Populations on the continent that previously had no access to financial services now access a wide range of financial and payments services through their mobile phones. However, despite the demonstrated potential for increased financial inclusion for the continent’s poor, these services have yet to gain traction across Africa. This panel will probe how digitizing services like micro-finance, insurance, and many others are great opportunities to provide wider access to financial services. 
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Theme: Financial Innovations for Inclusive Growth

Sam Epee-Bounya, Moderator

 As a member of the Emerging Markets Debt team at Wellington, Sam Epee-Bounya identifies attractive investment opportunities within the Emerging Markets corporate debt universe with a focus on Latin America and Africa. Prior to Wellington Management, Sam worked at Bank America in various roles including high yield analyst, M&A and strategist. He also spent time at WPA, a private equity firm focused on Africa.  Sam started his career as a consultant at Accenture. Sam earned his MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management (2003) and his Master of Science in Chemical Engineering at the University of Maryland. He also holds a Bachelor of Science, cum laude, in chemistry from the American University where he was a National All-America Scholar. Sam currently serves on the MIT Sloan Alumni Board and is an overseer of the Boston’s Museum of Science. Sam is originally from the Ivory Coast and is fluent in both French and English. He currently resides in Cambridge with his wife Alexandra and their 3 children.

Olugbenga Agboola, CEO Flutterwave

Olugbenga Agboola is a Senior Entrepreneur with 14 years of experience in building scalable financial technology firms. He is the CEO of Flutterwave; a post Series A payments technology company headquartered in San Francisco with operations and offices across Africa and Europe. Flutterwave was launched in 2016 with the goal to build digital payments infrastructure for Africa and enable businesses receive or make any payments across Africa and globally. Since inception, Flutterwave has processed over $2.6B across all product platforms and has been the recipient of several prestigious awards including the "Best Technology Platform" as awarded by The Asian Banker, the "Top 100 Fintech Firms" among others.
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Prior to cofounding Flutterwave, Olugbenga contributed to the development of fintech solutions at several tech companies and financial institutions such as PayPal, Standard Bank, among others. He is a serial entrepreneur with two successful exits under his belt. He is a software engineer with a with a Master Degree in Information Technology Security & Behavioral Engineering and an MBA.

Carol Caruso, Co-Founder & CEO Bloom Impact

Carol Caruso is an innovative leader with 20 years global business development, inclusive finance and digital technology experience. Currently the CEO and Co-Founder of Bloom Impact, a social impact, Fintech startup, Carol has extensive experience and passion in driving social impact, innovation and inclusive finance through the use of innovative technology such as mobile apps/payments, online platforms, biometrics, remittances and agent networks. She has worked on a wide variety of digital inclusive finance initiatives and collaborated with partners such as leading Telcos (Safaricom, Airtel, MTN, Tigo), Fintech vendors, payment companies (Visa, Mastercard), Central Banks, Social Impact investors and private companies. Carol has held prior positions as SVP Digital Channels & Tech at Accion International, Managing Director of Triple Jump Advisory Services – a Dutch responsible investment manager, Financial Inclusion Expert at Kiva and EMEA Director at Broadvision.

​During the 2017-18 academic year, Caruso joined Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government as a joint Visiting Social Innovator (VSI) at the Social Innovation and Change Initiative and Visiting Hauser Leader at the Center for Public Leadership. She continues to serve as a Beck VSI at SICI.

Saad Sheikh, Principal of Investments TLG Capital

Saad Sheikh is a Principal of Investments at TLG Capital; senior member of the investment committee and heads portfolio operations across the firm’s African interests. He is instrumental in originating, structuring and oversees execution, across various sectors spanning the consumer landscape. Saad manages strategic M&A initiatives for his portfolio. Joining the firm in 2014, Saad represents TLG’s interests on boards as a Non- Exec Director. Saad is also a prominent speaker at various Africa forums, highlighting growth and investment opportunities best suited for the continent. He has spoken at several university events; conferences and represented TLG on various panels. Prior to TLG Capital, Saad was a Director at Accenture, where he led strategy and transformation projects across technology and business strategy. Prior to Accenture, Saad worked at Nokia, leading 4G network strategy and deployments across 4 continents. Saad holds a Bachelors in Engineering and an Executive MBA from Imperial College.

Nicolai Eddy, COO NALA

Nicolai Eddy heads-up expansion and strategy for NALA, Africa’s first internet-free payments application. NALA was recently part of Y-Combinator’s Winter 2019 batch, and currently ranks #3 in the Top Finance Applications in Tanzania. Nicolai has spent the duration of his professional career in the financial services sector, working as a product manager for Morningstar, Inc.’s Indexes Group, leading product management for the EMEA Indexes division and spearheading go-to-market efforts for all fixed income indexes globally. At NALA, Nicolai is responsible for strategy and expansion, and is currently focusing on NALA’s expansion initiatives into other African countries. Nicolai received a B.A. in Economics from Bard College.

More panelist announcements to come!