A Zimbabwean woman is shining on the global stage.
Natalie Payida Jabangwe, a computer engineer and business executive, has emerged as one of Africa’s most influential leaders in fintech and digital financial services, now steering a US$1 billion innovation fund aimed at transforming entrepreneurship across the continent.
Jabangwe is the Chief Executive Officer of the Timbuktoo Africa Innovation Foundation, where she leads a flagship pan-African startup fund designed to back young innovators, scale technology solutions, and drive inclusive economic growth.
Born in the United Kingdom around 1983, Jabangwe returned to Zimbabwe as an infant. She attended Dudley Hall Primary School in Norton and Chinhoyi High School before returning to the UK for higher education.
She holds a BSc in Computer Engineering from Middlesex University and earned a scholarship to Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. She later completed an Executive MBA at Imperial College London, specialising in hi-tech strategy, corporate turnaround and brand management.
She also holds a Master’s degree in Organisational Leadership from the University of Oxford through the Tutu Fellowship.
Her career spans senior leadership roles across global and African institutions.
At Sanlam Group, Jabangwe served as Group Digital Executive Officer, overseeing digital strategy and a US$600 million budget across 34 African markets, India and Malaysia.
She rose to continental prominence as CEO of EcoCash Zimbabwe between 2014 and 2021, becoming one of Africa’s youngest fintech chief executives.
Under her leadership, EcoCash grew to serve over nine million users, processing more than US$16 billion annually — a figure equivalent to over 70% of Zimbabwe’s GDP at the time.
Earlier in her career, she worked as a Senior Mobile Financial Services Consultant, shaping digital strategies across 52 countries and contributing to major global deals, including a Retalix acquisition and a strategic PayPal partnership.
At just 21 years old, while interning in the office of Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, Jabangwe helped develop the city’s first information technology security policies, marking an early sign of her focus on systems, security and scale.
Her leadership has earned global recognition.
She was named a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader in 2018, served on the UN Secretary-General’s Digital Financing Taskforce, and acts as an ambassador for UN Women’s Entrepreneurship Day. She is also a Desmond Tutu Fellow and a Choiseul 100 honouree.
Jabangwe currently sits on the board of Wesgro, the official tourism, trade and investment promotion agency for Cape Town and the Western Cape.
Widely regarded as a champion of financial inclusion, women in STEM, and Moonshot Leadership, Jabangwe advocates for technology-driven, bottom-up economic models that expand opportunity, close inequality gaps and place Africa’s future in the hands of its innovators.