Meet Mike Ogbalu, CEO of Pan African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS)
Mike Ogbalu III was former CEO of Verve.
Mike Ogbalu III appointed as the pioneer Head of the Pan African Payment Settlement system (PAPSS) by Africa Export-Import (AFREXIM) Bank.
Recall that, PAPSS was developed by Afreximbank under the auspices of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat. The African Union and the AU Heads of State in July 2019 adopted PAPSS as the payment and settlement system to support the implementation of the AfCFTA.
PAPSS is expected to enable intra-African trade and commerce payments to be made in African currencies in furtherance of the goals of the AfCFTA. It is expected to create new financial flows and successfully facilitate trade and other economic activities among African countries.
Prior to this appointment, Ogbalu was the Chief Executive Officer at Verve from January 2018 – March 2021. He served as the Divisional Chief Executive Officer, Interswitch Financial Inclusion Service (IFIS) from August 2015 to March 2018.
Mike Ogbalu is an Electrical/Electronic Engineer and a fellow of the International Academy of Cards and Payment. He holds an MBA from the prestigious Lagos Business School, and has a strong affinity for business development, product research, IT strategy design, and support.
He boasts over 7 years of sound IT industry experience and several years of retail banking experience covering technology planning, deployment, and management of enterprise-wide infrastructure, remittances, retail product sales, electronic banking, product management, and project management.
Ogbalu’s significant achievements include managing the implementation of Visa range of card products in a record 3-month time frame; demonstrating strong leadership in UBA’s e-banking infrastructure consolidation including an impressive management of a small business group profit center, and repositioning UBA’s Cashfast money transfer and MoneyGram products to achieve industry leadership.
Ogbalu also successfully managed the e-banking portfolio of Ecobank Nigeria which covers Credit, Debit, and Prepaid card issuing, Channel Acquiring, Mobile Payments, Internet banking, and Alert services for a period.
With the appointment, he will be leveraging these experiences in building the critical payment infrastructure needed to drive the goals of the AfCFTA.
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