Absa Group has announced a series of executive leadership changes, headlined by the appointment of former M-Pesa Africa MD Sitoyo Lopokoiyit as CEO of its personal and private banking division.
Lopokoiyit, who takes up the role on 1 April, joins from Safaricom, where he led the strategy and growth of M-Pesa, Africa’s largest fintech platform. During more than 12 years at the company, he helped scale M-Pesa to serve over 56 million customers and more than five million businesses across the continent.
He also led the launch of products including the M-Pesa Super App and Fuliza, and oversaw partnerships with global platforms such as PayPal and AliPay. He previously headed M-Pesa Africa, the joint venture between Safaricom and Vodacom, with a mandate to expand the platform across African markets.
Absa Group CEO Kenny Fihla said in a statement on Wednesday that the appointment reflects the bank’s focus on delivering integrated, customer-centric solutions across its personal and private banking franchise while pursuing new growth opportunities.
The appointment comes as Absa works to implement its refocused pan-African strategy, which has prompted a broader reshuffling of its senior leadership team.
Among the other changes, Prabashni Naidoo moves from her current role as group chief internal audit executive to the newly created position of group chief governance officer, effective 1 March 2026. The reconstituted role combines legal, compliance and group secretariat functions under a single executive. Naidoo has extensive experience across audit, risk and regulatory engagement.
Talent
Replacing Naidoo in the audit function is Rushdi Solomons, who has been promoted to group chief internal audit officer, also effective 1 March. Solomons most recently served as managing executive for compliance strategy, regulatory relations and governance, a role he has held since June 2025. Before joining Absa in 2020, he held senior positions at Deloitte, the Auditor-General of South Africa and PwC.
Fatima Newman has been appointed chief compliance officer, effective 1 March. Newman brings 28 years of experience across risk, compliance, regulatory and governance functions, having held senior roles at EOH Group (now iOCO), where she served as chief risk officer, as well as at MTN South Africa and EasyHQ.
Read: Absa is planning to launch an MVNO
“These appointments reflect both the depth of talent within Absa and the strength of our succession planning, as well as our ambition to enhance our organisational resilience by bringing onboard expertise from outside the firm,” Fihla said in the statement. — © 2026 NewsCentral Media
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