Absa Group, the parent company of Absa Bank Kenya PLC, has appointed outgoing Managing Director of M-PESA Africa Sitoyo Lopokoiyit as Chief Executive of its Personal and Private Banking division.
- •Lopokoiyit joined Safaricom in 2011 as Head of M-PESA Strategy and Business Development and held several senior leadership roles including Director of M-Commerce at Vodacom Tanzania.
- •During his tenure at M-PESA Africa, which begun in April 2021, the mobile money network expanded its footprint across eight African markets with more than 60 million customers and over 5 million businesses.
- •In a slew of internal executive changes, Absa Group has promoted Rushdi Solomons to Group Chief Internal Audit Officer, after Prabashni Naidoo, currently Group Chief Internal Audit Executive, will assume a newly reconstituted role as Group Chief Governance Officer.
“This appointment demonstrates Absa’s strategic focus on delivering integrated, customer centric solutions across our Personal and Private Banking franchise while unlocking new growth opportunities,” said Kenny Fihla, Group Chief Executive Officer of Absa Group, on Lopokoiyit
The bank said Lopokoiyit’s experience in financial services, telecoms, customer value propositions, and large-scale business transformation will support Absa’s focus on delivering solutions across its Personal and Private Banking franchise while exploring new growth opportunities.
Before joining Safaricom, Lopokoiyit served as a Business Advisor and Merchandising Manager at Caltex, then under Chevron Kenya Limited, where he engaged with Safaricom during the early stages of M-PESA, contributing to the development of the agent aggregator model now widely adopted in mobile money operations.
