Inclusive FinTech Forum

Hon. John Rwangombwa was appointed Central Bank Governor on the 25th of February 2023. His career started in Rwanda Revenue Authority where he grew through ranks to the Deputy Commissioner of Customs for Operations. He then joined the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning in 2002 as the Director of the National Treasury Department.
Having served as the Ministry’s First Accountant General in 2005, Hon. Rwangombwa was appointed Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Treasury in the same year and in 2009 he became the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning. At that time, he oversaw the elaboration and implementation of Rwanda’s First Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS 1), under which Rwanda’s economy was able to achieve high growth at an average of 8% and poverty was reduced by 12% in 5 years from 2006-2011. Since his appointment as Central Bank Governor to date, Hon. Rwangombwa has been able to maintain the stability of the Rwandan Economy and its Financial Sector. He was voted Governor of the year 2015 for the Sub-Saharan Region by Emerging Markets. Hon. Rwangombwa serves as member of various advisory bodies including the Presidential Advisory Council and World Economic Forum on Global Agenda Council.

Mr Ravi Menon serves a portfolio of work in sustainability, innovation, and inclusion. As Singapore’s Ambassador for Climate Action and Senior Adviser to the National Climate Change Secretariat at the Prime Minister’s Office, Mr Menon plays a leading role in Singapore’s efforts to foster collective action internationally and public-private partnerships locally to drive the transition to a low-carbon future. Mr Menon is also Chairman of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) Asia-Pacific Advisory Board and a member of the GFANZ Principals Group. Mr Menon is Senior Mentor to Elevandi, a FinTech platform for international technology collaboration across the public, private, and people sectors to create economic value and social good. He is also a Trustee of the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Chairman of its Innovation and Enterprise Committee. Mr Menon is a Trustee of the Singapore Indian Development Association, a community self-help group. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Civil Service College where he conducts a workshop series on the themes of sustainability, innovation, and social inclusion. Prior to his current roles, Mr Menon served for 36 years in the Singapore Public Service. As Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Trade & Industry (2007-11), Mr Menon helped to steer the economy during the global financial crisis. As Deputy Secretary at the Ministry of Finance (2003-07), he oversaw fiscal policy and government reserves. As Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (2011-23), Mr Menon helped to implement monetary and macroprudential policies, reformed the financial regulatory framework, and developed Singapore as a green finance centre and a global FinTech hub. On the international front, he served as Chairman of the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System and Chairman of the Financial Stability Board Standing Committee on Standards Implementation. Mr Menon is a recipient of the Meritorious Service Medal from the Singapore Government, the Distinguished Alumni Award from NUS, and the Distinguished Leadership and Service Award from the Institute of International Finance in Washington. Mr Menon holds a Master's in Public Administration from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Social Science (Honours) in Economics from NUS.

Batya Blankers, is the Founder and CEO of Chancen International (CI). CI offers excluded youth in Africa access to high quality skills development that leads to employment. Utilizing an innovative and sustainable financing model known as the Income Share Agreement (ISA), students who join the CHANCEN community sign fair and ethical contracts to repay a percentage of their salaries over a set number of years when they graduate from rigorously evaluated education programs.

Batya was born in South Africa and was given access to university in Germany through participation in an Income Share Agreement. As a beneficiary herself, Batya is passionate about offering an ethical and fair financial aid model to fellow Africans to ensure more individuals have equal opportunities in accessing education on the continent and a role in building strong and peaceful economies.

In 2016, Batya led a feasibility study to assess the landscape for implementing ISAs in Rwanda and South Africa. Confronted with a strong sense of urgency from education providers for an ethical and sustainable student financing product, she secured funding to launch a pilot in Rwanda in 2018 with two education partners. Over the last six years, Batya has built and led a team of 57 in facilitating access to high-quality education that leads to employment for over 4000 young people with 12+ education partners. That number is expected to reach 16,000 by 2026 thanks to the successful establishment of a $40M blended finance vehicle and over $4M in philanthropic support for technology, market expansion and organizational development.

Through her work, Batya has become a recognised expert on fair and ethical student finance and is invited to speak regularly and share learnings. Some of her recent engagements include the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) Business Forum and SOCAP in San Francisco as well as CIES in Washington DC. Batya was a 2019 Ranier Arnhold Fellow with the Mulago Foundation and holds an MBA from African Leadership University.

Esselina Macome - Associate Professor at the Eduardo Mondlane University. She holds a Doctors Degree (PhD), in Information .Esselina Macome - Associate Professor at the Eduardo Mondlane University. She holds a Doctors Degree (PhD), in Information Technologies by University of Pretoria, in South Africa in 2003; she also has a Masters Degree (MSc) in Analysis, Design and Management of Information System by London School of Economics and Political Science of the University of London, in 1992. Dr. Macome also has a Bachelor Honors Degree in Mathematics Teaching by Paedagogische Hochshule Dresden- Germany, in 1987. In 2016, she concluded an international certification in Leadership for Financial Inclusion offered by Fletcher School. She successfully completed the courses on Digital Money, Leading Markets: A Global Tour, Leading for Frontiers, Bitcoin: Back to the Future, Gender, regulating Fintechs, Humanitarian payment, product management all offered by the Digital Frontiers Institute in partnership with Fletcher School as part of the certified digital finance practitioner, a 3 years program, which she successfully concluded in September 2020. In 2018-2019 she participated successfully in the Africa Board Fellowship programme organized by the Centre of Financial Inclusion Accion (2018-2019). She participated in a course on Strategic Leadership in inclusive finance offered by Hardvard Bussiness School (March / April 2019). She is also a Certified Gender Equality Changmaker, by Digital Frontiers Institute since 2022 Dr. Macome joined the Central Bank of Mozambique in 2005 as Executive Director and Member of the Board, position that she held until 2015. Presently, beside the academic activity, she also works at FSDMOç (Financial Sector Deepening Moçambique) as Chief Executive Officer since July 2017, and was also appointed as the Presidente of the Board of Directors of Standard Bank Mozambique since December 2022.. Her interests include the usage of Information, Communication Technology for development and financial inclusion with more focus to Digital financial services (DFS), green finance and Gender related issues. In 2016, she concluded an international certification in Leadership for Financial Inclusion offered by Fletcher School. She successfully completed the courses on Digital Money, Leading Markets: A Global Tour, Leading for Frontiers, Bitcoin: Back to the Future, Gender, regulating Fintechs, Humanitarian payment, product management all offered by the Digital Frontiers Institute in partnership with Fletcher School as part of the certified digital finance practitioner, a 3 years program, which she successfully concluded in September 2020. In 2018-2019 she participated successfully in the Africa Board Fellowship programme organized by the Centre of Financial Inclusion Accion (2018-2019). She participated in a course on Strategic Leadership in inclusive finance offered by Hardvard Bussiness School (March / April 2019). She is also a Certified Gender Equality Changmaker, by Digital Frontiers Institute since 2022 Dr. Macome joined the Central Bank of Mozambique in 2005 as Executive Director and Member of the Board, position that she held until 2015. Presently, beside the academic activity, she also works at FSDMOç (Financial Sector Deepening Moçambique) as Chief Executive Officer since July 2017 and was also appointed as the Presidente of the Board of Directors of Standard Bank Mozambique since December 2022. Her interests include the usage of Information, Communication Technology for development and financial inclusion with more focus to Digital financial services (DFS), green finance and Gender related issues.

Faith Keza is a digital transformation leader and Board Member at the National Bank of Rwanda (BNR). She is the former CEO of Irembo, a govtech platform that has created secure access for over 15M citizens and foreigners to 100+ public services online and offline through a 4000 agent-strong network across Rwanda. By enabling citizens to find, apply, and pay for services online, Irembo has supported the Rwandan government’s ambition to go cashless and digital. Before Irembo, she worked in Silicon Valley-California as a Software Engineer at Google, Oracle, and Delphix working on enterprise and consumer software products.

Faith has a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business School where she graduated as a Baker Scholar. She also serves on the Board of Directors of Rwanda Development Board (RDB), Vanguard Economics, and Moving Health.

Mr Thapelo Tsheole is the Chief Executive Officer of Capital Market Authority (CMA) Rwanda.Mr Tsheole holds a Bachelor of Social Sciences (Single Major Economics) from the University of Botswana and a Master of Commerce (MComm) in Financial Markets from Rhodes University (RSA). Further, he holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration (MBA) from the Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town (RSA). He has also completed several financial markets programmes as well as a Leadership Development Programme at the University of Stellenbosch Business School (RSA). He is a member of the South African Institute of Financial Markets (SAIFM & SAFEX). He is also a member of the Institute of Directors in South Africa.He has extensive financial markets experience in Capital Markets, Forex, Structured Products, and Financial Market Regulation.