Long-form conversations with the people designing, regulating and operating financial systems.
She grew up in Nairobi’s Eastlands, the eldest of five children, tinkering with the household gadgets. Catherine Muraga rose through a brewery, an airline and two banks to lead Microsoft’s engineering centre in Nairobi. On Monday, its staff were told their jobs were going.
CEO Spotlight · 14 Oct 2026 · 6 min read
Family Bank has more than doubled annual profit and capital since Nancy Njau took charge, raised KSh8 billion from private investors and listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange in June 2026. The next test is harder. Its 2025 to 2029 strategy targets tier-one status as the lender expands its balance sheet, grows digital banking and private-sector credit, while investors watch costs, asset quality and how effectively the new capital is deployed
CEO Spotlight · 14 Oct 2026 · 9 min read
His mother fed and schooled seven children from one acre. Benjamin Njenga passed up law for agribusiness, learnt technology at Safaricom and co-founded Apollo Agriculture, which sells seed, fertiliser and credit to smallholders in Kenya and Zambia. He has told FINTAK the number he is chasing next.
CEO Spotlight · 14 Oct 2026 · 6 min read
He learnt the data business from an ambassador’s son who did not care whose fault an outage was. After 19 years at Africa Data Centres and a year in Madagascar, Dan Kwach is back at Cassava, building the AI facilities he told FINTAK the continent would need.
CEO Spotlight · 14 Oct 2026 · 6 min read
Joshua Oigara reached his first big career target early, becoming KCB chief executive at 37 after setting himself the goal of leading a blue-chip company before 40. Now running Stanbic Holdings and Standard Bank’s East Africa business, he has set another measurable ambition. He wants Stanbic to break into Kenya’s top three banks by 2027 or 2028, a target that will require converting rapid balance-sheet growth into stronger earnings after first-half 2026 profit rose just 0.8% even as assets expanded 27%.
CEO Spotlight · 13 Oct 2026 · 6 min read
Sylvia Mulinge missed pharmacy by a point, sold soap in Durban and spent 16 years at Safaricom. Tanzania once refused her a work permit. Four years into running MTN Uganda, she lifts weights, dances with her children and posts the videos.
CEO Spotlight · 13 Oct 2026 · 7 min read
Kenya’s expansion of eTIMS turned electronic invoicing from a compliance requirement into a software opportunity for DigiTax, which says it now serves more than 450 clients and processes millions of transactions. Co-founder and chief executive Caine Wanjau is taking the model beyond Kenya, starting with Zambia, as more African governments seek digital systems that widen tax visibility while businesses look for simpler ways to comply.
CEO Spotlight · 13 Oct 2026 · 14 min read
She took charge of Stanbic Bank Uganda as Covid-19 reached the country, supporting staff and borrowers while protecting the lender's balance sheet. A reported EADB appointment would take her into longer-term regional finance.
CEO Spotlight · 28 Sep 2026 · 5 min read
A young programmer was dismissed and deported before he could complete a bank system. He returned to Nairobi, finished the code and built Craft Silicon into financial infrastructure used by hundreds of institutions. Twenty-six years later, his unfinished work is corporate. Spoken promises, product instincts and founder authority must become systems that survive him.
CEO Spotlight · 21 Sep 2026 · 18 min read
A student printing business taught her how quickly a small operator can be outmatched. M-order gave a retailer a voice, WezaTele carried that order through supply chains, and Pezesha now asks banks to finance the business behind it. Her next test is to ensure the scoring system can also answer to the person it scores.
CEO Spotlight · 21 Sep 2026 · 13 min read
Raised in Addis Ababa, formed in journalism and tested in the business of media, Spotify’s Sub-Saharan Africa chief has spent her career widening the audience for African voices. Now she wants a musician to be able to make a living without first becoming famous abroad.
CEO Spotlight · 15 Sep 2026 · 8 min read
Absa’s new group chief executive has made bureaucracy his first target, arguing that too many decisions have been pulled into head office at the expense of customers, staff and commercial speed. Early process gains are visible, but the harder test is whether faster decisions can translate into stronger returns across the group, including Kenya, where profits have come under pressure even as the parent has increased its stake.
CEO Spotlight · 14 Sep 2026 · 9 min read