WayaWaya Appoints Banking Veteran Raj Singh to Board for Global Expansion

Nairobi-based fintech WayaWaya has appointed Raj Singh as Non-Executive Director and Adviser to the Board to steer its international expansion. The move signals a transition from product development to commercial scaling, leveraging Singh’s extensive experience across African and Asian banking sectors to deepen the firm’s conversational commerce and embedded payment integrations.

What was announced

WayaWaya is positioning itself for a significant push into new markets across Africa and beyond by bringing in Raj Singh as Non-Executive Director and Adviser to the Board. Singh’s remit includes guiding long-term strategy, strengthening corporate governance, and expanding the company’s network of banking and merchant partners. The appointment comes as the firm scales its core platform, which combines AI-powered financial services with payment infrastructure to facilitate transactions through messaging channels.

Singh brings over 25 years of international leadership experience in banking and digital transformation. He previously served as Group Chief Operating Officer and Director of Retail Banking at Chase Bank Kenya, where he led digital strategy and operational transformation. His career also includes leading banking operations transformation at First City Monument Bank (FCMB) in Nigeria and a five-year tenure at ICICI Bank in India, where he managed large-scale retail operations and business transformation programmes.

Currently the Managing Director of Rova and a director at Finova360 and Finnafrica, Singh also mentors high-growth startups through FasterCapital and has authored four books on digital banking and artificial intelligence. This expertise is intended to support WayaWaya’s objective of delivering digital financial services through non-traditional digital channels, bridging the gap between social engagement and formal banking infrastructure for enterprises and financial institutions.

"WayaWaya is building an exciting platform at the intersection of conversational commerce, payments and artificial intelligence, solving real challenges for banks, merchants and businesses. I am delighted to join the Board at this important stage of the company's journey and look forward to working with Teddy and the leadership team to strengthen strategic partnerships, accelerate commercial growth and support WayaWaya's expansion across Africa and international markets."

Raj Singh

The companies involved

WayaWaya is a Nairobi-based fintech company focused on the intersection of messaging and financial services. Led by founder and CEO Teddy Ogallo, the firm develops infrastructure for conversational commerce, allowing banks and merchants to embed payment capabilities and AI-driven engagement tools directly into messaging platforms. By combining AI, payment infrastructure, and banking integrations, the company enables financial institutions to reach customers on the digital channels they already use, moving beyond standalone banking apps.

The fintech operates in a competitive East African market that has historically been a global leader in mobile money innovation. WayaWaya’s approach focuses on the "conversational" aspect of finance—utilizing AI to facilitate transactions and customer service within chat interfaces. This model targets the growing demand for embedded finance, where non-financial platforms seek to offer seamless payment experiences without the friction of redirecting users to external portals. The company’s strategy involves taking this model from its Kenyan roots into broader African markets and international territories, seeking to capitalize on the global trend toward "super-app" functionalities within communication tools.

What this means

The appointment of a high-profile banking veteran like Raj Singh suggests WayaWaya is moving past the experimental phase and into a period where institutional credibility is paramount. As conversational commerce matures, the challenge for fintechs is no longer just technical feasibility, but navigating the complex regulatory and partnership landscapes of multiple jurisdictions. Singh’s background in traditional tier-one banking provides the institutional perspective necessary to facilitate large-scale enterprise deals. For the wider industry, this highlights the increasing pressure on traditional banks to adopt "invisible" banking models. If fintechs can successfully own the customer interface through messaging apps, banks risk being relegated to back-end utility providers unless they can integrate these conversational tools into their own service delivery.