Nigerian Ezediashi Ofili has
been appointed to lead the sub-Saharan Africa operations for MasterCard as its
Vice President and Business Leader.
DigitalSENSE Business News learnt that Ofili joins MasterCard from
Access Bank Plc where he was the Head of Business Engagement for Northern
Nigeria with over 20 years’ experience in the banking, energy, Information
Technology and credit rating sectors in both Africa and Europe.
Also, Mr. Ofili has played a key role in
several major projects most recently the launch of the Nigeria National
Identity Card project.
MasterCard is seeking to expand
its prepaid product offering in the region and has partnered with several
financial institutions to drive this strategy.
Commenting on the appointment
Daniel Monehin, MasterCard’s Division President sub-Saharan Africa, said
growing the prepaid business in Africa would bring more people into the formal
financial system thereby increasing levels of financial inclusion in the
continent.
“We are happy to welcome Mr.
Ofili to the MasterCard team. As we work towards realising our vision of a
world beyond cash we acknowledge that Africa’s position as an emerging market
provides increasing opportunities for the growth of prepaid card payments,
especially as the market begins to witness a shift from cash to cashless
transactions,” said Monehin. “We believe that investing in the kind of talent
that will make our vision a reality is central to our success, and we are glad
to bring on board someone with the experience and passion required to drive our
growth in this region.”
Mr. Ofili is a qualified
Petroleum Engineer from the University of Ibadan, and is also a Microsoft
Certified Engineer and Project Management Professional with PRINCE2 certification. In addition to that he holds a Master’s degree in Business
Administration – Strategic Management of Technology – from Cass Business School
in London.
“The potential for Africa to
become as technologically advanced as its counterparts in the developed world
in the area of payments is enormous, and I look forward to contributing to this
growth,” said Ofili following his appointment. “With the African market poised
to grow significantly in the coming years as the middle class expands and use
of electronic payments gains traction, now is the time to ingrain prepaid card
usage in our consumers’ daily transactions.”
With 85 per cent of the world’s
transactions still being carried out in cash and cheques, the opportunities to
grow card usage abound, and as a technology company in the global payments
industry MasterCard has been instrumental in driving cashless transactions.
To realize its vision,
MasterCard said its focusing on thought leadership, innovation, and working with key
partners to increase card usage and make provision for more people to enjoy the
benefits of electronic commerce which is safer, more secure and transparent.
... Making SENSE of digital revolution!*Pix: Ezediashi Ofili
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