Dare Okoudjou

Mastercard Foundation 2021 - 2022

Foundry Fellow

From:

Benin

Sector:

Financial Services

Location:

South Africa

Since leaving his hometown of Port-Novo, Benin at age 18, Dare has had two constants in his life; call home and send money. Over the years, calling became easier but the progress on sending money was much slower. He founded MFS Africa to change this. Africa is a collection of 54 individual states, each with multiple mobile payment schemes. MFS Africa provides interoperability between these schemes at both domestic and cross-border levels, making it possible for a customer on one scheme in Tanzania to transact with a customer on another scheme in Cameroon. Today, MFS Africa connects over 320 million mobile money wallets, making it the largest digital payments hub on the continent.

Dare believes that in order for businesses to prosper in Africa, they need operate across borders. Drawing on his own lessons and experience in founding MFS Africa, he wants to foster cross-pollination of talent, ideas, and best practices. He intends to champion this cross-pollination by finding, funding, and supporting multinational teams who are addressing continental problems rather than local ones.