Topyster Muga

After her second degree, she joined the Vodafone Group, as the M-Pesa principal product manager, based in the United Kingdom. In that role, she led M-Pesa’s commercial product development in emerging markets, including Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Albania and Romania.

Topyster Muga travels frequently and widely, giving lectures worldwide, including at the Financial Times summit in Lagos, Nigeria, in 2018, and at the World Economic Forum in South Africa in 2017. She also co-founded the Digniti Charitable Trust, and is a mentor at Zawadi Africa Education Fund.

In 2018, Business Daily Africa, a Kenyan daily English newspaper named Topyster Muga, one of the Top 40 Under 40 Kenyan Women for the year 2018.

In 2014, she relocated to Kenya and rejoined Airtel Kenya, as the head of Airtel Money. Later, Visa Inc. hired her. As o September 2018, she served as the senior director for financial inclusion for sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2005, she enrolled into Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, graduating from there with a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Technology. In 2011, Topyster won the Nelson Mandela Scholarship Award to pursue a Master of Business Administration degree at the Institut European d’Administration des Affaires, (INSEAD), in France.

She attended Alliance Girls High School in Kikuyu, Kenya, for her high school education. In 2003, she graduated from Strathmore University, with a Higher Diploma in Management of Information Systems.

Following her graduation from Strathmore University in 2003, she was employed by Barclays Bank of Kenya, as an applications support assistant. In 2004, she was transferred to Barclays Bank of Uganda in the same role. In 2005, she returned to Kenya and was hired by Airtel Kenya, while she concurrently pursued her first degree at Jomo Kenyatta University.