Abhaya Prasad Hota, - former Head of Payment Systems in Reserve Bank of India is known for his valuable contribution in design and development of payment system in India. After his central banking experience for 27 years mostly in the area of payments and technology, he headed the umbrella retail payments institution named National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) during 2009-2017 as its founding CEO. NPCI today handles 10 out of 13 types of retail payment systems in the country accounting for almost 80 percent of all  inter-bank retail payment transactions.  He played the key role in building the real time 24x7 retail money transfer system ( handling 110  million transactions  a day), domestic card payment system (the largest in the country in terms of number of cards issued in the country) and identity based Direct Benefit Transfer system  ( all government subsidies for social welfare programs passing through this DBT system).

Currently he serves as an Independent Director in the Boards of a few organisations in the area of banking and finance and speaks at various fora on design and development of national level payment system. During the year 2018-19, he was also in the World Bank Panel of Experts on Payment Systems.

Successful and motivated Leader with unparalleled expertise in Telecom and Fin-Tech domain. 22 years’ experience and over 14 years in FinTech eco-system. Keen sense to achieve corporate goals. Ability to devise long-term strategies, build teams from scratch, envisage critical Telecom and fin-tech products and bringing them to life. Played a critical role in Financial Inclusion & Financial Literacy in different markets.

Nicole is the CEO of First Access, a fintech platform enabling lenders to digitize and automate credit for underserved customers. By fast-tracking loans on First Access, lenders have saved nearly 400 years of borrower wait time. Ranked among the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company, Nicole has advanced financial inclusion in Africa, Asia and Latin America. First Access has been selected by Entrepreneur for the Brilliant 100, by Unreasonable for UN SDG #1 (Poverty), and by MIT for the Zambezi Prize, among other awards, and featured in curricula of 10 top research universities including Oxford and Yale, and 75+ events and publications including The Economist and The Financial Times.

Stephen is an international consultant with broad expertise for over 25 years in digital financial services, payment systems, central banking practices and legal and regulatory frameworks. Prior to working as an International consultant, Stephen was in charge of the National Payments System division at the Central Bank of Kenya, where he championed financial inclusion initiatives in Kenya- key among them was the globally recognised M-Pesa platform run by Safaricom which currently has 27 million subscribers, equivalent to a penetration rate of 75% in mobile money sector. 

Stephen has considerable experience working with a wide range of stakeholders in the digital financial world (Telecommunication firms, Banks, donor organisations, Treasury, other regulators). At a regional level, he has extended his leadership expertise in the harmonisation of various initiatives at an East Africa Community (EAC) level. At an international level, he is a regular contributor and an acclaimed global speaker at both International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) fora. In addition, he has excellent research capabilities and is frequently requested to carry out peer review assignments and book reviews for colleagues in the industry