Group Head - Licensing and Economic Regulations, Airtel Money at Airtel

Key Responsibilities

The Role Holder’s duties will include but not limited to

Regulatory Approvals and Compliance

• Coordinate licensing applications, renewals, expansions, and compliance filings with Central Banks and other relevant authorities.
• Leads regulatory approvals for EMI, PSP, and NPS licenses, including, systems enhancement and products applications
• Oversee group-wide compliance with licensing conditions, including trust account management, KYC/AML protocols, and operational thresholds.
• Monitor license-specific requirements such as reporting obligations, governance filings, and post inspections implementations.
• Provide regulatory interpretation and guidance on license-linked restrictions (e.g. product scope, agent network conditions….).

Fiscal and Economic Regulations

• Track and interpret regulatory frameworks on pricing, fees and  other economic intervention, and levy regimes.
• Analyze and manage exposure to economic regulation of platform access, national switches, net settlement models, and interoperability.
• Provide data points and analysis in industry-level consultations on economic regulation (e.g. mobile money pricing, competition, agent commissions…).
• Lead regulatory impact assessments related to fee reviews, consumer protection controls, or tax reforms affecting digital payments.
• Interface with product, pricing, and finance teams to ensure commercial models align with regulatory economic principles.

Governance and Reporting 

• Leads periodic reporting to the Group’s Enterprise Committee and Board Risk/Audit Committees on license compliance and key regulatory risk exposure.
• Supports Risk and Compliance with respect regulatory correspondence, inspection reports, license terms, and agreed corrective actions.
• Support internal audit, compliance assurance reviews, and regulatory inspections with documentation and strategic response coordination.
• Lead pre-inspection readiness across OpCos from Regulatory perspective and supervise post-inspection action plan tracking and regulatory engagement.
• Ensures escalations of material licensing risks or non-compliance issues in line with Group governance protocols.

Processes and Systems

• Maintain a centralized Regulatory License Compliance Tracker for all jurisdictions, linked to license renewals, inspections, and approvals.
• Work with Compliance on the Regulatory component for tracking licensing risk, regulatory SLAs, and approval timelines.
• Leads Reg Tech, digitization and AI initiatives pertinent to the regulatory space.

Qualifications

Education

• Minimum: Bachelor’s degree in law, Economics, Finance, Public Policy, or related field.
• Preferred: Master’s (LLM, MSc in Economics/Finance/Regulation) or professional legal qualification .

Experience

• Minimum 8–10 years total experience; 5+ years in regulatory/licensing roles in payments/financial services, fintech or telecom.
• Proven track record with mobile money, e-money, payments, or telecom licensing across African markets.
• Experience dealing with central banks, telecom regulators, and other government agencies.