Legal team size: 11 (across all regions we operate in)

What are the most significant cases and transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?  

1. Airtel Africa, one of the largest telecom operators in Africa has chosen Network as its payments processor to provide expertise and technical support for transaction processing, card hosting and management, online fraud prevention management, APIs sandbox, and more across all its entities. 2. Succesful partnership with Rwanda’s oldest bank, I&M Bank Rwanda (Plc). Through this partnership, Network will empower I&M Bank with advanced digital payment solutions, including a host of value-added services such as fraud prevention and authentication solutions. 3. Achievement of B-BBEE accreditation milestone which is part of our journey towards establishing a truly local business presence in South Africa. In addition to the successful and timely deployment of our Network One technology estate on South African soil, we have achieved Level 1 B-BBEE accreditation. This represents the highest level of recognition under the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) scorecard. 4. One of Africa’s largest food retailers and South Africa’s leading money transfer provider awarded their highly contested RFP for card processing linked to their Money Market Account to Network. This new partnership illustrates the ability of the Network to enable payments service providers across industries, from traditional banks, fintech, MNOs and now a further retailer. 

Which recent political, economic or regulatory changes have impacted your work the most in recent years? 

1. Data protection provisions which have impacted how we process or store or deal with data both locally and internationally. This has also affected cross-border transactions, and which regulatory regime takes control, especially where you are either a data processor or controller. There is now greater emphasis on which type of data we collect, how we process, store or delete such data. The new changes also emphasized the need to ensure that the consent of the data owner is always received and maintained during the data processing tenure.
2. Changes in land laws in Kenya as per judicial judgment on indefeasibility of title. The Supreme Court in 2021 determined that a purchaser could not claim the defense of being a bona fide purchaser where they ought to have exercised greater caution in conducting their due diligence. The impact on this is that any purchaser for land is now tasked with conducting thorough and in-depth due diligence prior to purchasing property in Kenya. This way, they will establish the validity of title beforehand, and not risk purchasing a property whose root title is questionable. In the event of any claims that arise on validity of a title deed, the onus shifts from the alleger and to the title owner to provide evidence that all necessary processes were followed in obtaining the title. ·

Are there any causes, business or otherwise, that you are passionate about?  

I am a chess player and supporter. I am fond of Rotary International, and I am committed to giving back to the community. I also do enjoy Golf.