Bitange Ndemo

Bitange Ndemo is the immediate former Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium and the European Union. With a distinguished background spanning academia, public service, and advisory positions. Ndemo played a pivotal role in shaping Kenya’s technology and innovation landscape. He previously held the position of Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of ICT for the Government of Kenya and is also a Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Nairobi.

Ndemo has chaired the Kenya Distributed Ledgers and Artificial Intelligence Taskforce, leading the development of the nation’s strategic roadmap for emerging technologies.

Additionally, he has contributed his expertise as an advisor and board member to organisations such as the MIT Artificial Intelligence Policy Forum and the OECD on Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain, Safaricom, as well as several UN organisations.

Qualifications

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Sheffield, England
Master of Management Information Systems, University of St. Thomas, Minnesota, USA
Bachelor of Science, Finance, University of Minnesota, USA

Board member

Recent Work

When B2B suppliers go B2C: Lessons from Izere Trading Ltd

How Izere Services and Trading Ltd used discipline, compliance, and digital tools to graduate from a single Rwandan hotel’s backup supplier i...

Award-winner Ngirinshuti on an AI model that serves Rwanda’s statistical analysis

For as long as Rwanda’s Labour Force Survey has existed, someone has had to read a person’s description of their work, written in Kinya...

How one social entrepreneur uses data to illuminate blind spots in her businesses

When Bella Twizerimana foreclosed on two houses during her time as a bank manager, she made a decision that would eventually reshape a corner of Mu...

Oversight and supervision in open finance: Considerations for African regulators

Many financial regulators are considering how open finance could be effectively supervised in their jurisdiction. For millions of people across the...

The case for principles-based corporate governance

Corporate governance in financial services remains overly rules-based. In many markets, corporate governance frameworks ...

How data fellows are contributing to reshaping Rwanda’s public institutions

Rwanda’s public sector has, over time, built substantial digital systems across ministries and agencies. These systems generate large volumes of ...

A practical decision framework for AI deployment in emerging economies

Introduction Harnessing the transformative potential of AI for positive outcomes req...

Turning data into decisions: Lessons on dashboard development

At WASAC, Rwanda’s ...

How data-driven decisions fueled Ishyo Foods’ growth

Sharon Akanyana’s use of data has lifted ...

Bridging supply and demand in Rwanda’s data skills market

Rwanda’s ambitious digital transformation goals require a strong data skills ecosystem to support decision-making across government and priva...

Why using public-sector data for policy is harder than it looks

Across Africa, as elsewhere in the world, governments are increasingly aware that data is essential for effective policymaking. Yet when ministries...

What will determine the success of Rwanda’s data governance push?

Across Rwanda’s ministries and agencies, years of digital investment have produced large volumes of data. The digitisation effort led to nume...

AI readiness starts with data capability

Across the world, countries are exploring the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to transform...

How data interns are accelerating digital innovation in government

In 2024, the Rwandan ...

Rwanda’s human journey to big data: Inside the NISR

The National ...

Who is responsible? Allocating liability in digital financial services

Following our ...

Transitioning a stats agency to a data services provider: Lessons from Ireland

In this interview, ...

Who bears the cost? Shifting liability in digital financial services

Fraud and scam activity is increasing in African economies, as more citizens access digital f...

Municipal disaster-risk-finance approaches

South Africa faces growing exposure to severe natural disasters, with annual disaster relief costs averaging R3.7 billion, 86% of which are uninsur...

Diverse paths: Finance for women’s nano and micro enterprises

Women-led nano and micro enterprises (WNMEs) are central to local economies and household livelihoods, yet they rem...

When security trumps sustainability: Tough choices in turbulent times

Policymakers, especially in Africa, are facing unprecedented trade-offs between economic opportunity, national security, and climate sustainabi...

A leap in seamless cross-border payments in East Africa

After over a year of collaborative research, in-depth analysis, and multi-stakeholder consultation, Cenfri is proud to present the ...

Testing how digitalisation could transform MSMEs in Rwanda

Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) account for ...

Aligning workforce skills and economic ambition in Rwanda

Gaining speed: Rwanda’s economic momentum ...

What we can learn from merging datasets

Data in isolation often tells only one part of the story. Sometimes, to gain a full picture, multiple datasets must be combined to incorporate diff...

Why DPI needs more than a one-size-fits-all approach

2025 is a pivotal year in global development, as we are only five years away from the current deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)...

Data wrangling with graph theory

As a Data Scientist, most of my time is spent wrangling data – dealing with inconsistent formatting, unstandardised data collection and unclear d...

Open finance: Learning from early adopters

At the end of November 2024, Cenfri had the opportunity to participate in the BIS Workshop on fostering financial inclusion through open finance in...

Leading with data governance: Setting the foundation for a data-driven future

As outlined in the discussion on ...

Developing an organisational data strategy

To enhance the use of data for decision-making, it is important to develop not only individual data skills but also institutions that have embarked...

Data and scenarios provide a glimpse of a future Rwanda

For the past three decades, Rwanda has had remarkable growth. Between 1999 and 2023, real ...

Harnessing data and scenario-based planning in Rwanda: A look at NST2

Rwanda’s journey toward becoming a high-income nation by 2050 is driven by clear strategic frameworks, one of which is the 2nd...

7 Lessons from 2024

Our work at Cenfri rarely follows the typical rhythms of the calendar year, yet, as 2024 draws to a close, we thought it would be good to reflect o...

State of inclusive instant payment systems in Africa

Real-time retail payments that enable consumers to send and receive cross-border and domestic transactions digitally are on the rise ...

Data fellows pumped to help government catalyse data use

Data can be used to improve policy decisions as well as to better understand the outcome of decisions taken. To enable this, policymakers need acce...

Kenyans are value maximisers, not cost minimisers

Lessons from scaling retail health microinsurance in Kenya It is often assumed that pe...

The evolution of digital payments: New developments, same fundamental questions

From experiencing the informal remittance journey first-hand on the bus to Harare, to unpacking payment system barriers in Côte d’Ivoire and Tog...

Open finance in Africa: The why and the how for context-appropriate implementation

The promise of open finance has led to a rapid proliferation in countries exploring implementation globally. However, it also comes with costs and ...

Bridging the Gap: Unpacking segmentation approaches and the MSE landscape in Kenya, Uganda and India

Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) are crucial drivers of economic growth in emerging markets, yet there is a persistent financing gap that restri...

The new currency in microinsurance: does data access trump client volume?

Lessons from scaling retail health microinsurance in Kenya We’ve all been ther...

Scaling up health microinsurance in Kenya: Insights and opportunities

How can we prevent high healthcare costs and low insurance penetration from driving peo...

A pocket guide to navigating the structure of the G20

On 1 December 2024, South Africa will take over the G20 presidency. This is a fantastic opportunity for Africa. In his recent Troika ...

Digitisation of government services in Rwanda: Lessons from the data

Rwanda has set ambitious goals to transition from an agrarian economy to a knowledge-based one by ...

Unlocking growth: 3 key opportunities for remittance service providers

Many remittance service providers (RSPs) face a tough balancing act; they’re trying to innovate and grow, but it feels like they’re driving wit...

Leveraging agricultural data for more effective policymaking

Policymakers are challenged to develop policies that will have a positive social impact. For instance, input subsidies for farmers have been widely...

Supporting responsible financial sector innovation in Jordan

Cenfri, in partnership with the GIZ I-FIN project, is providing technical assistance to the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ)...

R3Lab Toolkit: Regulating and enabling innovation

Innovation can enable insurance to become a powerful engine of growth and development across the continent, but achieving this requires that market...

Data training resources for independent learners

Designed for people who want broad exposure to a spectrum of data science and data engineering content, these data training resources are available...

Open Finance in South Africa: Promising moves, but challenges ahead

The South African Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA’s) publication of their ...

Rwanda Economy Digitalisation Programme launches second phase

Kigali, 08 May 2024 – The Ministry of ICT and Innovation, the Mastercard Foundation and Cen...

A new approach to tackling deforestation

Over the past three years, the Global Stocktake (GST) embarked on a consultative journey to assess progress towards the ...

Navigating a career in data science

There is demand for skilled professionals in the field of data science as organisations are increasingly adopting a data-driven approach. From unco...

Building the fundamentals of a welfare-enhancing digitalised economy

Digitalisation per se has marginal impact; the crux is the way it is leveraged and implemented. We need a better understanding of how digi...

The Africa Fintech Hub – a platform designed to strengthen fintechs in Africa

Fintechs have the potential to significantly improve the options available to financially underserved individuals. Many fintech start-ups in Africa...

Supporting the development of a digital finance index

Digital financial services are transforming global financial service provision and access. Rapid developments in fintech are disrupting and transfo...

The untold realities of women cross-border traders

A diagnostic study on women cross-border traders between South Africa and Lesotho, Malawi and Mozambique ...

Guidance on developing a data and analytics strategy

In today’s data-driven world, many organisations recognise the importance of leveraging data insights to make decisions. However, once they attem...

A decade of microinsurance innovation: promising or ‘meh’?

In October 2023, ...

Unique challenges and opportunities for Earth Observation in Rwanda

When I travelled the windy road from Kigali to the Volcanoes National Park to hike up Mount Bisoke, I spent most of my time looking out the window ...

Case study: Enhancing telecommunications connectivity through data analytics

The Government of Rwanda’s ambitious plan to become a cashless economy by 2024 has seen significant efforts and investments in the cashless a...

Then and now: Is Ethiopia at an inflection point after 15 years of insurance underdevelopment?

Very little has changed in the Ethiopian insurance industry over the last fifteen years but there is a po...

Digitising destinations: a tourist’s journey starts online

COVID-19 turned some of us into virtual voyagers. We spent hours scrolling through posts of p...

Open Finance in Africa: Designing context-appropriate approaches for the financial sector

Open Finance can be defined as the sharing of consumer data between financial service providers (FSPs) and/or third-party providers on the basis of...

Reflections on the policy evolution in Rwanda’s ICT sector

In implementing the ...

Remittances, a vital contributor to the SDGs

Remittances are a valuable lifeline for Africans, with over USD 100 billion flowing into the continent annually from a m...

Impact from the Remittance Access Initiative

KYC and CDD requirements can inhibit access to remittances for low-income, r...

Catalysing the use of data and digital technology for tourism in Ghana

Ghana’s tourism industry presents an exciting landscape for growth, ...

Mutual digital infrastructure could drive formalised, inclusive payments in SADC

Interoperable payment systems improve the efficiency and effectiveness of retail and cross-border payments. Cenfri worked with BankservAfrica on a ...

Guidance notes to public sector data frameworks

If properly catalogued, classif...

Developing capacity to boost data-driven decision-making in Rwanda

In recent years, Rwanda has embarked on a transformative journey towards digitalisation to fuel economic growth and innovation. The ...

An assessment of customer due diligence and identity regulatory frameworks

Innovation opportunities for enhanced remittance access...

Understanding CBDC and its application in emerging markets

Central banks have cited several reasons for considering or piloting central bank digital currencies (CBDC). These inclu...

Digitisation contributes to improved remittance access and a better customer experience

The ...

Tailored CBDC technical assistance in emerging markets

Reco...

5 lessons for designing fit-for-purpose health microinsurance

Gakere is a 49-year-old mechanic from Nairobi, and like ...

Revealing the consumer experience of digital finance in low- and middle-income countries

Consumers face several frustrations with the potential to affect their experience of digital financial services. These include system glitches, ina...

Insurance regulation and innovation: An assessment of 8 African insurance markets

To support regulatory authorities in sub-Saharan Africa in promoting inclusive insurance market development, there is a ...

Consumer protection in digital finance

The authors of this report would like to acknowledge the support of the International Dialogue on Consumer Protection...

Data insights in achieving retail growth in Rwanda

The retail and trade (merchant) sector is one of the priority sectors for the ...

Enhancing identity verification for refugees in Uganda

In Uganda, refugees and asylum seekers struggle to cash out their remittances due to challenging and time-consuming identity verification processes...

Training improves ability to unlock value from data

Capacity-development is a vital part of the ...

What will it take to build innovative insurance markets in Sub-Saharan Africa?

Despite the best efforts of sub-Saharan African (SSA) insurers, most African citizens ...

Lessons on improving remittance access in Africa

Learnings from the ...

Agriculture an important policy priority for Rwanda

Agriculture plays a major role in the Rwandan economy: close to 75% of the population’s livelihood depends on farming. However, the majority of t...

The potential of CBDCs for financial inclusion

...

Cenfri joins the Smart Africa Alliance

Kigali, Monday 29th August 2022 – The ...

Responsive and responsible regulation

The value of non-legally binding guidance Regulation is ...

CBDC for emerging markets: realities and expectations

Cenfri has deepened its work on CBDC amid growing interest from central banks ...

What is data-driven decision making and what does it mean for Rwanda?

Nothing illustrates the incredible power of data-driven decision-making more than the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Lamenting the disparit...

Holistic risk solutions for MSME resilience in Egypt

Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in Egypt Micro, small and medium-sized ent...

Building a data skills foundation is necessary to achieve meaningful digitalisation

One of the reasons so much emphasis is placed on digitalisation is...

Private sector partnerships for MSME resilience: Learnings from Africa

Opportunities await insurers and tech providers who are willing to work together ...

Insurance Innovation Dialogue

About the Insurance Innovation Dialogue To support insurance regulatory authorities ...

The role of different partners for effective MSME insurance

Insurers can partner with digital platforms, lenders and insurance aggregators to offer better products that...

Delivering remittances at the last mile

The role of...

Applying a gender lens to trade finance

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are considered engines of economic growth and development, especially in developing ...

Data scientists contribute to data-driven policymaking in Rwanda

The ...

Enhancing risk assessment processes for improved remittance access

Early insights from IFAD’s Financing Facility for Remittances and Cenfri Our work wi...

The role of women and finance in climate action

A changing climate affects everyone, but it’s the world’s poorest and most vulnerable, predominantly women and girls, who bear the brunt of env...

Opportunities for remittance-linked insurance products in SSA

A demand-side perspective of the risk management and resilience needs of remittance senders from South Africa to G...

Digitalizing farm to table supply chains in Asia

On-demand transport services and insurtech Whether as a customer or...

Empowering people to solve problems that matter

How Cenfri makes systemic change happen In helping to build...

When intuition is not enough: How data transformed Whiz Upp

Hawa Chloe Niyigena built a Rwandan juice company from scratch in her family’s kitchen but transitioning the business from survival to strate...

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Bitange Ndemo

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