Spotlight Summary
Winfred Anyona’s journey into fintech is anchored in a strong technology foundation and a clear vision for Africa’s financial transformation. With a Bachelor’s degree in Business Information and Technology (BBIT), she entered the tech space at a time when IT was rapidly gaining global momentum. As fintech emerged as a powerful force, her focus shifted toward its potential to solve real problems across Africa. For Winfred, fintech represented more than innovation, it was a way to improve lives and expand access. As she puts it, “Fintech has become our way of life now. Almost every aspect of our daily living revolves around digital financial solutions.”
Her career took off at Cellulant, one of Africa’s leading payments aggregators, where she began as a Support Engineer. Serving as the first point of contact for customer issues, she developed a deep understanding of client pain points and built a strong commitment to customer advocacy and problem-solving.
Driven by a desire to make greater commercial impact, Winfred transitioned into business development, engaging directly with the complexities of Africa’s fragmented payments ecosystem. She specialized in onboarding new customers, managing full sales cycles, and supporting multi-country expansion.
Today, Winfred serves as Senior Business Development Manager at Nium, a global leader in cross-border money movement and real-time payments, and is the sole lead for the African region. In this role, she spearheads strategic expansion across the continent, building high-impact partnerships with banks, Money Transfer Operators (MTOs), Payment Service Providers (PSPs), and businesses. She manages the end-to-end sales lifecycle, enabling seamless cross-border payment solutions in one of the world’s most dynamic fintech markets.
One of her proudest moments came during her time at Cellulant, when she was part of a core team that engaged directly with the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) board. The team helped educate policymakers on the mechanics of digital payments as part of efforts to create a framework for taxing the digital economy. This experience reinforced a defining belief in her career: that sustainable fintech growth in Africa requires collaboration between innovators and regulators.
Looking ahead, Winfred envisions a unified, seamless cross-border payments ecosystem across Africa. Drawing from her frontline experience with customers navigating fragmented systems, she aspires to contribute directly to policy conversations that shape long-term financial infrastructure. Her goal is to help build structures that unlock Africa’s collective digital potential through collaboration and inclusion.
As the sole representative for Nium across Africa, Winfred has also faced the challenge of being perceived as a “one-person show” by large institutions. She has turned this into a strength by prioritizing trust, accessibility, and strong personal relationships, while leveraging Nium’s global teams to demonstrate depth, scale, and execution capability.
Mentorship and community have played a defining role in Winfred’s journey. She credits strong female leaders such as Ruvimbo Muchena and Kayla Laduke, whom she worked with at Cellulant and Nium, for pushing her to take on bold challenges, stretch beyond comfort zones, and expand her professional horizons. This belief is reflected in her involvement with the Women@Nium mentorship program, an initiative designed to support and advance women leaders by offering guidance, coaching, and peer mentorship. Beyond career growth, the program also creates space for honest conversations around navigating leadership while juggling life, family, and work. Winfred describes the experience as deeply impactful; one that strengthened her leadership perspective and reaffirmed the value of community-led growth. To young women entering fintech, her advice is clear and empowering: “Do it afraid, but do it anyway.”
