EFInA Appoints Diei CEO

EFInA Appoints Diei CEO

The Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access (EFInA) has announced the appointment of Mr. Esaie Diei as its Chief Executive Officer.

In this capacity Diei, would be responsible for leading EFInA and ensuring that the organisation continues to advance on its mission of facilitating the emergence of an all-inclusive and growth-promoting financial system in Nigeria.

 Diei brings a deep experience of working at senior level in financial inclusion and in financial markets; strong relationship management experience with the ability to effectively engage with diverse stakeholders; and a strong understanding of the operation, challenges, technical and political context of the Nigerian financial system.

He has over 30 years professional experience in management, product development, marketing and digital innovation. Diei is an alumnus of ESCA (Ecole Superieure de commerce d’Abidjan), a highly rated Business School in Cote d’Ivoire in partnership with the University of Brighton (United Kingdom).

 Diei began his career at IBM in 1998 as a sales manager before moving to United Bank of Africa (UBA) in 1999, as Head, Card & Payments. In 2009, he was appointed Group Head,  Prepaid Card Business and in this capacity he played an important role in UBA’s digital banking transformation. Esaie took up an appointment with Globacom in 2014 as Group Head, Mobile Financial Business and led the company’s digital transformation in mobile payments. In 2017, he was appointed the CEO, MoneyMaster Limited, a Globacom subsidiary focused on digital financial business.

 Diei has made substantial contributions to the development of financial inclusion in Nigeria particularly through his work on the Central Bank’s Committee set up to develop the regulatory framework for licensing super-agents where he served as vice chairman.

He was one of 40 Digital innovation experts from Africa selected by the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) in 2011 to participate at a gathering in Washington DC called to examine the challenges and opportunities which existed in promoting financial inclusion through innovation.

 

Commenting on the appointment, EFInA’s Board Chair, Mr Segun Akerele said: “Esaie  has the right mix of experience in leadership, digital innovation and management needed to lead the next phase of EFInA’s growth.

“We are happy he has agreed to join us as he shares the values and aspirations of this company and its donors. On behalf of the Board of Directors.

“I wholeheartedly welcome Esaie to EFInA and wish him every success.”

In response, Diei stated that: “I am excited to join this wonderful team of highly driven individuals who are investing their skills and efforts in advancing access to financial services and opportunities for the poor in Nigeria.

“I am confident that working together with our stakeholders we will be able to achieve our goals and meet Nigeria’s Financial  Inclusion targets by 2020.”

 

Kairos Capital Targets Increased Market Share

Kairos Capital Limited has expressed its prepared to increase its market share in the financial market, through the delivery of superior services and product offerings.

Managing Director of the firm, Mr. Sam Chidoka, said this in an interview in Lagos, recently.

Kairos Capital is an Issuing House, a newly licenced financial advisory firm and an underwriter that commenced operations last September.

Chidoka, said the strategic intent of the firm is to grow capacity, show capacity and be bold.

“We intend to use this year as a year of announcement to show capacity. We have a couple of clients we are working with and in the next few months, the transaction we have done will be hitting the market and people will see what we have done.

“So we clearly want to see Kairos as a market leader. We believe in co-competition. We believe in collaboration and competition. We are not coming to the market to just compete, but we have had friends in the market and we still have friends and we want to co-compete.

“We want to continue to build capacity in collaborating with them on their transactions and they collaborating with us on our transactions while we compete.

“So the idea is to have Kairos stand out in the market in the next few years and probably start to diversify our investment types over time that in the next future,” Chidoka said.

According to him, in the next 24 months, the firm would be focused on corporate finance, capital raising, advisory, divestitures, spinoffs, management, takeovers and such transactions.

“We are absolutely very confident. The team at Kairos has combined experience of over 60 years. And so what we hope to offer in the market, our unique selling point is the fact that we intend to work with our clients very closely.

“We are not going to be all things to all men. We intend to have some unique clients that we would service over and over. What we hope to do is to work with our clients from when they are issuing to when they are not issuing because in the financial advisory space, we find that there are a lot of things going on with clients that if you are not close to them they won’t confide in you.

“We expect that by the second quarter, we will be taking one firm to Nigerian Stock Exchange for listing,” he explained.

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