Podcast
Pure Digital Passion with Moses Kemibaro
Hosted by Moses Kemibaro · EN
This is pure digital passion, the podcast of Moses Kemibaro, one of Kenya's and Africa's leading digital marketers, techbloggers, and technology analysts. Join me for insightful interviews and commentaries on all things digital from across the African continent on a myriad of compelling topics and themes. I share Africa's stories of pure digital passion!
39episodes
Episodes
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Episode 188 - From Data-Rich to Insight-Driven: How AI Is Reshaping Retail in Kenya & Africa
4d ago00:57:52Tap to summarizeKenyan and African retailers generate enormous volumes of information through point-of-sale systems, inventory platforms, loyalty programmes, e-commerce, mobile applications, social commerce, delivery platforms and digital payments.However, much of that data remains fragmented, underused and disconnected from everyday business decisions.In this special episode of the Pure Digital Passion Podcast, I moderate a discussion from the RETRAK Retail Summit 2026 titled:Smarter Retail: Turning Data, AI and Insights into Competitive AdvantageThe session took place on Thursday, 14 May 2026, at the Sarit Expo Centre in Nairobi and brought together four experts representing retail entrepreneurship, digital payments, financial-services platforms and retail technology, as follows: Judy Waruiru - Regional Managing Director, Network InternationalSonal Haria - Co-Founder and CEO, Canvas Cosmetics, Co-Founder, CB Consulting & Media GroupEric Muriuki - Group Director, Digital Business, CEO, LOOP DFS, NCBA GroupSiddesh Narkar - Head of Product, CompulynxTopics CoveredWhy many retailers are data-rich but insight-poorThe importance of connecting fragmented customer dataBuilding a unified view across stores, websites, apps and paymentsWhy data readiness must come before AI readinessUsing data to improve product development, pricing and assortmentHow Canvas Cosmetics used customer insights to guide product developmentUsing payments data to understand churn, market movements and fraudAI-supported replenishment, stock management and pricingHow AI can improve sales productivity and outreachBalancing personalisation with customer privacy and trustPrivacy-by-design approaches to retail dataHow AI agents may soon shop and pay on behalf of consumersPractical AI actions retailers can take during the next 12 monthsKey MessageRetailers do not need to begin with an expensive, enterprise-wide AI programme.They should begin by digitizing operations, organising existing information, selecting one or two commercially important problems, measuring the results and building from the small wins.AI can analyze more information and provide options faster, but human judgement remains essential.Chapters00:00 Introduction to the RETRAK panel00:44 The state of retail in Kenya and Africa07:07 Sonal Haria on combining data with human judgement09:20 Judy Waruiru on fragmented customer data10:43 Eric Muriuki on data readiness and AI15:50 Siddesh Narkar on clean and usable retail data17:32 How Canvas Cosmetics used data for product development21:12 Payments data, customer journeys, churn and fraud26:39 AI as an intelligent wrapper around the business33:53 Audience questions begin34:36 Preparing and labelling business data for AI38:25 AI-generated cosmetic formulations and human oversight39:44 Understanding wider market and industry trends40:48 Using payments data for retail-market intelligence42:07 Turning financial-service providers into insight partners44:59 How AI improved sales productivity and outreach46:33 AI personalization, privacy and customer trust49:15 Cloud and on-premise AI deployment50:08 Agentic commerce and the machine as the next customer53:27 One action retailers should take in the next 12 months57:42 Closing remarksThe Pure Digital Passion Podcast explores the people, organizations, technologies and ideas shaping digital transformation, marketing, media, innovation and business across Kenya and Africa.Subscribe for more conversations with African technology leaders, entrepreneurs, executives, policymakers and innovators.#Retail #RetailTechnology #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #DataAnalytics #DigitalTransformation #Payments #Fintech #CustomerExperience #Kenya #Africa #PureDigitalPassion
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Episode 187 - The Future Of Lending In Kenya & Africa: AI, Alternative Data, Digital Identity & Automation
4d ago00:47:42Tap to summarizeWhat does a truly future-ready African lender look like?Is it enough to launch a mobile application, automate loan approvals or introduce artificial intelligence into the credit-scoring process?Or does meaningful digital transformation require lenders to rethink the entire customer journey—from acquisition, onboarding and identity verification through credit decisioning, disbursement, repayment and collections?In this panel discussion I moderated a practical and thought-provoking conversation on the future of lending in Kenya and Africa.The discussion was recorded during The Future of Lending: Loan Origination, E-Sign & AI, held on the 29th of May 2026 at Park Inn by Radisson in Westlands, Nairobi.The event was co-hosted by Presta Technologies, Zoho and the Digital Financial Services Association of Kenya.PanelistsKris Senanu: Executive Chairman, Smith & Berkeley LLCKevin Mutiso: CEO, OYE and Chairman, Digital Financial Services Association of Kenya (DFSAK) Winnie Chira: Founder and CEO, Identify AfricaVictor Kiplagat: CEO and Co-Founder, Spin Mobile LLCKenneth Mantu: Group CEO, The Adaptis GroupKey Topics CoveredWhy many African lenders still operate through fragmented platformsThe difference between having digital channels and having a genuinely digital lending operationWhy reliable data matters more than institutional gut instinctHow incomplete information can cause both financial exclusion and over-indebtednessDigital identity, stolen documents, deepfakes and onboarding fraudRisk-based KYC and creating seamless journeys for genuine customersHow alternative data can improve decisions for thin-file borrowersMobile-money transactions and behavioural credit indicatorsWhy correlations in lending data must be interpreted responsiblyEmbedded finance and the importance of loan purposeWhy borrowers value speed, convenience and certaintyThe local shopkeeper as an overlooked source of informal credit intelligenceThe role of automation in removing repetitive manual workWhy change management is critical to successful technology adoptionPractical AI integrations in lendingAnomaly detection, model monitoring and human oversightWhat lenders should prioritize over the next twelve monthsChapters00:00 Unified Lending Platforms, Market Readiness & Credit Infrastructure01:33 Data Integrity & Why Analytics Can Challenge Gut Instinct03:25 Building Sustainable Lending Businesses Through Data05:22 Lending Silos, Manual Workflows & Kenya’s Mortgage Gap07:51 Deepfakes, Stolen IDs & Risk-Based KYC08:48 Customer Acquisition, Fragmented Data & Over-Indebtedness12:26 Digitising Lending Without Overwhelming the Organisation15:01 Speed, Paperwork & the Signs of an Outdated Lender17:47 Don’t Give a Human a Robot’s Job18:08 Alternative Data, Mobile Money & Credit Scoring20:16 Tithing, Loan Stacking, Betting & Affordability Signals22:49 Audience Question-and-Answer Session Begins24:14 Scoring Thin-File Customers Using Feature Phones25:23 Embedded Finance, Loan Purpose, Speed & Convenience28:59 Why the Shopkeeper May Be Africa’s Largest Lender31:20 Can Lifestyle Patterns Predict Borrower Behaviour?31:54 Alternative Data for Collections, Skip Tracing & Product Development34:02 Questions on Scoring Bias, Fraud & Regulatory Complexity35:42 Industry Collaboration Against Fraud40:12 KYC, SIM-Swap Checks, Identity Matching & Document Verification43:04 The One Change Every Lender Should Make43:27 Unified Platforms & the End of Lending Silos44:12 Intelligent Automation Driven by Data44:22 Digitisation & Real-Time Management Visibility44:36 Integrating AI Into Existing Lending Systems45:29 Anomaly Detection, AI Monitoring & Human Oversight47:03 Final Takeaways: Data, Technology & People
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Episode 186 - CTRL + ALT + HUMAN: What a Room Full of Business Leaders Taught Me About AI and the Future of Work in Kenya & Beyond
5d ago00:54:58Tap to summarizeWhat happens to the humans when the machines can increasingly do the work? Recorded live at the Ikigai Industry Nights event in Nairobi on the 2nd July 2026, this special episode of the Pure Digital Passion Podcast brings you the complete CTRL + ALT + HUMAN panel — as moderated by me (Moses Kemibaro), with Shikoli Makatiani (co-founder & CTO, Akili AI), Victor Ambuyo (Head of Growth, Madavi) and Marvin Oyoo (Management Systems Consultant, Panoramic Synergy) as my panelists. From Shikoli’s 10/90 rule and the loan-intake process that was 90% broken, to Victor’s anatomy of the failed rollout (‘a people problem wearing a technology costume’) and the fluency answer to the jobs question, to Marvin’s reality gap, ‘that’s not a strategy — that’s a subscription’, human–AI synergy and a council of AIs checking each other — plus lamplighters, coexistence, tea-buying drones, ATM forensics and a physics exam passed with an AI tutor. This is practical AI, Kenyan edition: no hype, real examples, honest answers. Recorded before a packed live audience.Take the free Akili Snapshot and find out what AI is doing with your data — in 15 minutes: assured.akili-ai.com Timestamps00:00 Welcome · why this conversation, why now — ChatGPT’s 100M users in two months vs Spotify’s eight years · meet the panel03:33 Opening round: what the AI hype gets most wrong — and the one shift every organisation must make in 12–18 months05:25 Victor: the hype is about tools — the gap is the organisations and people meant to use them06:27 Marvin: AI replaces repeatable tasks, not people — the leadership-readiness question08:58 Shikoli: ‘Only 10% of the work is AI’ · the loan-intake story · automating decisions, not just processes12:52 What’s production-ready in Kenya today vs what’s still a demo17:05 Victor’s anatomy of a failed rollout: the event, the subscriptions, the 20% — ‘a people problem wearing a technology costume’21:15 Marvin: the reality gap, live — ‘AI is fun until the real work starts’; the SLM/LLM show of hands; using 5% of what you pay for23:32 ‘That’s not a strategy — that’s a subscription’ · AI is everyone’s responsibility, not an IT project · the sensitive-data warning25:38 The jobs question I: Victor on judgement, pattern machines, Kenya’s trust economy — and fluency: ‘it’s someone more fluent with AI who takes your job’31:06 The jobs question II: Shikoli — lamplighters, the work that disappears · the hospital insurance example · the red line on human life (‘…I’ll eat the leaf’)35:16 From collaboration to coexistence — the Ethan Mollick frame35:58 Marvin: human–AI synergy — the human checker, hallucinations and data poisoning · the SOC alert-fatigue example40:47 Transparency, consent and bias · why a 50-page policy defeats a model · the ‘AI council’ — models judging models, a human above them44:06 Audience Q&A45:39 Shikoli: AI’s sleeping superpower — vision: tea drones buying crop months before auction · 300 ATM videos in minutes49:46 First principles: AI as thought partner, feedback and tutor — the physics exam · organisations = workflows = tasks53:30 Final round + the parting shot: the solopreneur billion-dollar company · close
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Episode 185 - Building Innovation in Africa & the Middle East at Celpay & Zain: The Making of Tito Alai | Part 3
6d ago00:57:53Tap to summarizeThe final part of my three-part conversation with Tito Alai begins with one of the most important and least widely understood stories in African technology: the origins of Celpay.According to Tito’s first-hand account, Celtel’s mobile-money journey began with market research in Zambia. The company noticed that airtime purchased in one city was often activated in another. People were already finding ways to support relatives, employees and business partners remotely.Me2U made it possible to transfer airtime directly from one user to another.The next insight was even more significant. Recipients were sometimes exchanging that airtime for cash or goods. In a hyperinflationary environment with limited access to conventional banking and card infrastructure, airtime had become a proxy for money.Tito explains how Celtel attempted to formalise that behaviour through Celpay and why the company eventually sold the business to focus resources on the rapid expansion of its core telecommunications network.The episode then moves into Celtel’s entry into Kenya and Nigeria, including the complexities of growing through acquisition rather than building every operation from the ground up.The second half of the conversation explores Celtel’s acquisition by MTC of Kuwait and the creation of Zain.Tito was asked to take on integrated commercial leadership across the Middle East and Africa. The group had strong operations but lacked one coherent identity. Celtel had powerful African brand equity, but simply exporting that identity into the Middle East would have required diluting what made it meaningful.The solution was to create a new brand.Tito takes us inside the process that produced Zain, from hundreds of possible names to market research, executive choice, visual identity and rollout across countries with very different histories and existing brands.We also discuss his work after Zain through Mimi Africa, his time at Afreximbank during the COVID-19 period and his current conviction that secure digital identities, digital signatures and certification will be essential to Africa’s economic integration.This final episode brings the entire series together: consumer insight, innovation, global brand strategy, African institutional agency and the importance of telling our own stories.Time Stamps00:00 Welcome to Part 3 and the Celpay question00:47 Why Celtel looked beyond tariff plans for innovation02:06 The Zambia market insight behind remote airtime transfer04:39 How Me2U was created05:46 When airtime became a proxy for money07:26 Hyperinflation and the need to move value08:30 Consumers had already invented the workaround09:10 Formalizing cash-in and cash-out10:29 The hidden cost of being a first mover12:43 Why Celtel narrowed its strategic focus14:08 Selling Celpay and funding expansion15:53 Entering Nigeria and Kenya through acquisition17:25 The Kencell acquisition story23:13 Celtel’s acquisition by MTC of Kuwait28:18 Integrating commercial leadership across the Middle East and Africa32:14 Creating the Zain brand from scratch39:10 Moving Celtel’s brand equity into Zain41:18 Mimi Africa and new ventures46:15 Afreximbank and telling African institutional stories48:38 Digital identity, certification and the future of African integration53:24 Closing reflections on a three-part career journey
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Episode 184 - Reinventing Brands Globally at Africa Online, Kodak, & Celtel: The Making of Tito Alai | Part 2
6d ago01:00:36Tap to summarizePart 1 of my conversation with Tito Alai ended just as he was leaving Unilever and joining Africa Online.Part 2 begins at that exact inflection point.After almost a decade in one of the world’s most sophisticated consumer-goods organizations, Tito deliberately moved into a young African internet business because he wanted a genuinely new learning curve.Africa Online was scaling across several markets at a time when the internet itself was still unfamiliar to most consumers and organisations on the continent. Tito explains what it meant to take the consumer understanding, organizational discipline and brand-management principles he had learned at Unilever and apply them inside a startup environment.The conversation has special personal resonance for me because Africa Online is also where I began my career. We revisit the company’s “My World, My Provider” era, the need to create consistency across countries and the importance of presenting one coherent narrative to customers, employees and investors.Tito then takes us into Eastman Kodak. He first managed consumer imaging across roughly 90 countries covering Africa, the Middle East and Central Europe before being appointed to lead the film category across Western Europe.His assignment was simple to describe but difficult to execute: find growth in a mature category. Tito explains why that meant taking market share from competitors—and how Kodak was already confronting the early strategic challenge of digital photography.The final chapter introduces Mo Ibrahim and the vision that became Celtel. Tito describes joining a group that believed Africans deserved mobile technology as good as anything available elsewhere, and we begin exploring how the company developed market-specific innovations rather than treating Africa as an afterthought.The discussion includes the origins of Me2U and Celpay, as well as the commercial problem that eventually produced One Network: why should crossing an African border suddenly make a phone call dramatically more expensive?This is a conversation about reinvention, disruption, storytelling and the power of building from the realities of the consumer.Time Stamps00:00 Welcome back and where Part 1 ended01:29 Leaving Unilever and joining Africa Online04:43 Why Tito deliberately chose a startup and a new industry12:18 What Unilever experience brought to Africa Online16:13 How do you market the internet before people understand it?17:28 Unifying Africa Online across multiple countries19:34 The big idea, the investor narrative and the IPO22:54 The dot-com bust and the realities of family and travel24:14 Joining Kodak across Africa, the Middle East and Central Europe25:38 Growing a mature Western European market28:10 Kodak, film and the early digital disruption32:00 Mo Ibrahim’s vision for African mobile telecommunications34:34 Joining Mobile Systems International and building Celtel39:27 The commercial growth of Celtel43:49 Me2U and Tito’s account of Celpay’s early mobile money story50:45 Why African consumers were paying so much to roam54:28 How One Network emerged59:28 Why the story needed a third episode
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Episode 183 - From Kenya to Unilever’s Global Stage: The Making of Tito Alai | Part 1
6d ago00:58:47Tap to summarizeI had initially planned to record one Pure Digital Passion Podcast conversation with Tito Alai. We ended up recording three.By the end of this first session, we had only managed to cover Tito’s early life, education, rise through East African Industries—now Unilever—and his move to London for international strategic responsibilities.We had not yet reached Africa Online, Kodak, Celtel, Celpay, One Network, Zain, Mimi Africa, Afreximbank or his current work around African digital identities.That is the scale of Tito’s story.In Part 1, we begin in Kirinyaga, where Tito was born while his father, then a District Commissioner, was away responding to a rogue-elephant incident. We move to his childhood on a farm in Muhoroni, boarding school from the age of six and his years at Lenana School, where he embraced academics, sport, leadership and extracurricular life.Tito explains why he chose humanities despite excelling in mathematics and the sciences, how the death of his father changed the period immediately before university, and why he briefly dropped out of the University of Nairobi because he felt insufficiently challenged.The second half of the conversation traces his entry into Unilever’s graduate-management program. He recalls choosing East African Industries over Coca-Cola, beginning in field sales, learning how products actually moved through the market and later becoming a brand manager responsible for outcomes without having direct authority over the people needed to deliver them.We also unpack the extraordinary moment when an informal-looking trip to London turned out to be an interview for an international role. At just 29, Tito moved to London and began coordinating strategic work across Latin America before taking on wider regional and global responsibilities.This episode is about much more than one person’s early career. It is about how curiosity, responsibility, consumer understanding and a willingness to keep learning can transform the direction of a life.Time Stamps00:00 Introduction to Tito Alai and the three-part story04:38 Why the conversation had to begin with his formative years5:26 Born in Kirinyaga and the story behind his African name07:02 Farm life, boarding school and early independence08:02 Lenana School and the value of trying everything09:34 Choosing humanities despite excelling in science12:23 Losing his father and taking on family responsibility13:31 University of Nairobi and the transition into commerce17:05 Why Tito briefly dropped out of university19:24 How Unilever’s graduate programme found him24:37 Choosing Unilever over Coca-Cola25:12 Mentorship and management training at East African Industries26:22 Learning the market through field sales29:31 Brand management: responsibility without authority34:00 The unexpected London opportunity39:44 Moving to London at 2940:04 Latin America and the shock of global scale47:47 Leaving Unilever to pursue a new learning curve56:45 Why one podcast became a three-part series
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Episode 182 - Akili AI’s Simon Bransfield-Garth & Shikoli Makatiani Unpack Practical AI For Businesses In Kenya
2w ago00:56:12Tap to summarizeIn this follow-up episode of the Pure Digital Passion Podcast, I sit down again with Simon Bransfield-Garth, Founder & CEO of Akili AI, this time joined by Shikoli Makatiani, CTO and technical lead at Akili AI.Our first conversation with Simon explored his remarkable journey from working on artificial neural networks at Cambridge in the mid-1980s, to Symbian, mobile security, off-grid solar in Africa, and eventually the founding of Akili AI.This second conversation moves from vision to deployment.We discuss what it really takes to put AI to work inside Kenyan financial services organizations, including banks, cooperatives, microfinance institutions, customer service teams, and regulated business workflows.This is a deeply practical conversation about shadow AI, agentic systems, AI governance, AI readiness, AI risk registers, pain owners, MVP-first deployment, staff training, and why Kenyan and African organizations need to focus less on AI hype and more on measurable business outcomes.Key themes covered:Why many organizations are already using AI even when leadership thinks they are notWhat “shadow AI” means and why it creates governance and risk exposureWhy AI is not just another digital transformation tool but a decision-layer technologyHow Akili AI identifies practical business pain points before deploying AIWhy “pain owners” are critical to successful AI projectsHow agentic AI differs from chatbots in financial services workflowsWhy AI governance, guardrails, human oversight, and staff training matterHow Akili Snapshot, Akili Assured, and Akili Passport help organizations manage AI readiness and responsibilityWhy “good enough is good enough” when selecting AI models for practical African use casesWhat CEOs, CTOs, CIOs, founders, and risk leaders should do nextTimestamps:00:00 Introduction and episode context01:29 Shadow AI and why unmanaged AI is already inside organizations03:04 Why the value is not in the AI model but in what you build around it04:43 Shikoli on practical AI deployment in Kenyan organizations06:48 Why AI operates at the decision layer of the business08:35 Moving from AI strategy to solving real business problems10:57 Why AI projects are different from ERP-style implementations12:32 Business cases, experimentation, and managing the risk of failure14:05 Why Akili AI prefers MVP-first deployment over big-bang transformation16:55 Reinventing business processes from the bottom up17:58 Building credibility through incremental AI wins19:07 Why Shikoli starts by asking: “Show me the pain owner”20:46 Customer service pain points, 72-hour response times, and 8,000 calls23:59 Moving from first AI projects to third and fourth deployments25:42 Managing scope creep in AI projects28:50 What agentic AI really means31:32 How AI agents can operate in microfinance and cooperative workflows34:33 Guardrails, human oversight, and safety in regulated financial services36:16 Reducing cognitive load for employees and customer service teams37:22 Akili Snapshot and what it reveals about AI readiness40:40 Akili Assured, AI governance, and Akili Passport training42:56 Real-world shadow AI risks inside banking environments45:52 Frontier models, sovereign AI, and why not every use case needs the biggest model48:08 Token maxing, cost control, and African AI pragmatism52:02 Advice for CEOs: start now, assess readiness, solve practical problems53:08 Advice for CTOs, CIOs, and founders on practical AI use cases55:19 Closing thoughts on responsible and practical AI deployment
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Episode 181 - Farayi Ziswa On Selling To Africa’s Informal Markets, Route-To-Market Strategy & The Future Of African Retail
3w ago01:09:29Tap to summarizeIn this episode of the Pure Digital Passion Podcast, I had an in-depth conversation with Farayi Ziswa, Founder & Executive Director of BTL Consulting Ltd, Co-Founder of Mapepa Karatasi, Founder & Executive Coach at Inheritege Coaches, and author of Selling to Informal Markets.This is a deep and practical conversation about how African commerce actually works on the ground.Farayi shares his journey from growing up around a family farm in Zimbabwe, studying business and finance at the University of Hull, joining Unilever’s UK International Management Trainee programme, and becoming National Sales Manager for Unilever South-East Africa, to later working across African Sun Hotels, SPAR Zimbabwe, SIT Distribution in Dubai and the GCC, BTL Consulting, Copia Global, Farm Shop, Mapepa Karatasi, and Inheritege Coaches.The conversation explores why Africa’s informal markets are so often misunderstood, why sales and route-to-market execution deserve more respect, and how mobile technology, field intelligence, data, and modern sales systems can help corporates, entrepreneurs, and distributors serve informal retail markets more effectively.Farayi also discusses his book, Selling to Informal Markets, which provides a practical blueprint for corporates, entrepreneurs, sales professionals, and training institutions looking to successfully sell to Africa’s informal retailers.In This Episode, We Discuss:Farayi’s early life in Zimbabwe and his exposure to commerce through the family farmStudying business accounting and financial management at the University of HullLessons from Unilever’s UK International Management Trainee programmeWhy sales is one of the most strategic disciplines in businessWhat corporates misunderstand about Africa’s informal marketsHow BTL Consulting helps FMCG companies reach informal retailersThe role of mobile technology and real-time reporting in field salesLessons from Copia Global and Farm ShopServing small-scale farmers as customers, not statisticsWhy informal markets should be respected as sophisticated commercial systems\Farayi’s book, Selling to Informal MarketsThe future of route-to-market, informal retail, and African commerceAbout Farayi ZiswaFarayi Ziswa is a Zimbabwean-born business strategist, sales transformation leader, entrepreneur, executive coach, and author. He is the Founder & Executive Director of BTL Consulting Ltd, a regional advisory and execution firm focused on helping FMCG companies make their products more available in Africa’s informal markets using mobile technology and modern sales strategy.He is also Co-Founder of Mapepa Karatasi in Tanzania, Founder & Executive Coach at Inheritege Coaches, and author of Selling to Informal Markets. His career spans Unilever, African Sun Hotels, SPAR Zimbabwe, SIT Distribution in Dubai and the GCC, Copia Global, Farm Shop, and multiple advisory and board roles across Africa.Chapters02:30 Introducing Farayi Ziswa and his career journey05:45 Growing up in Zimbabwe and learning commerce early11:20 Moving to the UK and studying at the University of Hull16:40 Joining Unilever and learning sales discipline23:30 Why sales is the first line of business performance29:10 SPAR Zimbabwe and seeing retail from the other side35:00 Dubai, the GCC, and pioneering mobile real-time reporting42:15 Founding BTL Consulting and serving informal markets50:30 What corporates misunderstand about informal retail58:45 Mobile technology, data, and field intelligence1:06:30 Copia Global and the realities of serving mass markets1:14:00 Farm Shop and working with small-scale farmers1:22:20 Mapepa Karatasi, Inheritege Coaches, and the next chapter1:29:00 Selling to Informal Markets and why the book matters1:35:00 Final reflections and how to connect with FarayiBuy Selling to Informal Markets:https://www.amazon.com/SELLING-INFORMAL-MARKETS-CORPORATE-SUCCESSFULLY/dp/1779286457
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Episode 180 - Creating Lasting Impact: A Conversation with Incoming Rotary International President Yinka Babalola
Jun 800:35:29Tap to summarizeIn this conversation recorded during the Rotary Zone 22 Regional Team Learning Seminar in Diani, Kenya, a few weeks ago, I sat down with Rotary International President-Elect Olayinka Hakeem Babalola for a deep and timely discussion about Rotary, leadership, emotional reconnection, impact, and Africa’s role in the organization’s future.For those who may not know Rotary closely, Rotary International is a global network of community leaders and professionals who volunteer their skills and resources to solve social issues. With about 1.2 million members in more than 45,000 clubs across over 200 countries, Rotary and its charitable arm, The Rotary Foundation, have invested billions of dollars into sustainable, community-driven humanitarian projects. Founded in Chicago in 1905 by Paul Harris, Rotary’s mission is to bring together business and professional leaders to provide humanitarian service, promote high ethical standards, and advance goodwill and peace around the world.In our conversation, Yinka shares how his Rotary journey began as a Rotaractor in Nigeria, why Rotary must move beyond transactional membership to emotional connection, and why the real measure of service is lasting impact. We also explore Rotary’s polio eradication legacy, the importance of storytelling in attracting new members, and why Africa’s youth, energy, and urgent development needs make it central to Rotary’s next chapter.This conversation feels especially timely as Yinka is installed in about week at the Rotary International Convention today in Taipei, Taiwan, as Rotary International’s second ever President from Africa, marking a historic moment for Rotary in Africa and globally.If you care about leadership, service, community impact, and how large organizations stay relevant in changing times, this is a conversation worth your time.Chapters00:00 Introduction01:05 What Rotary is and why this moment matters02:10 Yinka’s Rotary journey from Rotaract to Rotary International President-Elect05:10 Emotional reconnection to Rotary08:10 Change versus lasting impact11:10 Rotary’s polio eradication legacy14:10 Africa’s role in Rotary’s future18:10 Membership, inclusion, and growth22:10 Leadership, relevance, and what comes next25:00 Closing reflections
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Episode 179 - The Current State & Future of BPO & AI In Kenya & Africa with Teleperformance's Sven De Cauter
May 3100:56:45Tap to summarizeIn this recent episode of the Pure Digital Passion Podcast, I sat down with Sven De Cauter, CEO of Teleperformance (TP) Kenya and Nigeria, for a revealing conversation about the growth of one of Kenya’s most remarkable digital business services operations. From 60 employees in 2020 to over 2,500 today, TP Kenya has become a significant case study in what is possible when global scale meets local talent, operational discipline, and long-term ambition.Sven shares his journey from Belgium to the UK, Tanzania, Barcelona, and eventually Nairobi, where he came in to help build a business that now serves clients across 170 markets and 21 languages. We discuss why Kenya was chosen, what he learned from TP’s Barcelona multilingual hub, why Mombasa became part of the company’s footprint, and how AI is reshaping the future of customer service and BPO.This conversation goes beyond headcount and office locations. We also talk about impact sourcing, youth employment, infrastructure, GDPR adequacy, the EU-Kenya Digital Dialogue, and what Kenya must do if it wants to become a serious global destination for digital business services. Sven is candid about both the opportunities and the gaps, and his perspective is especially valuable because it comes from someone who has built across markets and understands what scale really requires.Chapters0:00 Introduction and why this conversation matters2:19 Sven’s background and the road to Nairobi6:16 What TP is and how it evolved globally8:01 Why Kenya, and how the move happened10:52 Why Kenya’s talent pipeline matters13:26 Soft skills, onboarding, and customer service readiness15:17 The growth story from 60 to 2,500 employees19:55 Why Mombasa became part of the operation23:17 Why Two Rivers and TRIFIC made strategic sense28:14 AI, emotional intelligence, and the future of BPO31:07 Green energy, GDPR, and Kenya’s competitive edge33:56 The 10,000-jobs ambition35:26 Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, and the pan-African view39:01 Infrastructure, latency, and cost42:32 Kenya’s culture of learning and adaptability48:58 Changing lives through impact sourcing51:15 Advice for young people entering the industry55:55 Closing remarks and where to find TP
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