Ross is the Head of Financial Inclusion and Resilience Pillar at AFR since February 2022. He is an accomplished senior executive with over 22+ years’ expertise in Financial Inclusion, Education Finance, Digital Finance, Microfinance, Banking, Program Management, Strategy Development, Stakeholder Management, Institution Capacity building, and Advocacy.
At AFR, Ross is responsible for leading program development and implementation ensuring that a comprehensive portfolio of impactful projects is developed and implemented to high standards. He leads the analysis of the ecosystem within which the Pillar operates and initiates nurturing business relationships. Before joining AFR, he served in various executive and consultant positions for development and finance institutions, this includes 18 years in Sub-Saharan African countries like Zambia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Malawi, and Uganda and 5 years in India. He served as the CEO of Vision Fund Rwanda from 2013 to 2019, and CEO of Skill Africa, an IT Talent Development company from 2019 to 2021.
He is the Founding officer for Guardian Co-operative Bank, Bangalore – India in 1997 and Urwego Opportunity Bank in Rwanda. As a consultant of Opportunity International, he introduced the first Microfinance SME credit, Education finance, and led CBS Automation in India, Zambia, Tanzania, and Rwanda. He worked with CARE International for a USAID /AED project in 2009, which recommended the setting up of SACCOs in Rwanda. He also worked with Transparency International on Client Protection and Responsible Finance principles.
He was part of the team of consultants that worked on the Rwanda Fintech Strategy and the Finance and Investment Consultant for the GIZ project working on the Wood sector. In addition, Ross conducted end of project evaluation of the 4-year World Bank Financial Inclusion Strategy Framework (FISF) – Rwanda; led AFR’s Covid-19 response initiatives; conducted end of term research and evaluation of the Digitization of Saving Groups’ project and digital literacy targeting the rural farming community for Access to Finance Rwanda (AFR); provided capacity Building to Microfinance Institutions in 4 countries in Africa for IPC Germany; provided consultancy for Feed-the-Future Nigeria Rural Resilience Activity for the population affected by Boko Haram conflict in North-east Nigeria for Opportunity International (OI)/Catholic Relief Services (CRS).
He holds a Degree in Commerce and MBA in International Business Operations.
