{"id":850568,"date":"2026-02-11T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=850568"},"modified":"2026-02-11T10:21:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T08:21:17","slug":"big-leadership-changes-at-absa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/850568\/big-leadership-changes-at-absa\/","title":{"rendered":"Big leadership changes at Absa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Absa has announced the appointment of Sitoyo Lopokoiyit as its CEO of Personal and Private Banking, along with a host of other leadership changes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Absa said that a host of new leadership changes reinforce its commitment to enhanced strategic capability, customer-led growth, strong governance and a deepened leadership bench. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Absa said that Lopokoiyit is a highly experienced industry leader who brings deep expertise in financial services, telecoms, customer value propositions, experience, and large-scale business transformation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group said the appointment represents an important step in its focus on delivering integrated, customer-centric services across its Personal and Private Banking franchise, while exploring growth opportunities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kenyan Lopokoiyit was recently the Managing Director of M-PESA Africa and Chief Financial Services Officer at Safaricom, where he led the strategy and growth of Africa\u2019s largest fintech platform. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With over 12 years of experience in fintech, Lopokoiyit played a large role in scaling M-PESA into a financial giant, serving over 56 million customers and more than 5 million businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was appointed to lead M-PESA Africa, the joint venture between Safaricom and Vodacom, with a mandate to expand the platform\u2019s reach and relevance across African markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before joining Safaricom in 2011, Lopokoiyit held several leadership roles, including Head of M-PESA Strategy and Business Development, and also led operations in Tanzania. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was recognised in the 11:FS Hall of Fame, which honours industry leaders who have improved financial services through innovation, resilience, and pioneering work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Absa said that Lopokoiyit is deeply committed to empowering small businesses, increasing access to inclusive financial services, and accelerating the adoption of digital payments across Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis appointment demonstrates Absa\u2019s strategic focus on delivering integrated, customer-centric solutions across our Personal and Private Banking franchise while unlocking new growth opportunities\u201d, says Kenny Fihla, Group CEO of Absa Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other changes <\/h2>\n\n\n
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Lopokoiyit<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The group also announced that Prabashni Naidoo, the Group Chief Internal Audit Executive, will move into a new role of Group Chief Governance Officer, effective 1 March 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The move aligns with Absa’s focus on strong governance, with Naidoo’s new role including Legal, Compliance and Group Secretariat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Absa said that she has deep expertise in audit, risk, regulatory engagement, and organisational assurance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rushdi Solomons has also been promoted to Group Chief Internal Audit Officer, effective 1 March 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solomons was previously the Managing Executive: Compliance Strategy, Regulatory Relations and Governance. He has experience in the private and public sectors, having worked for Deloitte, PwC, and the Auditor-General. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, Fatima Newman has been appointed as the Chief Compliance Officer, effective 1 March 2026, bringing 28 years of experience to the role. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She previously worked as the Chief Risk Officer at EOH Group Limited, and held senior roles at Absa, EasyHQ, and MTN South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese appointments reflect… our ambition to enhance our organisational resilience by bringing on board expertise from outside the firm to close the gaps in key capability areas,” said Fihla. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We are building a future-fit leadership team, deepening our bench strength, and ensuring the right capabilities are in place to deliver on our strategic ambitions.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The appointments also bring significant depth of experience across legal, regulatory, assurance, and control disciplines, supporting Absa\u2019s commitment to a strong and resilient governance framework.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Absa has announced a host of leadership changes, which Group CEO Kenn Fihla is confident will improve governance frameworks. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":788842,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[29],"class_list":["post-850568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-absa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850568"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":850592,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850568\/revisions\/850592"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/788842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}