MRME Report Podcast Series Episode 3 with Haoua Souley Mallam

Digital Frontiers recently released its 2022 MRME Report. The Digital Frontiers MRME Report uncovers the impact of our courses, knowledge resources, and continuous professional development. These reports showcase inspiring stories of transformation, illustrating how our courses, knowledge resources, and communities of practice have enhanced the capabilities of individuals, organisations, and countries.

Through this report, we offer insights into the remarkable results achieved through delivering exceptional learning experiences, our opportunities for continuous professional development and how we are connecting ecosystems globally.

Join us today as we chat to Haoua Souley Mallam. She is a Digital Payments Specialist and Project Manager, as well as an alumnus of the IIPS programme – having completed the regulatory and business and operations specialisations. Before taking the IIPS course, Ms Mallam was an information technology manager at FBNBank in Senegal for over 15 years. After completing the IIPS programme, Ms Mallam returned to her home country, Niger, to play a lead role in a project for rural growth and financial inclusion.

The project, Smart Villages for rural growth and digital inclusion, is funded by the World Bank and seeks to increase the interconnectivity of payment systems in rural areas and bring digital financial services to an underserved population. One way in which the project will achieve this is by setting up a digital marketplace and digitising the agricultural value chain, specifically the payment process.

Ms Mallam has applied many of the lessons learnt in the IIPS certification to her role in the project, focusing on technology, regulation and operations associated with increasing cellular phone and digital financial access to underserved populations in rural Niger. She has actively applied lessons learnt in interoperability and the operationalisation of clearing and bringing many providers together. Her IIPS specialisation in regulation provides her with the knowledge and skills to work with regulators, ensuring adherence to regulations in establishing digital services and systems.

In addition to her role as project manager, Ms Mallam is preparing to undertake research for her PhD thesis on IIPS standards tailored to the context and financial ecosystem of West Africa.