The Africa Fintech Summit is underway in Cape Town at the International Convention Center. We had an opportunity to have a conversation with one of Africa’s leading fintech whose representative at the event coinincidently owes a large part of his career growth to their Zambian outfit.
Meet David Waithaka, Cellulant Chief Commercial Officer
Awesome meeting David Waithaka of @Cellulant and his team at the on going #AFTSCapeTown2022. Read the article on https://t.co/z8num9ycSt pic.twitter.com/twjSgxRGMP
— FinInsight Zambia (@MWE15) November 4, 2022
David is currently based in Nairobi Kenya and was delighted to be a part of this year’s event having missed the Washington event in April 2022. “I am enjoying every bit of it (this year’s cape town event). This was an important summit to attend as I had missed the one in (Washington) DC earlier in the year”, he said while speaking to the founder of this website following his panel discussion. “I found that my expectations have been meet and exceeded”.
The 16 year veteran of Cellulant who joined the company as part of the business support service, according to his LinkedIn profile, and was responsible for building the operations of Cellulant Zambia for 3 years, was excited to be a part of this year’s event as it provided him an opportunity to network with our industry players and get a feel of pulse of where the industry was going.
“This was an important event for me to come in and interact with other industry players. When I think about Africa and the position we (Cellulant) we occupy in the world at the moment, you can see there is a lot that is going to happen that we need to pay attention to from a population and digitization perspective.”
With its presence in several different African countries, Cellulant’s participation in events such as this one, which has brought different industry players and stakeholder together, unique value creation prospects can be attained.
“For Cellulant this (attendance of event) is important. Every single day you learn something new (from other players)”. Multiple languages, multiple currencies, a youthful African population are all factors to be considered that make the learning experience unique according to David. “So, when you bring all these together, there is no way you can know everything about Africa. It is in these events that one is able to pick up what is happening in different part of the continent”.
“As Cellulant, we want to continue driving pan-africanism by creating a single payment system on the continent. So, it is good to come and understand the emerging needs in the African markets”.
Embedded Finance Panel Discussion
While at the event, David was part of a panel discussion on Embedded finance which he found quite insightful. “We had a session on embedded finance. What is happening (in the industry) is that we are going over and above just payment processing. We are now thinking of what other things (services) we need pair with payment processing to create real value for consumers. This could be an end consumer or a business. So, when we think of payment solutions, we need to add value for the business or consumer either by enabling growth or saving significant costs”.
Another issue his panel focused on was around data. “How is the data that is becoming readily available from digital transactions useful in creating (opportunities)” around access to credit facilities. The panel exposed some of the different ways different players in the market are exploiting this data in order to better serve consumers and businesses.
Key take aways from the event
“There are many things to take away from this year’s event. We need to work together as partners. We can all grow further if we partner and go out there and create a digital Africa”.
About David
In his current role at Cellulant, he is responsible for defining the commercial structure with customers, establishing various go-to-market routes and defining commercial partnerships. He manages the teams driving execution across East, Central and North Africa as well as the Global Payments business.
