AFN Board
These industry leaders are focused on payment technology solutions and services, financial education and regulation, and international card networks.
Dr. Segun Aina
President
Dr. Segun Aina
President
Dr Segun Aina is a global professional banking leader, internationally rated fintech influencer and thought leader, respected Futurist and a Philanthropist.
He had three decades of distinguished banking career and voluntarily retired from active banking service after a six years tenure as Bank MD/CEO. His core area of interest was operations and technology -using technology to deliver delightful banking services and products in a very efficient manner.
He is past President of Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (2012 to 2014) as well as West African Bankers Association (Nigeria Chapter) 2001 and currently the inaugural Chairman of Global Council of Global Banking Education Standards Board (GBEStB) 2017 to date.
A tech visionary who set up Fintech Associates Ltd as far back as 2002, he is founding President, Fintech Association of Nigeria, initiator and founding President of the Africa Fintech Network, Founder/Chairman, and The Fintech Institute among others.
Dr. Aina who has been variously described as Nigeria’s finTech envoy, incubated a number of successful fintech startups and sits on the Boards of various institutions in Banking, Insurance, Agriculture, Technology sectors etc. He also serves as a member of the UK-Africa Fintech Investment Group, a UK Government initiative co-Chaired by the Lord Mayor of London and UK Prime Minister Ambassador for Business Fintech.
Dr. Aina is a distinguished alumnus of University of Lagos, University of Ibadan, INSEAD France, Harvard Business School, IMD Switzerland, and Lagos Business School.
His contributions to the academic sector is legendary- he was a member of the pioneer Advancement Board of Obafemi Awolowo University 2006 to 2012 and currently Chairman Advancement Board of Federal University of Technology Akure,(2011 to date), Chairman National Think Tank (initiative of University of Ibadan Research Foundation of which he is a member) and Member, Osun State University Advancement Board.
Chilekwa Banda
Vice President, Southern Africa / Association of Digital Finance Practitioners, Zambia
Alex Sea
Vice President, Fancophone & Lusophone Africa / Next Fintech Forum
Alex Sea
Vice President
Alex SEA is a francophone west africa Fintech leader. He co-founded and managed Finov, an advisory and investment venture dedicated to West Africa francophone financial technologies ecosystem. Finov HUB helps government and public players define and activate digital finance strategy, accelerates promising financial technologies with great social impact in a unique program, helps innovators develop very disruptive Fintech, co-invests in high value projects with business angels and venture capitalist and supports bank, insurance, microfinance, telecom companies, etc. fintech strategy.
Since 2017 he founded and chair Africa Fintech Forum the leading francophone Africa Fintech event. Also he holds each year Africa Fintech Tour a Fintech roadshow that meets in +10 countries local Fintech ecosystem players share and build.
Ali Hussein Kassim
Vice President, Eastern Africa / Association of Fintech in Kenya
Ali Hussein Kassim
Member
I am a Serial Entrepreneur and regular commentator and contributor on all things Tech and the Policy and Regulatory landscape that straddles this sector across Africa in particular and the world in general.
What keeps me busy full time these days is consulting on Digital Transformation and working on two of my latest startups in the Fintech and eSupply Chain Platform in the FMCG Sector.
I also serve on several Boards both in the private & public sectors. Key among these are: –
Chairman, Association of Fintechs in Kenya
The official representative organization for Fintechs in Kenya.
Chairman - Board of Trustees, Kenya ICT Action Network – An ICT Policy Think Tank based in Nairobi.
Member of the National Technical Committee of the Kenya National Innovation Agency, a Kenya Government Agency set up to manage and develop the National Innovation System for socioeconomic development. - Advisory Board Member, Fintech
Mifos Initiative, a global fintech platform providing open-source core-banking and mobile platform for Microfinance institutions.
Board Member and Chair of the Audit & Risk Committee of Longhorn Publishers, the only publicly listed educational publisher in East & Central Africa.
Oversight Board Member and Chair of the Projects and Resource Mobilization Committee of the Kenya Tourism Promotion Fund - a $200 million annual fund to jumpstart and promote the Tourism sector in Kenya through strategic interventions.
I also get great satisfaction by mentoring and investing in Tech Entrepreneurs across Africa.
Dr. Patrick Conteh
Board Secretary / CEO
Dr Patrick Conteh
CEO
Dr Patrick Conteh is the ACCA Regional Lead for Policy and Insights covering India and Africa. Before that, he served the Africa Fintech Network (AFN) in the capacities of advisory board member and Chief Executive Officer, while concurrently serving as an economic advisor to the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning of Liberia, as well as a tutor for Cambridge Fintech Regulatory Innovation Training program. He is a financial sector and development finance professional with over twenty-five years of combined experience spanning the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors. A strong advocate for fintech and other disruptive technologies as platforms for leapfrogging financial inclusion in Africa.
In the recent past, Patrick served as an advisor to the Central Bank of Liberia and led a unique collaboration between Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) and Financial Sector Deepening Africa (FSDA) to strengthen Africa’s financial markets. As Regional Lead for Sub-Sahara Africa, Patrick successfully led a team embedded within FSDA, in the creation, dissemination, and adoption of FinTech-related knowledge across Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA). CCAF is a multi-disciplinary research centre at the University of Cambridge, Judge Business School, in the United Kingdom, dedicated to the study of technology-enabled and innovative instruments, channels, and systems emerging outside of traditional finance.
Patrick was formerly the Governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone, where amongst other reform initiatives, he pioneered one of Africa’s first regulatory sandboxes as part of an overarching financial inclusion strategy. Prior to that, he was Minister of State for fiscal affairs and was instrumental in the turnaround of Sierra Leone’s economy following the 2015/16 depression caused by the twin shocks of the Ebola Virus Disease and the unprecedented collapse of iron ore prices- Sierra Leone’s major exports.
Patrick served as Alternate Executive Director at the African Development Bank representing Sierra Leone, Ghana, Liberia, Gambia, and Sudan, contributing to the formulation and implementation of various developmental programs and projects. His earlier career was in commercial banking spanning over sixteen straight years holding various senior management roles including Director of Risk Management and Deputy Managing Director/Chief Operating Officer.
Dr Conteh holds an excellent combination of academic and professional qualifications and competencies spanning the disciplines of economics, finance, and management.
Patrick holds a PhD, MBA, and a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants of the United Kingdom.
LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-saidu-conteh-phd-24114b16/
Chilekwa Banda
Vice President, Southern Africa / Association of Digital Finance Practitioners, Zambia
Alex Sea
Vice President, Fancophone & Lusophone Africa / Next Fintech Forum
Alex Sea
Vice President
Alex SEA is a francophone west africa Fintech leader. He co-founded and managed Finov, an advisory and investment venture dedicated to West Africa francophone financial technologies ecosystem. Finov HUB helps government and public players define and activate digital finance strategy, accelerates promising financial technologies with great social impact in a unique program, helps innovators develop very disruptive Fintech, co-invests in high value projects with business angels and venture capitalist and supports bank, insurance, microfinance, telecom companies, etc. fintech strategy.
Since 2017 he founded and chair Africa Fintech Forum the leading francophone Africa Fintech event. Also he holds each year Africa Fintech Tour a Fintech roadshow that meets in +10 countries local Fintech ecosystem players share and build.
Ali Hussein Kassim
Vice President, Eastern Africa / Association of Fintech in Kenya
Ali Hussein Kassim
Member
I am a Serial Entrepreneur and regular commentator and contributor on all things Tech and the Policy and Regulatory landscape that straddles this sector across Africa in particular and the world in general.
What keeps me busy full time these days is consulting on Digital Transformation and working on two of my latest startups in the Fintech and eSupply Chain Platform in the FMCG Sector.
I also serve on several Boards both in the private & public sectors. Key among these are: –
Chairman, Association of Fintechs in Kenya
The official representative organization for Fintechs in Kenya.
Chairman - Board of Trustees, Kenya ICT Action Network – An ICT Policy Think Tank based in Nairobi.
Member of the National Technical Committee of the Kenya National Innovation Agency, a Kenya Government Agency set up to manage and develop the National Innovation System for socioeconomic development. - Advisory Board Member, Fintech
Mifos Initiative, a global fintech platform providing open-source core-banking and mobile platform for Microfinance institutions.
Board Member and Chair of the Audit & Risk Committee of Longhorn Publishers, the only publicly listed educational publisher in East & Central Africa.
Oversight Board Member and Chair of the Projects and Resource Mobilization Committee of the Kenya Tourism Promotion Fund - a $200 million annual fund to jumpstart and promote the Tourism sector in Kenya through strategic interventions.
I also get great satisfaction by mentoring and investing in Tech Entrepreneurs across Africa.
Dr. Patrick Conteh
Board Secretary / CEO
Dr Patrick Conteh
CEO
Dr Patrick Conteh is the ACCA Regional Lead for Policy and Insights covering India and Africa. Before that, he served the Africa Fintech Network (AFN) in the capacities of advisory board member and Chief Executive Officer, while concurrently serving as an economic advisor to the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning of Liberia, as well as a tutor for Cambridge Fintech Regulatory Innovation Training program. He is a financial sector and development finance professional with over twenty-five years of combined experience spanning the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors. A strong advocate for fintech and other disruptive technologies as platforms for leapfrogging financial inclusion in Africa.
In the recent past, Patrick served as an advisor to the Central Bank of Liberia and led a unique collaboration between Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) and Financial Sector Deepening Africa (FSDA) to strengthen Africa’s financial markets. As Regional Lead for Sub-Sahara Africa, Patrick successfully led a team embedded within FSDA, in the creation, dissemination, and adoption of FinTech-related knowledge across Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA). CCAF is a multi-disciplinary research centre at the University of Cambridge, Judge Business School, in the United Kingdom, dedicated to the study of technology-enabled and innovative instruments, channels, and systems emerging outside of traditional finance.
Patrick was formerly the Governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone, where amongst other reform initiatives, he pioneered one of Africa’s first regulatory sandboxes as part of an overarching financial inclusion strategy. Prior to that, he was Minister of State for fiscal affairs and was instrumental in the turnaround of Sierra Leone’s economy following the 2015/16 depression caused by the twin shocks of the Ebola Virus Disease and the unprecedented collapse of iron ore prices- Sierra Leone’s major exports.
Patrick served as Alternate Executive Director at the African Development Bank representing Sierra Leone, Ghana, Liberia, Gambia, and Sudan, contributing to the formulation and implementation of various developmental programs and projects. His earlier career was in commercial banking spanning over sixteen straight years holding various senior management roles including Director of Risk Management and Deputy Managing Director/Chief Operating Officer.
Dr Conteh holds an excellent combination of academic and professional qualifications and competencies spanning the disciplines of economics, finance, and management.
Patrick holds a PhD, MBA, and a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants of the United Kingdom.
LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-saidu-conteh-phd-24114b16/
Benazeer Saïdoo
Mauritius Africa Fintech Hub
Benazeer Saïdoo
Member
Benazeer is a Mauritian professional with 10+ years of experience in the Marketing & Communications field, with a specialisation in Digital and Project Management. Over the last decade, she contributed in developing training programmes and business strategies contributing to the development of digital services and products for various clients on the island and in the region.
One of her latest experiences has been in the coordination and management of business and marketing initiatives, ranging from events to research projects, involving local, pan-African and global stakeholders. She currently heads the Mauritius Africa FinTech Hub (MAFH) association as CEO.