. He has strong professional skills in IT Strategy, Management, Strategic Planning, Business Process Improvement, and Business Strategy.
Experienced Banking and Financial Services (BFSI) Technology Professional with over 15 years of experience leading and managing Digital and IT functions in different banks as CIO/Head of IT in Asia, East Africa and Australia. Vision and solution-oriented manager with proven expertise in developing and executing IT and Digital Governance and Strategy, managing IT operation and end-to-end Service Delivery, devising IT budget, building high-performing team, and managing large scale IT projects, IT risk and Regulatory compliance.
Spearheaded multiple large-scale Technology projects, Merger and Acquisitions, Migration Projects, Network and System Infrastructures as well as built and led top performing teams.
Awards & Recognition :
(1) Australian Global Talent Independent Permanent Residency (PR) holder
(2) CIO 100 Annual Symposium and Awards by CIO East Africa
(3) UPI Project Management Award by China Union Pay International.
I provide industry specific, sound compliance and commercial legal strategies & solutions to technology and technology driven businesses and organizations.
My expertise is in the areas of: Corporate structuring, Mergers & acquisitions, Intellectual property, technical commercial contracts advisory&drafting, ICT sector policy advocacy, dispute resolution, legal and regulatory compliance.
Ali is the Chief Executive Officer at the AHK & Associates, co-founder and CEO of Kipochi, Chairman of the Association of Fintechs in Kenya and an executive board member of the Africa Fintech Network. He also doubles up as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees at KICTANet. He has prior experience with Longhorn Publishers where he still serves as the Chairman of the Board Audit and Risk Committee having joined as a Non-executive Director. Ali is a man of many trades and is known to give his best in everything he partakes. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Studies from Kenyatta University and has served as an Effective Director of a Masterclass programme at Strathmore University.
John is a Tech Entrepreneur with over 20 years’ experience working in new market acquisitions across various technology verticals in Europe, America, Asia and Africa. The Pan African renowned business leader, entrepreneur, investor, consultant, mentor and public speaker holds multiple roles including Founder, Adalabs Kenya and Afyarekod.
Mutembei Kariuki is a Kenyan Tech entrepreneur working to being the benefits of AI and Blockchain to solving challenges in Africa at a start-up called Fastagger Inc. He previously, worked with the German Development Cooperation, GIZ as the Make-IT in Africa Tech Entrepreneurship Initiative Regional Coordinator - East Africa where supporting tech entrepreneurs in Africa.
Mutembei has been interested in technology, entrepreneurship and leadership development and worked with the organisation in Kenya, Austria, India, and Japan. He has been involved in social entrepreneurship through AIESEC and worked in Brazil, India and The Philippines to support social enterprises with Potencia Ventures.
His passion for Technology then lead him to Japan where he was part of the transfer of hazardous waste treatment technology to Kenya by building a partnership between Japanese companies, the Kenya and Japanese governments. He also spent this time learning about emerging technologies such as the Internet of things and 3D printing that he believes will radically improve the quality of life for humanity. Mutembei holds degrees in Economics and Information Systems.
A fun fact is that he has been part of a social reality TV show called Imagine Afrika that took him to South Africa, Mozambique and Rwanda and was broadcast in over 40 countries as part of an African Media initiative to combat HIV/AIDS in Africa
“Dennis Volemi has over 20 years’ experience industry experience spanning Telecommunications and Financial Services, he has a proven track record applying technology in business transformation and is very passionate about emerging business models. He is currently working on shaping the posture of FSI towards partnerships with Telco’s, FinTech and BigTechs for collective value realization”.
Caroline is a Manager in PwC Kenya’s Legal & Regulatory Compliance Advisory unit, with ten (10) years’ post-qualification experience in Kenya. Caroline leverages her to help FinTech players navigate the legal and regulatory landscape in Kenya, which remains dynamic and complex.
Helping and empowering organizations adapt to this ever changing world of tech is my passion, especially in the realm of Networking and Security.
I have been in the IT industry for 21 years, mainly worked at Partners/System Integrators. I joined VMWare 2 years ago, and at VMWare I have the privilege to talk to customers about how to be connected in a much more efficient and secure way, as well as simplifying day 2 operations with our leading technologies.
Second-time entrepreneur with technology background in various startups as CTO, more than 10 years in leading technical teams. Founded MotiGuy in 2018, an IoT powered telematics platform with an ecosystem of service providers in the repair and maintenance side of vehicles and accident reconstruction algorithm. Co-founded MotiSure this year to provide embedded insurance in mobility for Africans that commute, ride or drive. I'm a proud protagonist (ENFJ) too
Dr. Omaru Maruatona is CEO of Aiculus, a Cyber-AI company that specialises in Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence. Prior to founding Aiculus, Omaru was responsible for cybersecurity architecture, strategy and design at PwC Australia. Dr. Omaru has also worked at Computershare Australia in Cybersecurity, prior to which he was with the Internet Commerce Security Research Institute working with a large Australian bank in applied Artificial Intelligence. In addition to leading the Aiculus team, Omaru serves as a mentor in the CyRise accelerator and is an Advisor in the CyLon Go programme which aims to increase diversity in cybersecurity. Between 2018 and 2019, Omaru was one of three cybersecurity industry Professors at La Trobe university.
Hilda Moraa is currently the Founder and CEO of Pezesha, a digital financial infrastructure enabling SMEs and institutions in Africa. The award-winning innovator and author has more than 10 years of experience in fintech, regulation, developing innovations, entrepreneurship and working with multinationals such as Coca-Cola to develop mobility innovations for Africa. She previously founded WezaTele, a Fintech startup in Kenya that was acquired in 2015. She holds a Business Information Technology Degree from Strathmore University. In 2015 she was also featured as one of the top 40 under 40 women and Quartz Africa as top 30 innovators in Africa in 2018.
George is a skilled professional with over 13 years’ experience and has held several leadership roles at Wanainchi Group (Engineering Manager), IwayAfrica (Technical Manager) and Dimension Data ( Line of Business Manager and Technology Lead - Security and Data Centre Networks).
A strategic business planning, growth and restructuring executive, I have a knack for Financial Management and a passion for innovation. I have, through various strategic and leadership roles in the financial services, technology and telecommunications industries demonstrated P&L ownership and the ability to turn loss making units into profitable and cash-flow positive divisions.
A professional who not only understands finance and numbers, but has the proficiency for interpreting and telling the story behind the numbers, I work with clients and lead teams to execute strategy, projects, results and impact and have been awarded various Leadership and Excellence In Service awards.
A passionate and entrepreneurial leader with over 20 years experience in IT, Mobile telecommunications and the emerging financial technology space whose career has spanned across the US, UK, Europe, Africa, the Caribbean and Central America region. Having graduated with an accounting degree, he has a strong financial background, an extensive technical background and having co-founded an IT consulting company at a very early stage with a proven track record in international business development, establishing alliances, marketing, product innovation and development, customer value management, venture capital fund raising, commercial negotiation skills, sales and pre-sales, program and project governance and management (Prince2), he would be a very valuable asset to any organisation working closely with senior management in expansion, new revenue opportunities and delivering results. He is particularly interested in companies in the emerging fintech/regtech environment involved in mobile payments, mobile commerce, digital identities, cross border remittances, blockchain technologies.
Andrew Ngunjiri is the Practice Lead- Intelligent Infrastructure at Dimension Data EWA. He has over 15 years’ experience in project management and delivery of turnkey projects on tight schedules and within budgets. He has worked across major industry verticals including Public Sector, Financial Services and Telecommunications Service Providers and has been involved in all stages of project and program delivery from inception and planning to audit and oversight. His focus and expertise is on alignment of technology, people and processes for delivery of business outcomes and delivery of best of breed solutions using cutting edge technologies.
Over a decade of experience in business consultancy, development, and implementation across various software platforms. Well versed in payments and digital financial services. Currently a Senior Manager supporting the execution of the Diamond Trust Bank’s book of work.
Strong believer in the power of community, and frequently hosts tech events to empower users, managers, and techies under the brand “Digital Workplace Transformation Africa”
Annie has had an exciting career spread out over diverse industry verticals in the African market with technology and innovation being the most common thread that binds them together. She has worked for globally recognized companies such as Microsoft and Philips and is a recipient of the 2014 Techwomen Award.
Mobile lending company Tala has appointed Munyi Nthigah as its new Kenya General Manager (GM) to oversee business growth. He replaces Ivan Mbowa who now serves Fidelity Bank Ghana as a Fintech NewCo Consultant.
Nthigah has over 15 years of experience in the technology sector 11 of which have been in the digital payment space across 11 markets in Africa.
Prior to joining Tala, he founded Codesign Africa, a fintech startup focused on digital payments and lending in Kenya.
He is also a founding member of the Association of Fintechs in Kenya, where he serves on the board as the Secretary-General. He has also served as the General Manager at Cellulant Kenya for more than 9 years and General Manager for Cellulant Uganda for two years.
A result-oriented business leader with a wealth of cognate experience in Digital Transformation (covering strategy development, planning and implementation) that redefines customer experience and drives business value for leading organisations in the Financial Services and Telecoms Industries.
He has deep experiences marketing and delivering large and complex digital and business transformation solutions across the region including Implementation of Digital platforms, Omnichannel banking platform, various Core Banking Applications (CBAs), Enterprise Service Bus, Business Intelligence and Data Warehouse Solutions and deployment of IT infrastructure stack for diverse organisations in the Financial Services and Telecommunications industry.
The accomplished Ieader has over 20 years in Information Security, Risk and Compliance and offering expertise to various industry sectors such as Retail, Telecommunication, Insurance, Government and Financial. He has held several roles in various capacities in corporate leadership, management consulting, cyber security engineering and architecture in Finance, Retail, Telecom, and Software industries. Moreover, he has a diverse background and extensive experience in creating and managing corporate-wide information security, assurance, and risk management programs.
Basha Pillay is the Managing Director of Poprush Cloud & Consulting and has been operating in the Technology sector for well over 25 years and built a reputation around his skillset, experience and ability to innovate and execute against a strategy. He is a seasoned executive and has gained immense management, strategy and leadership knowledge over the years across the industries he has worked in; organisations he has worked for; and the people he has worked with. He has worked within the system integrator, telecommunications and consulting space from a technology perspective
Frank is a Corporate & Commercial Lawyer at TripleOKLaw Advocates LLP. His practice focuses on various aspects including mergers and acquisitions, projects, capital markets and corporate governance. Additionally, he also leverages on his advisory experience to IP/TMT clients on regulation, compliance and corporate matters touching on FinTech & Payments, Internet, E-Commerce, Telecoms Infrastructure and Data Protection. Prior to joining TripleOKLaw, Frank was a key member of the of Google SSA Legal team supporting Google’s business covering 47 jurisdictions in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) and further worked at COMESA supporting the secretariats Legal Division across 21 member states.
Frank holds a PGD from the Kenya School of Law, an LLB from Strathmore University and a Post-graduate Certificate in International Lawyering in a Public Interest from the University of Amsterdam. Frank has recently been co-opted as a researcher in the American Chamber of Commerce Energy Taskforce and is also a member of the Kenyan Chapter of the Internet Society.
Markus Stoltz holds CCIE Lifetime Emeritus and VCIX-NV certifications, a B.Technology in Computer Systems, a Master’s in Information Technology (UP) and a Strategy & Innovation certificate from Stanford University. He is a Specialist Engineer focused on VMware’s advanced Network and Security portfolio.
Imran has over a decade of passionate experience in Financial Technology. Built his experiences from managing critical financial and banking applications.
As a Technology Banker, Imran has designed, migrated and transformed numerous core banking environments while managing large teams of experts, system portfolios, vendors and business relationships.
In 2017, he left to form a fintech startUp FinSense Africa in 2017, with a goal of modernizing Financial Services industry.
Now, as an Tech-Entrepreneur, Imran's focus is on digitalization of the Financial service industry, empowering them with quality modern digital capability using new-age technology, and help build ecosystems that are, Better, Faster, Cheaper and Secure.
Tim Theuri is a Cybersecurity, Audit and Risk management professional with over fourteen years’ experience in the Fintech, Digital Telcom and Financial industries previously working for Safaricom and before that Deloitte in Cybersecurity, Technology, Risk management and Audit. He currently is the Executive Head of Cybersecurity at M-Pesa Africa (a subsidiary of Safaricom Plc) where he is bootstrapping the unified Cybersecurity organization that will protect the M-Pesa Africa financial ecosystem