Joe Mucheru.

Fintech firm JUMO has appointed Kenya’s former Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru as president of the company.

According to a statement, Mucheru will support the company to deliver its growth goals, navigate the regulatory landscape, and build the firm’s presence across Africa.

Mucheru served as Kenyan Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of ICT, Innovation and Youth Affairs, appointed by then President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta.

He held office from 2015 to 2022, where-after President William Ruto named Eliud Owalo as the country’s new Cabinet Secretary for ICT.

Mucheru joined Google in 2007 where he led the delivery of strategy, business planning and operations and was key to setting up Google’s presence on the continent. 

He also served as the head of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) for Google, based in Nairobi and was the company’s first SSA employee.

Prior to Google, he worked at Wananchi Online, the parent company of ISP Zuku, a company he co-founded in 1999.

Mucheru is a global board member of UNICEF Generation Unlimited, the world's first public-private-youth partnership working to skill and connect the world's 1.8 billion young people to opportunity, as well as a Trustee of the University of Nairobi Foundation.

He previously held board positions at the M-Pesa Foundation Academy, a state-of-the-art residential high school in Kenya funded by M-Pesa, Vodafone and Safaricom, Bitpesa (now Aza Group), an international money transfer platform, and GiveDirectly, a non-profit allowing donors to provide direct cash transfers to those in need.

He is also the former Chairman of the African Telecommunications Union.

Banking on capital

Founded in London, JUMO has built an intelligent platform that enables banks to reach “millions of new customers with credit and savings products.”

Andrew Watkins-Ball, founder and group CEO of JUMO.

According to JUMO, its value proposition is to make it easier for capital providers to reach new customers at affordable prices whilst making predictable returns.

JUMO claims that to date the platform has been used to make 130 million loans, totalling US$4-billion, to more than 20 million people and small businesses in Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Côte d'Ivoire.

Andrew Watkins-Ball, JUMO Founder and CEO, said: “We are honoured to be able to welcome Joe to JUMO. He brings an invaluable perspective given his experience as an entrepreneur, Google executive and regulator.”

Mucheru said: “JUMO is revolutionising the lending space in Africa, connecting entrepreneurs and individuals to the financial products they need to grow and prosper. I am hugely excited to be joining a business that is helping capital providers make attractive returns at the same time as supporting measurable impact. I look forward to working with Andrew and the team.”

In 2022, JUMO appointed Nichola Pease as Non-Executive Chair and Michael Ball, former CFO of World Remit, as Chief Financial Officer.