MasterCard appoints new Global Products and Solutions Vice President in sub-Saharan Africa

Nairobi, Lagos – MasterCard has appointed Ezediashi Ofili as Vice President and Business Leader to drive the growth of its Prepaid Business in sub-Saharan Africa. He will also oversee MasterCard’s Global Products and Solutions team in the region.

Ofili joins MasterCard from Access Bank PLC where he was the Head of Business Engagement for Northern Nigeria.  With more than twenty years’ experience in the banking, energy, Information Technology and credit rating sectors in both Africa and Europe, 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 realise its vision, MasterCard is 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.