• Visa appoints Aminata Kane as Senior VP for West and Central Africa
• Kane brings over 10 years of experience in digital finance and telecoms
• She will lead efforts to expand financial inclusion and digital payments

Global payment giant Visa announced on Tuesday, June 17, 2025, the appointment of Aminata Kane as Senior Vice President overseeing operations in West and Central Africa. She will officially assume her new role on September 4, 2025, based in Abidjan, which will host the regional headquarters for this strategic area.

The appointment is part of a broader restructuring at Visa, which is now organizing its operations in the region around four key hubs: Abidjan, Accra, Kinshasa, and Lagos. This zone covers 23 markets, ranging from major economies such as Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire to developing digital ecosystems in the Sahel and Congo basin.

A former executive of Orange Money Group, Kane brings over a decade of experience in digital financial services and telecommunications. She previously led Orange Money and Orange Bank Africa operations across 17 countries. An advocate for digital inclusion, she also founded an Orange Digital Center in Sierra Leone to train youth and women in digital skills.

"Her expertise and vision will be crucial in enhancing our impact on financial inclusion in West and Central Africa,” said Andrew Torre, Visa’s Regional President for Central Europe, Middle East, and Africa. He added that Kane represents African excellence in technology and finance. Her mission will focus on building a more accessible and innovative payment ecosystem.

Kane is a graduate of HEC Paris and the MIT Sloan School of Management and has worked at Goldman Sachs and McKinsey in Paris. She has been recognized as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and ranked among the 100 most influential female CEOs in Africa.

"I am honored to join Visa at this pivotal time for Africa's digital transformation. My ambition is to contribute to an inclusive ecosystem that reflects the talents and aspirations of our markets,” she stated. She emphasized plans to work collaboratively with public and private sector partners to broaden access to payment solutions, support small and medium-sized enterprises, and promote sustainable economic growth.

This appointment comes as Visa expands its presence in West and Central Africa, a region with high potential but persistent structural challenges. While mobile money services are growing, interoperability across platforms remains limited, significantly hampering seamless payments. Many SMEs, a core focus for Visa, operate in low-banking environments with limited access to formal financial services.

To address these barriers, Visa is prioritizing inclusive innovation, bolstering local partnerships, and scaling programs such as its Fintech Accelerator to support early-stage digital payment ventures. However, the effort is complex, involving not only the development of reliable, interconnected payment infrastructure but also the need to build trust in a context where cybersecurity and financial literacy are still weak links in the digital finance chain.