Why does a 20-metre walk in Harare explain the future of African fintech? When Juan Seco left Wall Street private equity for African tech, he realised the biggest gap wasn’t complex financial software—it was what happens after a remittance arrives. From auditing American Express in New York to building JumiaPay and scaling Mukuru’s neobank infrastructure across Southern Africa, Seco joins PATHISANI MOYO in our latest edition of Coffee With…
A few days before speaking with Juan Seco, Chief Growth Officer and Managing Director for East Africa at Mukuru, a digital financial services company, I found myself reflecting on a conversation with my 76-year-old mother.
She lives in Harare; I live in Johannesburg. Having transferred funds to her via Mukuru, I called to check if the money had arrived safely. Her response was characteristically direct: “Mntanami (my son), don’t ever send me money through your friends again.”
The funds had landed directly on her mobile phone, allowing her to collect the cash in person after a brief 20-metre walk. That modest 20-metre stroll captures the core philosophy behind Mukuru’s expansion far better than any corporate presentation.
Originally published by TechCabal.