Gwera Kiwana
Gwera is a fintech and web3 expert with an interest in where both areas intersect and what kind of impact it allows. She’s worked globally, building and scaling fintechs and now leads crypto at Africa’s largest payments gateway, Onafriq (formerly MFS Africa) to use new technologies like stablecoins and blockchain technology to unlock the next generation of African growth. Gwera subscribes to the Crypto Mullet school of thought that sees fintech in the front facing user experience and crypto powering the back end.
After spending time in the trenches with her own African cross-border payments venture, she joined UK neobank Monzo to scale their financial crime operations and internal product as the company grew from 100k to 4M customers, obtained a banking licence and expanded to the US. Gwera’s global expertise comes from her time at fintech consultancy 11:FS, where she worked with neobanks, advised fintechs, regulators and incumbents on building truly digital financial services. At 11:FS, she co-created the consultancy’s web3 advisory business that worked with leading crypto-native organizations, fintechs, regulators and global banks.
Gwera founded Women Who Build Africa and also hosts crypto@scale, Africa’s first crypto podcast focused on the utility of crypto.
