On 1 January, Kelvin Kawamba started as the new BDM for Exchange in Malawi. There, he replaces our lamented colleague Edna who passed away on 22 November 2022. Kelvin, like Edna, will operate from southern Blantyre, where we support three growth programmes. With our extensive list of 11 growth programmes, Kelvin will also offer his services for some of our programmes near the capital Lilongwe.

Kelvin, a 47-year-old financial manager, has the right skills to do the job. Until 2014, he was the operations manager in a large bank in Malawi with about 30 departments. Besides individual clients, he also served a broad group of SMEs, the target group for our work in Malawi. From 2014, he started working as an independent consultant to guide SMEs on various aspects of their operations. His new job for Exchange is a perfect extension of this. In addition to being a consultant, Kelvin is also an entrepreneur himself: in 2015 he started a logistics company in Johannesburg and in 2018 he set up a second company in Blantyre itself, focused on importing industrial materials. A motivated and knowledgeable entrepreneur, who from now on will use his extensive knowledge to provide optimal support to Malawian entrepreneurs on behalf of Exchange.

With the launch of our operation in Morocco, a new member was also added to the team. As assistant Country Programmes Manager, Fraçois Baganizi will help prepare and manage our portfolio of growth programmes in Morocco. Together with BDM Rajaa and CPM Vincent, François will volunteer to help shape our Moroccan operations.

François is an economist with several years of experience at Deloitte and GSK, among others. With several master's degrees in business, François has the necessary knowledge to provide optimal support to Moroccan growth companies, and he is no stranger to the non-profit sector either: in 2020, he founded Uimara, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the creation of sustainable communities in developing countries. François is passionate about entrepreneurship, traveling and... cooking!