Advisory

Shared Services for AI Complaints Management

Gates Foundation and Proto | Philippines, Namibia, and beyond | 2024-ongoing

In partnership with the Gates Foundation, Proto, and the Cambridge SupTech Lab, I led Digital Transformation Solutions’ (DTS) support of national government agencies in six countries to design and implement a scalable, multi-agency complaints referral and tracking system. As part of the first implementation cohort in the Philippines, I led a 10-month discovery phase engaging over 40 agencies, then refined DTS’s diagnostic and design methodologies to scale across 26 agencies that extend beyond the financial sector suptech to whole of government govtech. Activities included stakeholder assessments, digital readiness analysis, and collaborative system architecture design. The outcome was a comprehensive Project Charter detailing functional specifications, integration requirements, and implementation recommendations to inform system development, scalability, and change management across Philippine government agencies. This work is part of a broader, ongoing US$1.8M Gates-funded initiative to improve grievance redress mechanisms across six LMICs, including Namibia, Liberia, Rwanda, and Nigeria.

Cambridge SupTech Lab

University of Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance | Global | 2021-ongoing

I am the Co-Director and Co-Founder of the Cambridge SupTech Lab, a global initiative housed at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School and implemented by Digital Transformation Solutions. The Lab is dedicated to strengthening the technological capabilities of financial and consumer protection regulators, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Through applied research, technical tools, and capacity-building programs, the Lab helps supervisory agencies adopt supervisory technology ("suptech") that enhances oversight, transparency, and consumer outcomes in increasingly digital markets. The Lab is known for its innovative approaches to designing digital public infrastructure, such as complaint management systems and data-driven supervisory tools. It collaborates with regulators, development partners, and technology providers to co-design scalable solutions that are context-sensitive and future-ready. Its work emphasizes inclusive design, cross-agency coordination, and sustainability, often serving as the lead on diagnostic assessments and human-centered design sprints for complex digital transformation projects in the public sector.

AI-Enabled Consumer Complaints Management

Proto Africa | Ghana, Zambia & Rwanda | 2021-2022

In conjunction with BFA Global and Proto Africa, I provided advisory and technical assistance for the development of an AI-enabled consumer complaints management system for central banks in Ghana, Zambia, and Rwanda. In collaboration with the implementation partners, I worked with financial supervisory authorities in three countries to explore service gaps and constraints in existing consumer complaints management processes. I also supported the identification of opportunities to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of customer complaints management structures for the participating financial supervision authorities. I lead a team that conducted mixed-methods quantitative and qualitative research (both supply- and demands-side), human-centered design, KPI Baseline Analysis, quantitative KPI Results Analysis, and developed an Impact Report for each of the three countries. I supported the implementation of effective consumer complaints management systems intended to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness in the process of resolution of consumer complaints addressed to the central banks. The detailed findings of the supply and demand-side research informed the adaptation of the AI-enabled consumer management system to address the needs of low income segments, with a particular focus on the needs and circumstances of women and other underserved market segments. Through the consumer complaints management system, financial service providers onboarded during the pilot stage observed a marked improvement in the process of resolution of consumer complaints and high levels of service satisfaction. I also authored several internal reports and knowledge products for funders and stakeholders to build on this project in developing effective and efficient consumer complaints management systems for central banks beyond this particular engagement.  

A2A+CICO Interoperability and Market Structure

Gates Foundation  |  Kenya, Tanzania, India, China, Jordan & EU  |  2020-2021

On behalf of the Gates Foundation, I worked with BFA Global to launch a global desk research and expert interview effort on interoperability of digital financial services and real-time payments to address three questions:  (i) To what degree does competition through account-to-account (A2A) and cash-in/cash-out (CICO) interoperability benefit the poor by increasing financial inclusion and enhanced service offerings?; (ii) What have been the most effective levers to transition a market to A2A or CICO interoperability, what are the optimal design features of these interventions, and at what stage in a market’s evolution should these measures be introduced?; (iii) What can the DFS community learn from the interoperability journeys of analog industries, such as PayGo and Credit card interoperability? Speficially, I built upon my role in phase 1 of the project to understand how and in which cases private sector innovation serves as a stop gap or alternative to national switches and other top-down public sector regulation. Results from this research effort were disseminated widely across various platforms targeting regulators and payments industry platers.

iHuzo - Accelerating MSEs through e-commerce in Rwanda

Access to Finance Rwanda (AFR)  |  Rwanda  |  2020-2021

I acted as a Senior Technical Advisor to iHuzo - a program focused on accelerating growth of MSE through expanding e-commerce in Rwanda. I worked together with BFA Global, Access to Finance Rwanda (AFR) and ICT Chamber to stimulate the growth of livelihoods and employment opportunities in Rwanda through e-commerce, to address the barriers and promote an enabling market system for e-commerce with onboarding MSEs into the digital economy at the core. Specially, the program leveraged my expertise in technology to support the team to plan a design sprint, identify vendor, design, and develop prototype for iWorker e-commerce network (iHuzo) and pilot e-commerce network (iHuzo) with platform companies, MSEs and iWorkers. Together, we addressed the market constraints of MSEs to the digital economy and create new or improve livelihoods for works through three pillars, including digital onboarding MSEs, ecosystem acceleration and knowledge creation and demonstration for e-commerce to be replicated and sustained by other Rwandan companies after the program ends. The program onboarded 1,500 local businesses across target MSEs segments of e-commerce readiness and improve or create livelihoods for 2,000 young women and men iWorkers directly through digital onboarding, spurred e-commerce system that engendered wider, more inclusive adoption and drive more investment and actors crowding into the market system. BFA published a series of blogs and a final report capturing learnings, takeaways, models for sectors to replicate and pathways to scale.

Profitability 2.0: ‘Payments as a Platform’ Business Model Innovation for Mobile Money Providers

GSMA  |  Global  |  2020-2021

As the project director, I led a team of specialists to define and present evidence for a "Profitability 2.0" business model and roadmap for mobile money providers, scoped quantitative and qualitative validation activities, and successfully delivered a report detailing insights built on GSMA’s past literature and current quantitative data. Activities informing this report included conducting desk research and interviews with providers regarding mobile money trends, drawing lessons from platforms in adjacent spaces, and ultimately leading the forensic quantitative modeling of an archetypical evolution of a mobile money provider to long-term viable, ecosystem-driven profits that are resilient to disruption.

This led to the development of a business model and a knowledge product providing guidance to mobile money providers on appraising the future of mobile money profitability. BFA worked with GSMA's Mobile for Development team to develop a report and accompanying pro forma business model, extending GSMA's 2019 Payments as a Platform initiative. We built on the pillars presented previously, providing additional evidence to bolster the existing model, while substantially extending it to focus also on engaging an ecosystem of players around the mobile money provider. We then validated the findings via sessions with a global set of leading providers. The internal report produced by BFA touches on the necessary industry context within which we ground the dynamics of the model, the inputs and assumptions that inform the model, a set of key recommendations for the industry, and resilience measures that should be accounted for in case of exogenous disruption that could affect any of the above. GSMA will incorporate the findings into a public report to be disseminated in early 2021. We anticipate this report to have similar effects as past efforts along these lines. Namely, that the industry can leverage this evidence and modeling as an input into their own innovation efforts, and ultimately grounding the next generation of mobile money services in financial viability. 

Catalyst Fund Inclusive Digital Commerce Accelerator

Mastercard Foundation  |  Ghana  |  2020-2022

I acted as the Portfolio Engagement Manager of Catalyst Fund Ghana, an accelerator program supporting e-commerce startups with grant capital, hands-on venture building support and connections to investors. I oversaw and managed Catalyst Fund engagements with all engaged startups, specializing on projects that include software development, product design and management, customer experience and data analytics.

Informal micro and small enterprises (MSEs), that are largely run by youths and women in Ghana, have been severely affected by the COVID-19 crisis. The most informal and paper-based MSEs were hit the hardest, as lack of access to digital tools has prevented them from taking advantage of the digital economy, which has been more resilient during the pandemic. In Ghana, the crisis has led to reduced economic activity, trade and employment opportunities. Therefore, Catalyst Fund and Mastercard Foundation partnered  to accelerate inclusive digital commerce companies, support the growth and resilience of MSEs in a post- COVID-19 world and create a more inclusive e-commerce ecosystem for all Ghanaians. The program focused on four main components: (i) Research to identify gaps and conceptualize opportunities in the digital commerce ecosystem for MSEs in Ghana and assess the impact of COVID19 on MSEs (ii) Bespoke venture acceleration, inclusive of capital and bespoke support, to enable companies in the digital commerce value chain to scale and better reach/serve informal MSEs (iii) Digital commerce ecosystem acceleration via value chain linkages, connecting digital commerce companies to capital providers (i.e., financial institution partners) that can offer financing to MSEs and to investors that can fuel their growth (iv) An actionable learning agenda and dissemination of lessons learned, to inform partnerships and/or other interventions for Mastercard Foundation and other ecosystem stakeholders.  

Need Assessment for Ethiopia Solar Tracking Platform

World Bank  |  Ethiopia & USA  |  2020

I was the senior advisor, providing the World Bank and BFA Global project team and clients with technical support. The project supported the Government of Ethiopia and the private sector in the design and execution of an off-grid energy financing strategy. The World Bank, government ministries, and potential investors saw an opportunity to transform off-grid energy financing in Ethiopia through big data solutions that can enable deep insights into power connections, customers, ongoing product performance and usage. The World Bank engaged BFA Global to define the value proposition of a country solar data tracking platform, mapping those values to platform requirements, while also assessing and providing recommendations on the design and selection of technical solutions. I contributed to production of a needs assessment summarizing the value proposition and anticipated use cases for key industry stakeholders obtained through desk review and remote interviews, and produced a technology option matrix evaluating high potential existing platforms against the project’s requirements, and recommendations for provider selection and the design of the program’s next phase.

Catalyst Fund 2.0

Department for International Development (DFID), JP Morgan Chase Foundation (JPMC)  |   Mexico, India, Kenya, South Africa & Nigeria  |  2019-2022

I acted as a technical advisor for the Catalyst Fund 2.0, aimed at accelerating inclusive fintech startups in emerging markets. I contributed my expertise in technology to define startups product requirements, build and test interventions and dashboards, as well as provide insights on growing an early-stage tech company into the growth stage. Catalyst Fund is an accelerator for inclusive fintech startups in emerging markets building affordable, accessible, and appropriate solutions for underserved communities. Catalyst Fund aims to accelerate startups to product-market fit and accelerate the local innovation ecosystems around them. It provides startups with catalytic grant capital, bespoke venture building support, and access to a curated network of investors, corporate innovators, and ecosystem facilitators to enable their scale. BFA also manages the program’s learning agenda to synthesize and disseminate key learnings and share  good practices with the inclusive tech sector. To date, Catalyst Fund has accelerated 31 ventures across 14 emerging markets, reaching over $2M customers and raising catalyst over US$65M in follow-on capital from venture investors. Initially managed by ​BFA Global, Catalyst Fund was founded in 2016 by JPMorgan Chase & Co and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and has expanded with the support of the UK aid and JPMorgan Chase & Co. The program is fiscally sponsored by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.

Target Product Profiles (TPP) development for digital financial services to direct pro-poor retail payments systems globally

Gates Foundation  |  Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, and global  |  2019-2020

I worked with BFA Global and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) to research, define, and test potential for a TPP, previously used successfully in the healthcare sector, for financial services. Through deep quantitative primary research with existing and potential consumers, and forensic analysis of financial service providers’ business models, the TPP identified, defined and outlined a set of criteria (namely reliability, value, accessibility, affordability, and viability) for various basic entry level financial services that effectively help low-income, financially excluded people transition to being financially included in formal financial services. The TPP is useful for providers of financial products to low-income people as well as for the regulators, funders, investors, and implementers who enable these services in specific markets.

Mobile Money API Review

GSMA  |  Global  |  2019

I worked with BFA Global to conduct a review and assessment of the GSMA Mobile Money API specification, providing feedback and recommendations for improving the API, focused on six components: Design - Assessing the technical design of the API and any other best practices; Usability - Aspects that could affect adoption of the API for providers.; Consistency - The lexicon, communication patterns, and standards of the API.; Documentation - Focuses on the consumption and Developer Experience (DX) of the API by clients.; Security - How does the API presented here compare to current industry practices (e.g. OWASP, NIST).; Benchmarking - How this API ranks against other APIs and standards across the previous five dimensions. I and my team brought a deep set of technical expertise combined with a sensitivity for those interacting with the technical solutions in real life, in focusing on translation, adaptation, and strategy around emerging and well-established technological tools.

Market Analysis on Incentives and Barriers for Alternative Credit Scoring Systems (ACSS)

Inter-American Development Bank  |  US, Mexico, China  |  2019

I acted as the project lead with BFA Global to identify the current credit market configuration in relation to ACSS technology and the incentives for the adoption - and to see what is evolving over time - in two different ecosystems: the US and China. To this end, we conducted interviews with various stakeholders in the field in China and the United States, including fintech innovators, commercial banks, other ACSS providers, ACSS-related platforms, and regulators.

Gender disaggregated data and women’s financial inclusion study for Egypt

The Central Bank of Egypt  |  Egypt  |  2018

Working with BFA Global and the regulators, supervisors and policymakers at the Central Bank of Egypt and other stakeholders, I ran a multi-day design sprint in Cairo to develop a framework with indicators and methodologies for collecting, analyzing and using gender-disaggregated data. In addition, we worked with these stakeholders to understand not only what gender-disaggregated data they liked to have, but also how those data could be visualized to bring efficiency in the decision-making process. The engagement resulted in the production of a formal strategy outline, mapped value propositions for participants, and a draft set of KPIs. 

Nigeria Financial Services (NFS) Maps Project

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Rockefeller Philanthropy Associates (Fiscal Sponsor for Gates Foundation), and Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS)  |  Nigeria + Global Research |  2018

I acted as the technical lead with BFA Global to develop a new data architecture to serve the needs of financial authorities to increase and improve volume, variety, and velocity of data available. This allowed supervisors and regulators to inform their decision-making process and to implement their mandate more effectively. Initially focused on Nigeria, the long-term outcome of the Project was the development of an open-source and portable data stack platform, along with a blueprint that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation could offer to financial authorities in its focus markets and beyond.

The project had two components:

1. Nigeria Financial Services Maps

2. Global research and landscaping

Within the Nigeria Financial Services Maps we prototyped a technical solution for the Data Stack, with a focus on digital payments. The Global research and landscaping then focused on interviewing financial authorities in high-income countries (the USA and two EU markets), in BMGF focus markets (Pakistan, Tanzania and India), and in the countries where the RegTech for Regulators Accelerator project was being implemented (Mexico and the Philippines). The team also interviewed authorities in Peru and Jordan, where market infrastructure similar to NIBSS exists. The research questions focused on the following: (i) how have existing Data Stacks (and public dashboards) and infrastructures like the NFS Maps developed; (ii) if existing Data Stacks have proven valuable; (iii) what use cases have become more successful; and (iv) how buy-in from multiple stakeholders have been secured.

RegTech for Regulators Accelerator (R2A)

Rockefeller Philanthropy Accelerator, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Omidyar Network, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisory, USAID  |  Philippines, Mexico, Nigeria, and Global  |  2016-2018

I acted as the Chief Technologist of R2A, working with BFA Global to lead identification of project team’s evaluation of potential partner firms, support design of local suptech competitions, provide technical expertise in the evaluation of regulators’ use cases and related technology “readiness” or barriers, provide ongoing support to solution developers in all engaged countries, support core project team’s oversight of prototype development, and support drafting of brief case studies on all countries processes, outcomes and expected impact.

The RegTech for Regulators Accelerator (“R2A”) was launched in October 2016 by three core funders - USAID, Gates Foundation and Omidyar Network - which together contributed $2.5m. The project was managed by BFA Global. R2A 1.0 came to a successful close on 30 September 2018. The first phase has met its targets and, most importantly, proved market demand both from financial authorities for R2A methods and the resulting suptech solutions. Financial authorities from 29 countries expressed demand for support from R2A during the 1.0 stage.

In the next phase the Omidyar Network funded R2A to:  (1) Investigate and propose feasible legal options to ON for the incorporation of the new legal entity, assessing alternative legal and business models. (2) Implement the feasible option by creating the legal entity which BFA Global would serve under an initial management contract while longer-term funding and staffing are secured. (3) In parallel, pursue, close and implement co-funded projects with client financial authorities which test and prove the viability, while beefing up the pipeline.

This work ultimately led in part to the creation of the Cambridge SupTech Lab in 2021, where the R2A leadership continued to move forward.

Catalyst Fund 1.0

JP Morgan Chase and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation  |  Global  |  2016-2019

I acted as the portfolio engagement manager for the Catalyst Fund’s inclusive fintech program, a global accelerator program for early stage inclusive fintech startups that build accessible, appropriate, and affordable solutions to the world’s 3 billion undeserved. The initial $5.8 million facility was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and JP Morgan Chase & Co. It focused on supporting 20 early stage fintech startups in emerging markets, by providing catalytic grant capital, bespoke and hands-on venture building support and connections to a network of global fintech investors to help companies scale. My role was identifying derisking interventions to unlock the investment capital necessary for these startups to grow, ranging from data science to user research to data rooms.

Open API workshop

World Bank, CGAP  |  Washington DC  |  2016

Working with BFA Global, I prepared and executed a two-day story-crafting exercise with CGAP, focused on building the case for Open APIs in the financial inclusion space. In addition, I attended the industry workshop organized by CGAP and participated in one of the panels. The outcome was a deeper familiarity within the industry with the topic of APIs and its importance to foster innovation and scalability.

Financial Inclusion on Business Runways (FIBR)

Mastercard Foundation  |  Ghana and Tanzania  |  2015-2020

Working with BFA Global, in partnership with the MasterCard Foundation, I served as the technical lead for the Financial Inclusion on Business Runways (FIBR) project. The project partnered with businesses in Ghana and Tanzania to demonstrate how smartphones can accelerate and deepen financial inclusion. The core team engaged with each partner to shape a business plan to build or extend on its existing approach to clients so as to result in additional financially inclusive products or services. At differing levels of intensity, the project team engaged with the partners to design, develop and roll out the product using agile development approaches comprised of short product testing cycles focused on learning and ongoing innovation to find solutions that work. FIBR’s ultimate aim was to export learnings from successful approaches so that others are better able to design and build approaches using smartphones which enable robust financial inclusion on a large scale. After five years the project concluded in December of 2019 but will continue to disseminate learnings on an ongoing basis via FIBR’s website and blog as well as partner convenings.

Designing and Developing Digital Savings Groups

Financial Sector Deepening Trust  |  Tanzania  |  2015-2016

I acted as the technical lead with BFA Global in supporting the Aga Khan Foundation and Selcom in Tanzania to design, test and create a digital savings group product which could be used and scaled in a reduced cost acquisition model by a private financial services provider. I helped lead the work to articulate the group member journey, with particular focus on clarifying how to honor the existing successes driven by careful choreography and ritual of the savings groups, while introducing augmentative technologies that could aid in resolving member pain points in a cash-based system. Designed and trained AKF field staff on user testing requirements, translating the results into design, as well as wrote the business requirements for the back end of the product.  I worked with the team to write the user requirements and corresponding technical specifications for the product, and the product managed the building of the product by Selcom. Lastly, I designed and guided the end-to-end user testing to bring the product to a minimum viable product.  

Assessment of Selcom’s Digital Payment Platform and Existing APIs

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation  |  Tanzania, Kenya  |  2015-2016

I acted as the technical lead in a BFA Global-led project with Selcom on behalf of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to better understand how Selcom works with third party providers who might want to use Selcom's digital payments platform to provide financial services.

API Primer

Financial Sector Deepening Kenya  |  Kenya  |  2015

I led technical research, interviews, and onsite visits throughout Kenya to produce a report describing what APIs are, how they are used in the Fintech Industry, how they could be encouraged to grow in order to be leveraged in the financial inclusion sector, conducted startup interviews and structure outputs, draft the final report and collate feedback.