Dr. Patrick Saidu Conteh

Dr. Patrick Saidu Conteh is a distinguished leader in finance, fintech, and economics spanning over twenty-five years across the financial sector. He is recognized for exceptional contributions to financial innovation and digital financial inclusion policy across Africa.

Dr. Conteh is the Chief Executive Officer of the Africa Fintech Network (AFN) – the continent’s advocacy body for the creation of a Pan-Africa Fintech Ecosystem enabled through cooperation and collaboration among the major fintech ecosystem stakeholders in African and beyond.

Dr. Conteh was former USAID Senior Economic Policy Advisor to the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning of Liberia and before that Resident Advisor at the Central Bank of Liberia.

Dr. Conteh was former Regional Lead for Sub Sahara Africa overseeing a unique collaboration between Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) UK and Financial Sector Deepening Africa (FSDA), to strengthen the creation, dissemination, and adoption of fintech related knowledge in the continent.

Dr. Conteh served as Governor of the Central Bank of Sierra Leone, where amongst other reform initiatives, I pioneered one of Africa’s first fintech regulatory sandboxes as part of an overarching financial inclusion strategy. Before that, he served as Minister of State for fiscal affairs Sierra Leone.

Dr. Conteh also served as Alternate Executive Director at the African Development Bank contributing to the formulation and implementation of major developmental programs and projects across Africa.

His earlier career was in retail banking holding various senior management roles in financial management & control; risk management; administration & operations; credits administration & control; human capital management; business development; strategy and policy, etc., and exiting at the level of Deputy Managing Director/Chief Operating Officer.