As the Country Manager of Visa Rwanda, Lucy Mbabazi oversees operations in Rwanda, Burundi and Malawi. Prior to this role, she led the implementation of Visa—Government of Rwanda Public Private Partnership initiatives, established to lay the foundation for the digitization of Rwanda’s economy and financial inclusion. Mbabazi has also served as Policy and Strategy Advisor to the Head of Information Technology at the Rwanda Development Board, the coordinating body of all Government of Rwanda ICT initiatives. There she led the development of Rwanda’s National ICT Plan, guiding Rwanda’s transformation into the vision of an ICT driven society.

Mbabazi is also President of Girls in ICT Rwanda, a group of professional women working to inspire more Rwandan young women to pursue careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). She holds a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology and Management from La Roche College and a Master of Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

In this episode of the podcast, Mbabazi discusses the importance of mentoring so that young women realize their potential and the significance of inclusion in both corporate leadership and access to financial services.

 

Key Interview Takeaways

Successful businesswomen must mentor girls and young women, inspiring them to see the “realm of possibilities.” Mbabazi didn’t have aspirations beyond working as an executive assistant until Leslie Hale, CFO at RLJ, told her, “You can’t be my secretary. You have so much potential.” Hale’s encouragement motivated Mbabazi to apply to an Ivy League graduate school and led to her current success.

Current leadership must be a part of the movement toward inclusion. Until men acknowledge the fundamental problem and deliberately make decisions to include women and minorities, inequality will continue to breed tension and further divide society.

Inclusion is also Mbabazi’s mission in her role at Visa. She is working to make financial services available to everyone in Rwanda through innovation around the basic cellular devices that most people own. Rather than having to travel five kilometers to reach a bank, the mobile phone is the bank, and everyone has access to the financial services they need to help them grow.

Widespread access to financial services is not only good for individual account holders, it is also essential for the governments in emerging markets. To fund development, governments rely on money in the bank, and the digitization of financial services allows a developing country to fund its treasury. As a result, that country is mobilizing its own resources rather than waiting for an NGO to build schools or provide water.

Connect with Lucy Mbabazi

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-mbabazi-10b91413

https://lucymbabazi.wordpress.com/

https://twitter.com/lucymbabazi?lang=en

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