Gisele Mwepu feted as Africa’s most influential woman in financial services

Okapi Finance Founder and Chief Executive Officer Gisele Mwepu has been awarded as Africa’s Most Influential Woman Financial Services. The award ceremony was organised and hosted by CEO Global and held in Accra, Ghana.

CEO Global is a Business and Professional Services company that has during the last 19 years focused on the identification of Africa’s leading talent and sharing their success storiesthroughout the Continent. The company’s products include, CEO magazines, Africa’s Most Influential Women in Business and Government, Titans: Building Nations, FLUID (Future Leaders Under Individual Development), Supply Worx and Mentor Me 24/7 and Custom work.

The awards are the leading Pan African recognition programme honouring excellence in the private and public sector. The programme covers 23 economic sectors and has for close to two decades independently recognised those leaders who are at the pinnacle of their industry.

‘Nominees undergo a rigorous multi-tiered judging process,’ says Annelize Wepener, Chief Executive, of CEO Global. ‘Quality assurance is provided by independent auditors throughout the judging and the highest possible standard is maintained. Those individuals whom have been recognised as winners in their field can be assured that they have truly excelled.’

According to Annelize, CEO Global’s recognition programmes dispels the notion that Africa has a paucity of innovative and progressive leadership talent. ‘There are tremendously inspirational stories at the core of each winner’s professional and personal life story. I am really very privileged to interact with these individuals. They deserve the admiration and respect they are afforded, particularly Lifetime Achievers who have often been absolute pioneers in their field.’

Okapi launched its services in Kenya in November 2017. Okapi’s mission is to bank the unbanked by providing financial inclusion and increasing access to financial services.

‘It is an honour to receive this award. This is a true testimony that passion and hardwork always rewards. I believe that everyone should have access to banking services regardless of where they live and their financial status and I really make it my mission to make it happen. My passion is to see millions of people across the globe being financially included. ’ says Gisele.

“Through our latest partnership with Mpesa, Okapi subscribers can now transfer cash from their Okapi wallet to their M-Pesa accounts and vise versa,” she added.

‘For me interoperability between solutions in Africa is the key to achieve financial inclusion.That why Okapi is keen to partner with the existing local players in different countries, to facilitate not just inbound transactions but also cross-borders transactions between the different countries in Africa’

Okapi Finance is also rolling out in Botswana, Nigeria and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by end of this year, with more countries being targeted in 2019. Okapi aims to be the panafrican solution and target to reach 145 million customers in the next 10 years.

Gisele holds a master in computer sciences and a Master of sciences in Computer Technology, from Malardalen University in Sweden, and originally comes from DR Congo.