Digital Banking Director

CA Global Africa Recruitment is seeking a visionary leader to join Afreximbank as Director Digital Banking. This is a unique opportunity to redefine digital banking and establish the premier marketplace for financial services across Africa and globally.

The successful candidate will lead the strategic direction of Afreximbank in today's rapidly evolving digital economy. Key responsibilities include:

• Orchestrating the strategic expansion of digital platforms to position Afreximbank as a pioneer in delivering comprehensive digital financial solutions and services.
• Developing and implementing a digital transformation strategy focused on expanding the use of digital platforms to support member banks and assist them in providing value-added trade, payments, and financing solutions to their customers.
• Driving the digital product development lifecycle from ideation to market launch, ensuring alignment and prioritization of capability building with business needs.
• Leading the scaling and commercialization of ATG's proposition, comprising MANSA, ATEX, TRADAR, ATG-CONNECT and PAPSS platforms; while ensuring that they are integrated with a seamless referral system to drive sales growth for core trade and payments solutions to member banks.
• Monitoring industry trends and advancements in digital banking and leveraging this knowledge to drive innovation and continuous improvement in Afreximbank's digital trade, payments and financing solutions.
• Expanding and deepening strategic partnerships with key stakeholders in the digital ecosystem to advance the bank's digital capabilities and offerings and address the evolving needs of the global financial landscape.
• Overseeing the digital customer journey, prioritizing excellence in customer experience, satisfaction, and retention; and championing the integration of customer feedback into the development and refinement of digital services, ensuring alignment with user expectations and business objectives.
• Driving collaboration between Commercialization and Delivery Teams, and the Innovation teams to ensure seamless integration and deployment of digital solutions and working closely with clients and member banks to understand and address their specific digital needs.
• Directing the development and execution of advanced monetization strategies and optimizing the revenue generation across all digital platforms, aiming for indirect revenue through referrals and e-Sales of core products (e.g., Trade Finance & Correspondent Banking, Guarantees and Specialized Finance) as well as direct revenue from platform subscriptions.
• Establishing and nurturing multi-bank consortiums, fostering collaboration and shared innovation among member banks to drive collective growth and amplify the impact of digital initiatives.
• Championing the Digital Sales Planning and Strategy and developing the annual business plans, pricing strategies, and go-to-market plans for all digital platforms to achieve customer base expansion, growth, revenue and profitability across all paid, owned and earned digital channels.
• Developing the Digital Marketing Strategy, to be implemented by DBUs, in order to initiate, drive and implement marketing initiatives to accelerate lead generation and product adoption while also improving digital brand presence.
• Developing high-level business plans and value propositions for all innovation concepts, new products and businesses; with periodic reviews of existing products and businesses to ensure continuous alignment while maintaining value creation.
• Supervising the utilization of data-driven insights and analysis of performance metrics and market trends to guide strategic decisions, improve service offerings and continually refine digital strategies and operations.
• Negotiating high-level contracts and fostering relationships with third parties/vendors, international partners, governing bodies, and key industry players.
• Leading the Digital Business Units to ensure delivery of the annual digital sales and digital revenue and profitability targets for all digital platforms; and overseeing the business reviews for the DBUs, chaired by Executive Vice President (EVP-Global Trade Bank) "EVP GTBA", to review progress against digital sales plans including performance of digital campaigns/offers as well as insights on platform utilization and customer feedback.
• Overseeing the performance of the Operator management contract for ATEX, on behalf of the EVP GTBA, ensuring key performance measures of the B2B e-Commerce business are achieved by the Operator, and recommending to the EVP timely strategic marketing approaches to accelerate the growth of the e-Commerce business.
• Representing EVP in external and internal forums and leading executive level discussions serving as the principal digital strategy advisor to the bank's highest-level stakeholders and an influential external face of Afreximbank's digital initiatives in global forums.
• Developing effective relationships with both external and internal stakeholders to understand and address specific customer needs related to digital trade, payments and financing solutions.
• Fostering a collaborative culture to promote high performance and achievement of goals and Key Performance Indicators at the departmental and individual level.

The ideal candidate will possess:

• A strong background in digital banking and financial services, with a proven track record in managing large-scale digital transformation projects or technology-driven innovation projects within the banking sector.
• Expert knowledge in digital and traditional payments, trade and corporate financing solutions.
• Prior experience in leading diverse product development and business teams to achieve exceptional outcomes in commercializing digital payments and trade finance solutions.
• A Bachelor's degree in computer science, or Business and Finance, Economics, or a closely related field. MBA degree or other relevant postgraduate qualification is required.
• Prior experience with multinational and regional banks, showcasing a deep understanding of regional markets with demonstrated expertise in developing strategic partnerships with platform providers and financial institutions.
• A track record of thought leadership in the banking sector, as evidenced by public speaking engagements at regional conferences or published works.
• Prior experience in leading digital strategy and the establishment of digital factories using project delivery environments (such as Scrum, Agile, and Waterfall) is advantageous.
• Experience in nurturing new ideas and leading-edge technologies within a dynamic corporate banking environment, preferably with Omni-channel experience.
• Strong leadership qualities with an ability to influence and drive strategic visions across all levels of the organization.
• Proactive, innovative mindset with a strong analytical capability and problem-solving approach.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English are essential.
• Knowledge of the Bank's other working languages (French, Arabic, Portuguese) is an added advantage, enabling broader regional engagement and facilitation.

Years & Nature of Experience

• 18+ Total years' experience with a minimum of 12 years of product development experience, including hands-on involvement in transforming ideas and concepts into successful market launches with widespread customer adoption.