July Marketplace Session

This live marketplace session, scheduled on Wednesday, July 6th from 8 am - 9:00 EDT, will feature a series of members, who will present their products/services.
Following the presentations, participants will have the opportunities to reach out directly to the presenting fintech to make inquiries or explore partnership opportunities based on their interests. 

Read event summary here>

PRESENTERS

Tiago Peroba is the Head of the Department for Institutional Relations and Credit Promotion for SMEs at the Brazilian Development Bank – BNDES. He has worked at BNDES for more than 18 years, with over 10 years of experience in dealing with the Brazilian financial system, working with public and private commercial banks, regional development banks, cooperative banks, and captive banks. He is also responsible for the relationship with more than two hundred business entities, having participated as a member of business committees and representative on boards in these entities. Tiago holds a Master's in Accounting from the State University of Rio de Janeiro and a Ph.D. from the Brazilian School of Public and Business Administration. He was a professor in the postgraduate courses at Fundação Getúlio Vargas, from 2006 to 2020.

Nagla Mohamed Bahr is the Managing Director of the Credit Guarantee in Egypt (CGC-Egypt). With more than 30 years of experience in economic development, financial advisories and rating activities with a focus on emerging markets and economies in transition. Nagla has exceptional experience in MSMEs Finance, particularly in the credit guarantee field for 20 years. Her passion for MSMEs sustainable development motivated her mission to create the right ecosystem capable of facilitating their access to finance in suitable forms and with favorable conditions. With her experience in risk management and MSMEs unique characteristics, she was able to create innovative guarantee products, resulting in the boom of CGC-Egypt portfolio by more than 40x in 5 years, serving almost 160,000 MSMEs in 2022, and enabling their access to finance by USD 17 billion. Nagla is the Chairwoman of the EMGN (European-Mediterranean Guarantee Network) as well as one of the main founders of the MENA –Guarantee Network. She has B.Sc. in Economics and a Master’s degree in Professional Economic Development.

Owureku Asare currently leads Digital Solutions for Ecobank Group Commercial Banking overseeing 33 Countries in Middle Africa. His role focuses on leveraging digital tools to provide financial access to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).  Prior to his current role, he was the Regional Head, Consumer Distribution for Ecobank Anglophone West Africa. During this role, he led the development of Xpress loan; a Digital lending product for Micro Enterprises and the financially excluded through a partnership with Ecobank, Jumo and MTN Ghana. Additionally, he Successfully managed a US$6 Million grant from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support Ecobank’s Mass Savings Projects in Ghana, Liberia and Nigeria. He also led digital financial services and financial inclusion initiatives in more than 15 countries in Central, East and West Africa.  He is a seasoned subject matter expert and International Speaker on Digital financial services with over 18 years of experience in the sector, with a purpose to drive financial inclusion. This led to his role as a Co-founder and Director of Financial Inclusion Forum Africa; An African-based non-profit organization contributing to global and national efforts of providing access to the financially excluded. 

George Ogbonnaya is a vice president and the Group Head, of Business Banking at First City Monument Bank Limited.  A Fellow of the Institute of Credit Administration, a Senior Honourable Member of Chartered Institute of Bankers, and a certified coach in Game Thinking with over 23 years of experience in banking, cutting across commercial banking, credit sales, and product development, product management & electronic banking. He is responsible for the SME and Commercial banking segments of the bank’s business.
In addition to having the responsibility for driving growth in commercial and SME segments, George is also responsible for developing new products/solutions and finding alternative sources of funding for SMEs. He drives the bank’s strategic goals in emerging sectors including Renewable Energy, Women-In-Business, and Technology. Under his leadership, the bank has progressed to a top-rated SME financial institution winning several awards in the SME categories.
 

Bamidele Kutemi currently heads the Gender & Youth Banking Team in FirstBank, overseeing the development and implementation of segment specific initiatives and portfolio management. Prior to this role, She had managed and served in lead roles across various teams and businesses in the bank, spanning over 18 years experience in Domestic Operations, Electronic Banking and Retail Products, leading her teams to develop and implement innovative initiatives and solutions for the bank in payment card management & operations, and e commerce payment solutions. A certified Prince2 Project Management Practitioner and an Associate Member of The Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPMN), Bamidele is an alumnus of the University of Ibadan, with a Masters degree in Communication Arts. She has attended several strategic courses in banking operations, electronic payments, product development & management within and outside the country. She has worked on several initiatives within the bank aimed at driving enhanced customer experience and lately women inclusion and empowerment in a bid to yield sustainable growth in the gender segment.
 

Oluchi Okpara is a first class graduate of University of Sunderland, UK where she studied business management. She worked in KPMG for 4 years as an associate consultant in the Management Consulting practice of KPMG in Nigeria. Her experience covers customer experience and corporate strategic planning in the financial services industry. She was a member of KPMG’s customer experience team as well as a project team member for Nigeria’s foremost annual banking industry customer satisfaction survey (BICSS) involving over 28,000 retail customers and 4,000 SMEs and large corporate organizations. She has worked on several customer experience transformation projects which involved coming up with tailored propositions for both Retail, SME and Corporate customers of various financial institutions in Nigeria. She facilitated on several occasions bespoke trainings to help employees better understand how to deliver great customer experience in a variety of scenarios. Also led the team in conducting in depth customer experience surveys and focus group sessions that covered over 4,000 individual and 100 corporate clients across the country.