KAMPALA – Digital money firm, Wave Mobile Money Uganda has poached Multichoice’s Head of Marketing at Colin Asiimwe to lead its Marketing docket as the company seeks to disrupt Ugandan market.
Quoting unnamed sources, the CEO East Africa Magazine reports that Asiimwe, a marketing guru will be in charge of “market transformation, above the line marketing, digital communications, corporate affairs and below the Line marketing,” amongst others.
Wave Mobile Money, which opened shop in Uganda in late 2021 seeks fresh road maps to turn around the country’s digital money operations.
The company provides an app-based financial solution to save, transfer, and borrow money in a number of African countries with a strong touch base in West Africa
Wave a new market entrant started from Senegal in West Africa, and is now in Cote D’Ivoire and Uganda. Pursuant to Section 9 of the National Payment Systems (NPS) Act, 2020, the Bank of Uganda, in October 2021, announced the issuance of an operating licence to Wave Mobile Money, francophone fintech with an estimated valuation to well over, USD1.7 billion.
The operating license allows Wave Mobile Money to key among others carry out digital money services- cash deposits, withdrawal, and peer-to-peer and business payments.
Industry experts say that Wave which has been a success in Senegal will have to bank on people like Colin Asiimwe whose deep market experience, particularly with telecoms, for practical market entry and penetration.
Mr Asiimwe is joining Wave with vast experience from different brands across the continent in operational and management positions including Telecom business in Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Burundi and Cameroon, having delivered work ranging from launching a telecom in 3 countries to leading the delivery of a mobile based lending and saving solution strategy that was adopted across multiple countries.
Before joining Multichoice, Asiimwe, worked in public relations in companies including Creative at VMLY&R, an integrated marketing agency in Kenya where he was the Head of Strategy and Planning.
He also worked at Metropolitan Republic, first as Head of Strategy and then later as Head of Strategy and Digital.
While at Multichoice, he also worked with Uganda Communications Commission on its Content Development Support Programme (CDSP)
In Uganda, Wave which bills itself as being similar to PayPal in terms of offering easy money transfer between peers, but it works with mobile money accounts instead of bank accounts is headed in Uganda by Nicholas Kamanzi.
Customers visit physical agent posts to make deposits and withdrawals without a fee, or use a smartphone app with a flat 1% cut of the money being sent.
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