The appointment is a key milestone in Ezra’s ambitious expansion plan to support the financially underserved in emerging economies 

 Ezra, the microlending fintech which provides ‘easy and rapid’ credit solutions across Africa and emerging markets, has announced the appointment of Andrew Goodrich as its Chief Risk Officer. This appointment is a key milestone in Ezra’s ambitious expansion strategy to support the financially underserved in emerging economies.

Bringing with him more than 30 years’ experience to the role, Andrew will oversee the data engineering, predictive analytics, and credit risk/fraud functions at Ezra, progressing, ensuring business optimisation is achieved through enhanced standardisation and credit risk management governance. In addition, he will be tasked with streamlining efficiencies within these functions across the many markets that Ezra operates.

Andrew, who has spent much of his life in South Africa, will be based out of Ezra’s Dubai office. Prior to joining Ezra, Andrew held the position of BankTech Executive at MTN Group, Africa’s largest mobile network operator. During his tenure, Andrew was accountable for defining, establishing and driving the BankTech strategy, a new credit product unicorn vertical within MTN Group. Andrew has also worked as Credit Risk Director with JUMO, where he established the credit risk, prediction and fraud analytics structure, focused on standardisation, and drove  enhanced prediction and credit risk value to the internal and external stakeholders.

Some of Andrew’s other career highlights involve working for a number of start-ups. These include a niche credit risk solutions consultancy, which was successful in assisting several start-ups in South Africa, as well as an e-commerce / digital credit provider, and numerous  fintech and finserv businesses throughout Africa and Asia.

In his new role, Andrew will report directly to CEO, Erwan Gelebart, and will be part of the company’s leadership team.

Commenting on his appointment, Andrew Goodrich said: “I’m excited to help drive a financial inclusion agenda with a forward-thinking company like Ezra. My mandate will cover the full spectrum of credit risk by serving financial credit in a responsible manner, especially in emerging markets, where we have an opportunity to help our customers to get their foot onto the financial services ladder. 

I relish driving a sustainable approach so that we can build long-term relationships with customers, supporting and providing them with relevant credit products. Overall, risk management is essential for maintaining the balance between providing access to credit and protecting both lenders and consumers. I am excited to help drive our company’s vision and, with our partners, leverage alternative credit scoring to make a difference to peoples’ lives.”

Commenting on his appointment, Erwan Gelebert, CEO at Ezra said: “We are thrilled to welcome Andrew to the team. With decades of experience in the consumer finance and financial services industry, Andrew will play an integral role in helping to fortify our presence, especially in emerging markets where we work with banks, telecoms, mobile wallets and utilities, to help companies to innovate faster and fulfil their customer needs at scale.”