Africa has been at the forefront of digital innovation since the launch of Mpesa, one of the first mobile money payment services in the world, fourteen years ago. In this episode, we hear the perspective of a C-Suite leader who has focused on this digital transformation of financial services and the opportunities it created for a more inclusive, dynamic, and responsive industry across the continent. Hisham Ezz Al-Arab has decades of experience banking across the Middle East, Africa and Europe, at global firms including Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank. For the last 18 years, he was Chairman of CIB Egypt where he transformed the institution from a wholesale lender to the largest universal bank in Egypt with an award-winning digital platform and robust financial inclusion story which is powering new services in markets across Africa.  

While the mobile revolution provided the technology foundation, Hisham found that mindset transformation was essential to delivering the full benefits of new technology for customers, staff, and economy they served.  Rethinking products and services, promoting early wins and progress to win-over internal skeptics, managing investor relations, and highlighting the benefit of new capabilities, such as advanced data analytics, were all part of the toolbox he used to transform thinking and propel the sector forward. Hisham also looks forward in this episode to his new mission as he works to create the right structures to connect the next wave of digital entrepreneurs with capital and the opportunity to bring their visions to reality in one of the most dynamic regions of the world.