A week after handing in his resignation as MTN SA’s financial technology (fintech) chief, Bradwin Roper has been appointed as Jumo’s chief of payments partnerships.
Last week, MTN’s SA unit said Roper, a former CEO of FNB’s mobile division, would be leaving the company “to explore a new opportunity” at end-October.
Roper joined MTN in May 2023 and played a big role in the growth of the company’s fintech division. Under his leadership, MTN SA grew its fintech user base, taking aim at banks by cancelling transaction fees for digital goods, launching a cross-border remittance service and extending loans to small business.
On Monday, Jumo — one of SA’s largest fintech players — announced the appointment of Roper as chief of payments partnerships and a member of its executive committee, with effect from November.
The company said Roper “will support the company to deliver its growth goals by shaping Jumo’s payment partnerships. He will focus on scaling and servicing existing partnerships — including with partners such as MTN — and developing new opportunities for digital financial ecosystems.”
Founded by Andrew Watkins-Ball in 2015, Jumo primarily offers savings and credit products to entrepreneurs in emerging markets, as well as technology infrastructure to partners such as mobile operators and banks to assess lending risks, detect fraud and verify the identity of their clients.
MTN has had a relationship with Jumo for some time.
In February, the mobile operator launched a new lending facility mainly for small businesses, in partnership with Jumo.
MTN said its new offering, dubbed Qwikloan, is meant to give its mobile money customers access to small, short-term loans on their mobile phones, ranging from R250 to R10,000, depending on eligibility.
Roper’s appointment follows the announcement in 2023 that Joseph Mucheru, former Kenyan cabinet secretary for ICT, innovation and youth affairs, had been appointed as president of Jumo.
Watkins-Ball, who serves as Jumo’s CEO, said: “Brad’s background is a great fit for our mission. We are working hard to provide banks and payments companies with the technology that they need to profitably serve customers at the lowest possible price.”
Most recently, MTN SA, in partnership with Investec and Electrum, has become the first nonbanking company to join the PayShap digital payments platform through its MoMo mobile money unit.
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