Africa-Press – Kenya. ABSA is now banking on M-Pesa Africa managing director Sitoyo Lopokoiyit’s multi-industry experience to drive its personal and private banking segment, in the latest top executive shake-up at the lender.
The Group yon Wednesday announced the appointment of the man behind the evolution of M-Pesa, effective April 1, a day after Safaricom indicated he will exit on March 31.
This is after a 15-year career with Safaricom and the Vodacom Group.
His departure marks the end of a five-year tenure (since April 2021) as M-Pesa Africa managing director, in which he helped transform M-Pesa from a Kenyan money transfer service into a continental, smartphone-led digital ecosystem serving over 60 million customers.
The appointment, Absa Group said, finalises its refocused Pan-African strategy and restructures its executive leadership team to sharpen customer-led growth, strengthen governance and deepen its leadership bench across the continent.
Lopokoiyit’s appointment is viewed as one of the most high-profile leadership moves between Africa’s fintech and banking sectors.
Under his stewardship, M-Pesa evolved far beyond a peer-to-peer money transfer service into a full-scale fintech ecosystem spanning payments, savings, credit, merchant solutions, interoperability and global remittances.
He joined Safaricom in 2011 as head of M-Pesa Strategy and Business Development, playing a pivotal role in shaping the agent aggregator model that later became a global standard for mobile money.
Over the years, he held several senior roles within Safaricom and Vodacom, including Director of M-Commerce at Vodacom Tanzania and Chief Financial Services Officer at Safaricom PLC.
Absa on Wednesday noted that Lopokoiyit’s impact on financial inclusion has been recognised globally, including his induction into the 11:FS Hall of Fame, which honours industry leaders and innovators who have significantly improved the financial services ecosystem through innovation, resilience, and pioneering work.
“This appointment demonstrates Absa’s strategic focus on delivering integrated, customer centric solutions across our personal and private banking franchise while unlocking new growth opportunities”, Absa Group CEO Kenny Fihla, said.
This leadership transition occurs during a sensitive period regarding the structural future of M-Pesa, characterized by ongoing structural evolution and continued push to separate it from parent company-Safaricom.
This is on the back of its expansion into broader financial ecosystem including credit, merchant payments, and investment tools like the newly launched “Ziidi Trader”.
Sitoyo was the primary architect of unifying fragmented, multi-market operations under a single, unified technology stack and product roadmap.
“A highly experienced industry leader, Sitoyo brings deep expertise in financial services, telecoms, customer value propositions and large-scale business transformation,” the Group said.
Other changes announced by Absa includes a new role for Prabashni Naidoo, currently serving as Group chief internal audit executive, who will step into a newly reconstituted role that includes legal, compliance and group secretariat as Group chief governance officer, effective March 1.
Managing executive: compliance strategy, regulatory relations and governance Rushdi Solomons has been promoted to Group chief internal audit officer. Fatima Newman has been appointed chief compliance officer.
