Country Director - (DRC)

What is the role?

As the Country Director at pawaPay, you will lead the company’s operations and partner relationships within DRC.

This role combines relationship management, business development execution, and operational oversight with core governance duties. You will support the execution of Group strategy locally, helping identify growth opportunities while ensuring that pawaPay delivers exceptional service levels and strong partner performance in the market.

You will work closely with cross-functional teams across Product, Sales, Operations, Compliance, Finance, and Legal, ensuring effective coordination and a seamless experience for our partners.

This position requires a proactive, strategic, and highly organised leader with excellent stakeholder management capability and a deep understanding of the mobile money and fintech ecosystem in Africa.

This role is open to applicants based in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) only. Applications must be submitted in English.

Your main duties will include:

1. Relationship Management

• Serve as the primary relationship holder for all in-country partners, including MMOs, banks, and financial institutions.
• Lead ongoing partner engagement, ensuring clear and consistent communication, alignment to Group strategy, and proactive management of partner expectations.
• Own and lead all in-country service review meetings, including weekly, monthly, and quarterly performance reviews.
• Maintain partner satisfaction through regular in-person and virtual engagements, ensuring strong local presence and responsiveness.
• Act as the in-country escalation point for all partner issues, resolving disputes where possible and escalating to Cluster Leads or Group where necessary.
• Maintain a single, consolidated view of the partnership at the market level, documenting key issues, opportunities, and performance trends.
• Support Group-level partnership owners (Head of Africa Ops) in cross-jurisdiction engagements by providing updates, insights, and local intelligence.

2. Business Development and Commercial Engagement

• Lead initial commercial conversations with MMO and banking partners in-country, identifying opportunities for improved commercial performance, new initiatives, and strengthened collaboration.
• Drive end-to-end onboarding, integration, and go-live processes with partners, coordinating with Operations, Product, Tech, and Compliance teams.
• Ensure robust post–go-live support, collecting feedback, monitoring adoption, and leading in-country follow-up.
• Identify opportunities for product expansion, improved use of existing APIs, and new value propositions for partners; coordinate with the Integrations team on execution.
• Ensure all partner engagements align to Group’s pricing, product, and commercial strategy.
• Provide local insights to Sales and Expansion PMs to support business cases for commercial or product changes.
• Generate leads for the Group sales team of qualified local merchant opportunities.

3. Operational Responsibilities

• Own local issue resolution, working directly with partner operational teams to diagnose, triage, and resolve challenges.
• Coordinate with central operations, engineering, and support teams to ensure timely resolution of escalations.
• Manage local administrative requirements, including (but not limited to) KYC documentation, collection of API documentation, local verification processes, and notarisation of required documents.
• Support service uptime, transaction performance improvements, and operational SLAs by maintaining close relationships with partner technical teams.
• Provide ongoing monitoring of operational KPIs and flag issues requiring escalation or intervention.
• Oversee local office operations, including lease agreements, utilities, test phones, and office maintenance.

4. Cross-Functional Support

The CM provides targeted local support to Group functions where in-country presence is required. Scope is generally low-volume but occasionally time-sensitive.

Legal Support

• Source and recommend local legal counsel where required.
• Facilitate meetings between Group Legal and external counsel.
• Support local contractual formalities such as notarisation or regulatory submissions.

Compliance Support

• Work closely with the MLRO and Group Head of GRC, supporting regulatory filings, inspections, and relationship-building with local regulators.
• Assist in monitoring adherence to local directives and ensuring timely responses to regulatory requests.

Finance Support

• Identify local accounting, tax, and audit providers; coordinate introductions with Group Finance.
• Facilitate exchange of documents and operational support where required.
• Liaise with local tax authorities on any matters as they pertain to the Company.

People Operations Support

• Provide ad-hoc local assistance on hiring, labour law considerations, and onboarding of new employees.
• Support People Ops in identifying market-specific challenges or risks.

5. Governance Responsibilities

• Act as a Company Director, signing documents on behalf of the local entity, subject to Group policies.
• Serve as a bank account signatory, authorising transactions and ensuring proper financial controls.
• Prepare and submit monthly country reports covering performance, risks, opportunities, and partner updates.
• Prepare market materials for quarterly board packs and attend quarterly board meetings to present on the country’s performance.
• Ensure compliance with all local statutory obligations, including filings, office administration, and maintenance of local corporate records.

6. Market Intelligence

• Provide comprehensive insights on competitor activity, regulatory changes, market conditions, and industry trends.
• Support Group decision-making by supplying accurate and timely market intelligence.
• Monitor MMO and banking ecosystem changes, reporting potential risks or opportunities for pawaPay.

7. Representation & Brand Leadership

• Represent pawaPay at in-country events, conferences, and high-level meetings.
• Act as a strong brand ambassador, aligning all external engagements with pawaPay’s values and strategic positioning.
• Support the organisation’s visibility among regulators, MMOs, banks, fintech partners, and industry associations.

8. Market Expansion Support

• Where necessary, support the launch of new neighbouring markets, providing local insights, introductions, regulatory context, and operational guidance as needed.
• Serve as a resource to newly appointed Country Directors in neighbouring markets during their onboarding and initial setup period.
• Provide early-stage in-country assistance during integration, onboarding, or pilot activities where proximity and local experience add value.

You’ll be particularly well suited to the role if you have: 

• 5+ years of experience in stakeholder management, business development, regulatory liaison, or operational leadership within fintech, mobile money, telecoms, or financial services.
• Proven experience managing senior external stakeholders, including regulators, mobile network operators, and banks.
• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Finance, Economics, or a related field (MBA preferred).
• Strong understanding of the African payments industry.
• Demonstrated experience leading cross-functional initiatives and coordinating multiple internal teams.
• Excellent relationship-building skills, with strong communication, negotiation, and problem-solving abilities.
• Ability to work under pressure, multitask effectively, and maintain high responsiveness.
• Fluency in English; and local languages spoken in DRC
• High integrity, strong organisational skills, and a proactive, “ownership-driven” mindset.
• Ability to travel regularly to partner offices, regulators, or occasional cross-border events.