Financial Access is a long established financial sector advisory firm with a global 25 year track record of implementing change and capacity development for – and with – financial institutions in emerging markets. In November 2015, Financial Access incorporated a finance company called Financial Access Commerce & Trade Services (“FACTS”) with operations in Kenya, Uganda and a Head Office in the Netherlands.
Today, FACTS lends to SMEs in Kenya, Uganda and (soon) Tanzania. The ideas and concepts behind our business model go back to the successful Finance for Agriculture (“F4A”) programmes that we ran in Kenya and Uganda between 2013 and 2017 in cooperation with the Embassy of the Netherlands.
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Michael Muwonge, as the Director of FACTS East Africa BV is responsible for coordinating and supervising Sales for FACTS entities and as a Country Manager, he manages the Uganda office, FACTS Uganda Limited. He joined FACTS as the team leader in Uganda; a role that has seen FACTS grow from the phase of incubation to acceleration. Micheal is quite knowledgeable in the areas of finance structuring, access to alternative financing, supply chain financing and factoring.
Before joining FACTS, Mr. Muwonge was designated as Head Merchant Business acquisition and Head Products at Diamond Trust Bank and was able to have over 300 merchants ready to take on mobile payment solutions with the bank even before the launch was carried out. Working as Head Sales and Service at Diamond Trust Bank, he was responsible for developing distribution and delivery models to maximize sales and provide leadership on strategy to optimize financial profitability. Mr. Muwonge started his banking career with Stanbic Bank as a sales consultant. Apart from Mr. Muwonge’s over a decade experience in banking sector, he has experience in the media Industry where he initially started his professional career and masterminded the expansion of Radio Maria Uganda, a world family project based in Italy from one Station to Four stations and two repeater stations in Uganda.
In addition to Bachelors in Procurement and Logistics Management, Mr. Muwonge holds numerous management training certificates. He is fluent in English, Swahili and Luganda.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/micheal-muwonge-a0b56125
Peter van der Krogt is the Chairman of Financial Access Capital Management B.V. and co-founder of Financial Access. He is focused on the firm’s Banking Advisory and SME Finance activities, particularly in East Africa. He has over 30 years of experience working with private and public financial institutions, including the Dutch Ministry of Finance and the World Bank/IFC in Washington, DC. In 1989 he joined ING Bank and worked mostly in Emerging Markets. During his career within ING Bank he held senior management positions in wholesale banking in the Philippines and Russia, responsible for corporate banking and structured & project finance.
From 1999 until 2002 he was led the restructuring and repositioning of Lippo Bank as Project Manager, one of the largest private banks in Indonesia, into a modern Retail and SME bank. For several years he was the Global Head of ING’s Financial Institutions advisory business, the company that became Financial Access. He has supervised many advisory projects and has been actively involved as principal adviser in strategic planning, business development and governance. He has implemented and rolled-out new products and banking concepts in many banks in Angola, Burundi, Kenya, Indonesia, Mauritania, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda, amongst others. Mr. van der Krogt is currently involved as a Project Director in the IFC MSME African Finance Program at Bank of Africa in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi. He also executes diagnostic and market research projects under the IFC AMSME programme, most recently for 2 banks in Nigeria.
Mr. van der Krogt holds a MA from the University of Leiden and is fluent in Dutch and English.
Mr. Mutiso has close to 14 years of banking sector experience. He started his career with Standard Chartered Bank in 2005 where he worked for 7 years and later moved to Bank of Africa Kenya where he held various commercial banking roles both at branch and head office level. He is also a co-founder of Callme2work; a digital platform that seeks to eradicate unemployment in Africa by digitalizing skills.
Mutiso is the Country Manager and local Director FACTS Kenya. He is responsible for managing the overall operations.
Mr. Mutiso holds a degree in BSC-Mathematics (Honors) from Moi University.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mutiso-ndambuki-155586a2
Sjoerd van Driesum joined FACTS in 2019 and is responsible for Technology and Operations in East Africa. Furthermore, he is involved with all Corporate Finance topics, such as new funding, treasury and financial risk management.
Previously, Sjoerd worked in the capital markets team of Barclays Investment Bank in London. The opportunity and developments of the innovative fin-tech sector together with a strong believe in FACTS’ mission drove Sjoerd to move to Nairobi and pursue his career there.
Mr. van Driesum graduated with a BSc. in Econometrics & Operations Research and a MSc. in Quantitative Finance from the Erasmus School of Economics in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Peter Ndirangu has a rich experience in Finance and Banking Sectors. He also has extensive knowledge in accounting and is a certified public accountant of Kenya [CPA (K)]. He holds a Master’s in Business Administration from Strathmore Business School, a BSc. in International Business Administration from the United States International University – Africa, an Executive certificate in Agriculture Finance and extensive knowledge in Certification of Information Systems Audit.
He has worked as an Internal Auditor at Saam Kenya Limited (Fabric City at Nakumatt Holdings), a Finance Officer at Financial Access East Africa Limited and a Finance Manager at Financial Access Commerce & Trade Services (K) Limited.
He is currently the Head of Finance and Admin Regional office (East Africa) based in Nairobi, Kenya where he maintains Financials, Planning and Admin obligations for the Financial Access group. He also supports the Head Office in Amsterdam, Netherlands on Financial Consolidated Reporting.
He is passionate about Corporate Finance and Economics Fields, Institutional Governance and Administration and Critical Thinking on a basis of creativity and innovation to add Value.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-ndirangu-7760aa48
Ms. Sembiro Isabel Diana is a former Banker with a wealth of experience spanning over 10 years in the Banking industry mostly concentrated in credit risk management and administration.
Prior to joining FACTS (U) LTD, she served as a credit analyst with Orient Bank, a Senior Credit Risk Officer at Diamond Trust Bank and also worked in various roles with Guaranty Trust Bank (formerly FINA Bank) where she spent the bulk of her banking career.
She Holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce from Makerere University, Certificates in Basic Banking, Credit management and Lending to SME’s from the Uganda Institute of Banking and Financial Services.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/isabel-sembiro-208a5564
Praveen Jolly is the Investment Officer for Financial Access Capital Management B.V. and additionally seconded to FACTS East Africa B.V. and its subsidiaries for raising new deals in expanding FACTS portfolio. Praveen Jolly is the Secretary of the Board, in-house Legal Counsel and is maintaining and supporting relationship with the funders and investors. Currently he is working as a project manager to implement project EASE (Expanding Access to Supply Chain Finance for SMEs in East Africa) in collaboration with BFIs. He joined in 2016 as Program Evaluation and Internal Audit for one of their largest project Finance 4 Agriculture (F4A).
Mr. Jolly holds a master’s degree of Laws (LL.M) Finance and Law from Duisenberg School of Finance, Amsterdam; a bachelor’s degree in Commerce and a bachelor’s degree in Law, both from University of Delhi. He is a registered lawyer with Bar Council of Delhi and has experience in fund raising, deal structuring, supply chain financing, accounting, financial modelling, compliance and legal research. Mr. Jolly is fluent in English and Hindi.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/praveenjolly
Miriam Wanjiku is the Head of Risk and Legal. She is responsible for risk assessment of new clients, monitoring and portfolio management. She has seven-year experience in credit and banking in Equity Bank Kenya Limited and Rafiki Microfinance Bank Limited. Skilled in Factoring, Supply Chain Financing (Reverse Factoring), Invoice Discounting, Portfolio Management, Credit Risk Analysis, Customer Service and Business Development. She is a performance-oriented and great team player.
She is currently completing a Masters degree in Business Administration and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Science from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miriam-wanjiku-96411298
Jessica Bernah Nalubega is the Business development Manager FACTS Uganda. Before joining FACTS, she served as a distribution manager in Parambot Breweries Limited before rising to acting sales and marketing manager.
She has ten years banking experience. She started her banking career in Standard Bank as a teller and later became a customer service consultant. She also served in the business banking department where she worked as a business relationship officer before assuming the role of Relationship Manager SME.
She holds a Diploma in Business Studies from Makerere University and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Nkumba University.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-nalubega-ba0a98112
Paul has over 6-years’ experience in the hospitality and banking industry having previously worked as a marketing manager, business sales officer, client credit relations officer and credit analyst at State Bank of Mauritius-Kenya before joining FACTS.
His roles include identifying new market opportunities and mapping them for business uptake, client relationship management both new and existing, ensuring proper credit portfolio growth, providing market intelligence and general product awareness.
He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree in marketing from Kabarak University.
Lynne is a banking and finance expert with over 10 years’ experience acquired from holding various
positions in credit and operations departments. Prior to joining FACTS, Lynne worked for Family Bank, Bank of Africa, Faulu Microfinance and Equity Bank.
Her role as a relationship manager involves identifying new market opportunities and mapping them for business uptake, client relationship management both new and existing, ensuring proper credit portfolio growth, providing market intelligence and general product awareness.
Lynne holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance) degree from Kenyatta University.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynne-mutegi-b36786174
Mr. Munyae specializes in Operational Processes Management and ICT for FACTS. Prior to joining FACTS Africa, he worked with different organizations in various capacities, most recently as an IT Administrator with experience in Project Management.
He has a Degree in Information Technology from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, he is certified in Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA), ITIL v3 certified, Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA) and has a foundation certification in International Factoring (FCI).
Blessing Nakalema has over 10 years of experience in the Trade and Supply Chain Finance, Transactional Products Services, Revenue Assurance and operations, having served under various capacities.
She was part of the team at Stanbic Bank Head Office that launched the Finacle system under the Learning and Development Unit (which involved creating awareness among the bank staff on the new core banking system that eventually had a successful roll out). Blessing has also served in other nations like South Africa, Tanzania, and Kenya where she lended her skills as Trade Finance Officer for 6 months.
Blessing holds a Masters in Business Administration (Finance) (MBA)at Makerere University Kampala as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work and Social Administration (BSWSA) at Makerere University Kampala.
She also holds a certificate in FCI Factoring Foundation Course
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aisha-blessing-nakalema-56842b9b
Mr. Ndutumo is a Senior system engineer at FACTS for the Nairobi office. Before joining FACTS, he worked in various organizations as a System engineer. Ndutumo has vast experience in system
development, development and database management and analysis.
He has a BSc. in Telecommunication and Information Engineering from Dedan Kimathi University of Technology and is a Certified Oracle Associate as well as a trained Oracle Certified Professional.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ndutumo-isaac-11804590
Eric joined FACTS in July 2016. Prior to joining FACTS, he worked in various capacities in both the banking and insurance sectors and has experience in financial and risk management, compliance, credit risk analysis and financial data analysis. He is responsible for appraising financing requests and monitoring performance of the credit facilities.
Eric holds a degree in Actuarial Science from Dedan Kimathi University of Technology and a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance) degree from Jomo Kenyatta University. In addition, he has CPA 2 and is currently pursuing his Masters in Science (Finance Option) at the University of Nairobi.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-macharia-2bb32046
Mitchell is a seasoned marketer having previously worked at China Roads and Bridges Corporation (CRBC) in the liaison department and at the National Land Commission. She is also a member of the Trade and Professional Bodies Project Team at the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM)- Kenya; whose aim is to raise awareness on the value of professional marketing practices in the various business sectors.
Her role involves overseeing the brand management and promotion of FACTS public image, customer relationship management, events managements, developing and implementing marketing and communication strategies of the company and scanning the market and providing market intelligence.
Mitchell holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree (Marketing and Human Resource Double Majors) from Strathmore University. She is currently pursuing a Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) Professional Diploma in Marketing Certificate.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-wanjiku-002052118
Theresia is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya and a Legal Officer at FACTS. Her role focuses on offering legal advisory services and handling the execution of legal related matters in the organization.
Prior to joining FACTS, Theresia has worked as a trainee advocate at the firm of Kimamo Kuria Advocates as well as a legal intern at Transparency International and CLEAR Kenya.
She holds a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Nairobi and a post graduate diploma in law from the Kenya School of Law.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theresia-muutu-43a7b6124
Gladys is mainly involved in the management and execution of the debt collection process, monitoring daily transactions and reporting.
Ms. Lagat has worked in the banking and micro-finance sector, as a credit officer and has in depth knowledge of performing credit and collections functions.
She has a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance) degree from Kabarak University.
Violet Kakyo has over 9 years working experience in operations and customer service.
She has worked as an Evaluations Assistant with Catholic Relief Services and PSFU as well as with Guaranty Trust Bank U Ltd where she worked as a Teller, Customer Care Service Officer and Branch Operations Supervisor.
Violet has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration (Finance Option) from Makerere University and is currently pursuing her MBA – Project Management option.
Nelly Kirimi is a finance professional with in-depth knowledge in accounting operations with experience acquired from different sectors. Before joining FACTS, she worked with Manchester outfitters ltd as an account’s assistant. She also worked as a budget and financial management service Intern with United nations office Nairobi.
Nelly holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Finance from Multimedia University of Kenya. She is also a certified public accountant.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nelly-kirimi-359531154
Hellen is an organized and adaptable administrative assistant with five years’ experience working in various office environments. She has leveraged strong multitasking skills to manage customer service, data entry, inventory control and purchasing of supplies. Additionally, Hellen facilitates event registration, maintains customer files, updates mailing lists and supports other departments and cross-functional teams in addressing customer needs with much emphasis on ensuring that every task is completed efficiently and to the highest possible standard.
She holds a Diploma in Procurement and Logistics Management.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nahone-hellen-24bb1aa9
Mr. Chacha has over five years’ experience working in various office environments. Having previously worked at Family Bank as an office assistant for four years, Chacha joined FACTS Kenya having vast experience in office operations. He has leveraged strong multitasking skills to manage customer service, running office errands and maintaining office operations.
Jan Cherim is a Managing Director for the Small Enterprise Assistance Funds (SEAF), a pioneering emerging markets Private Equity firm with an SME focus and investment teams in some 15 countries worldwide. He manages their hub in the EU (based in Amsterdam) and coordinates advisory services, European investor relations and business development and serves as Director of various SEAF funds globally. Mr. Cherim’s earlier investment experience includes establishing asset management companies in Thailand (mutual funds), Poland and China (PE) for ING, as well as launching the bank’s first Emerging Markets debt fund.
On behalf of SEAF, Mr Cherim is a non-Executive Chair of the FACTS holding company and was a co-founder of Financial Access Capital Partners. He has over 30 years of banking, investment management and consulting experience in Europe, the Far East, Africa and the Caribbean. He has advised corporate, financial sector and sovereign clients in the areas of financing, investment, strategic development, management organisation, balance sheet restructuring, privatisation, as well as risk management, governance and internal audit concerns. He led the SEAF-backed MBO of Financial Access from ING Bank in 2007, a business he had helped to launch in the early 1990s. He is actively involved with clients in the PE, financial and SME/agri-financing sectors. He is a recognised authority in performance enhancement in banking.
At ING, Mr Cherim was a member of the Management Committee of ING Bank’s Wholesale International (Banking) unit based in Amsterdam, and Head of ING’s Financial Institutions business, with global responsibility for FIG products and relationship managers, including the lending, payments, securities services, trade finance, and the advisory practice for financial sector clients (which became FA). He was Country Manager for ING in Thailand, as well as Regional Director for Africa.
Before joining ING in 1990, he worked in international corporate finance at S.G. Warburg & Co. in London (now UBS Investment Banking), and in research at the World Bank in Washington. Mr Cherim was educated at The Johns Hopkins University (USA) and the London School of Economics (UK).
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jancherim
