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

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

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.

Andrew is the Regulatory Director in charge of Mobile Financial Services (MFS) at Airtel Money handling all regulatory requirements of the business.

He has over 13 years experience in banking, Central Banking, Corporate Credit, Retail credit, bank resolution, banking supervision, public policy, risk management, financial inclusion, operations, payment and settlement systems, risk and compliance audits, information technology law, and Corporate Secretarial services. 

He joined Airtel Money from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) where he was working for 7 years. Previously, he worked with Barclays Bank of Kenya (now ABSA - Kenya) as an In House Counsel for 5 years. 

He holds a Law degree (LL.B) from the University of Nairobi, He is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya. He also holds a Masters degree in Public Policy (MPP) from Strathmore Business School. He is Certified Public Accountant (CPA-K) and Certified Public Secretary (CPS-K). In addition, he is a graduate of the Oxford Fintech program and the London School of Economics - LSE regulatory practice program.

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.

Sachin has over 16 years of international experience in consulting, project management and operations in making financial services accessible to the un/underbanked people in more than 18 different countries. He has hands-on experience in Digital Financial Services (DFS), Microfinance and Financial Inclusion. He has cross-regional work experience of Asia, Africa and Oceania. He has worked with some of the largest Banks, Mobile Network Operators, technology companies, Microfinance institutions and other stakeholders such as Donors, Central banks and other Government bodies. He has strong skills in developing business strategy/models, product development, human centred design, market research, agent network design and management, agency banking, process re-engineering, business transformation and financial awareness. 

He is a certified trainer and has conducted many large-scale research studies and has published several papers. He has led technical assistance projects for capacity building of financial institutions and helped them explore alternative delivery channels (e/m banking). The primary focus of his work has always been to design and develop sustainable, effective and innovative systems; products and channels to promote the delivery of a wide range of client-centric, sustainable and technology-enabled financial services.  He is an Agricultural Engineering graduate with a management degree.

Mr. Salahuddin Mahmud, Deputy Director of Payment Systems Department (PSD), joined Bangladesh Bank as an Assistant Director in the year of 2014. Initially he worked at Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU). BFIU works with the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing issues and Mr. Mahmud was an analyst there. In 2016 he joined the Payment Systems Department of Bangladesh Bank and has worked with Mobile Financial Services related analysis and policy issues since then. At present, he with other colleagues of PSD, is working to strike the right balance between innovation and regulation by formulating various DFS policy ensuring the interest of all stakeholders and providing support to new FinTech ideas at the Regulatory FinTech Facilitation Office (RFFO) of PSD.

Mr. Mahmud holds a Masters Degree in Physics from the University of Dhaka as well as a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from the Institute of Business Administration.

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.

Charles is an independent consultant in Payments and Mobile Money, primarily focussed on Digital Financial Services. He led the Tanzania domestic DFS interoperability project for IFC, he was also fulfilled various roles in enabling DFS interoperability in Uganda and Mozambique and is has been involved in various DFS interoperability initiatives across Africa. Prior to this he was General Manager for Visa in sub-Saharan Africa and was responsible for Visa’s business across 25 African markets.

He is the past independent chairman of Zoona, an independent Mobile Money provider in Africa and is currently a shareholder in various African focused technology businesses, these include Fintech’s such as Yoco, a mPos business in South Africa, Stitch, an Open Banking API business targeting Africa and Kuunda, who provide data and agent liquidity tools for MNO’s and Mobile Money agents. He holds a Bachelors of Commerce from the University of Stellenbosch, a MBA from the University of Cape Town, attended the Accelerated Development Programme at the London Business School and also holds a Post Graduate in Futures Studies at the University of Stellenbosch Business School. He is currently studying towards his MPhil in Future Studies.

Ravi was appointed to the Board of the Central Bank of Kenya in 2016. He has strong expertise in Financial Sector Development with a particular focus on promoting Financial Inclusion. He has worked in over thirty countries worldwide and has extensive experience in providing support to treasury departments and financial sector regulators. 

Since 2011 Ravi has served as an Advisor to the Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) Trusts in East Africa and to the World Bank Group. His prior experience includes twelve years with the World Bank Group as a Senior Financial Sector Specialist and eleven years in consulting with Deloitte. Ravi holds an MBA in Finance and Strategy from the University of California, Berkeley and a BA Land (Urban) Economics – First Class Honors - from the University of Nairobi.

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