At Sproutly, we build financial infrastructure that makes education more affordable across Africa:

• -Schools use Sproutly Books to collect fees and manage finances.

• Families use Sproutly Mobile to save for tuition.

• Cowri helps families spread school fees into smaller payments.

• Our Teachers’ Laptop Programme provides salaried teachers with laptops, health insurance, and data on flexible terms.

As we grow, we wanted the same depth of experience behind our products to also sit behind our strategy. That’s why we’re excited to welcome three respected leaders in banking, fintech, digital transformation, and financial inclusion to our International Advisory Board.

Chris Low, Djiba Diallo, and Matteo Rizzi bring decades of experience building, scaling, and transforming financial institutions, technology ecosystems, and businesses across Africa and global markets.

Here’s who they are, and why they’re joining us!

Chris Low, Chairman, Advisory Board

International Board Chair | Independent Non-Executive Director | London, United Kingdom

Chris Low has spent more than 30 years leading banks and financial services companies across the UK, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. His career has focused on navigating complex transformations, strengthening institutions, and building businesses for sustainable growth.

At Standard Chartered Bank, Chris led the integration of its $3.3 billion acquisition of Korea First Bank. He later served as CEO of Standard Chartered India, where he led profit growth of 30% to $195 million. As Group CEO of Letshego Holdings, a financial services group operating across 11 African countries, he led a digital transformation that grew its customer base from 350,000 to 900,000, including the launch of Ghana’s first mobile loan offering.

He also served as Chair of ASA International Group, one of the world’s largest international microfinance institutions, serving 2.5 million customers across 13 countries.

Today, Chris continues to advise and lead financial institutions and growth-stage businesses. His board and advisory experience spans banking, fintech, financial inclusion, governance, digital transformation, investment, and regional expansion.

Chris brings to Sproutly a rare combination of institutional leadership, emerging-market expertise, and deep knowledge of how to scale financial services responsibly.

Chris was also Sproutly’s first investor, making his involvement in the company particularly meaningful as he now joins our Advisory Board!

Djiba Diallo, Advisory Board Member

Director, Business Development — Digital Partnerships, Mastercard | Senegal

Djiba Diallo is a digital transformation strategist and ecosystem builder with more than 18 years of experience working at the intersection of technology, entrepreneurship, financial services, and development across Africa.

Her career spans Microsoft, Ecobank, and Mastercard. At Microsoft, she spent more than 11 years helping build and grow the technology and startup ecosystem across Africa, eventually serving as Head of Innovation for Microsoft4Afrika, where she connected high-potential startups, accelerators, investors, and founders to Microsoft’s global cloud ecosystem.

At Ecobank, Djiba served as Senior Fintech Advisor, where she helped shape the bank’s fintech strategy, managed relationships across a portfolio of 200+ startups, and helped grow fintech payment transactions by 2,000% over three years. She also conceived and led the Ecobank Fintech Challenge, which attracted more than 7,500 applications from innovators across Africa, producing 72 fellows and 28 strategic partnerships.

Today, Djiba leads digital partnership development at Mastercard across Morocco and French-speaking West Africa. Across her career, she has helped build partnerships between banks, fintechs, telcos, governments, and development institutions across 35+ African markets.

Djiba brings to Sproutly a powerful combination of technology expertise, ecosystem knowledge, strategic partnerships, and a distinctly pan-African perspective.

Matteo Rizzi, Advisory Board Member

Senior Partner, Africa & Middle East, Global Finance & Technology Network | Founder, Timepledge.org

Matteo Rizzi has spent more than 20 years shaping innovation in financial services, working across fintech, venture capital, financial inclusion, and entrepreneurship.

He began his career at SWIFT, where he spent 13 years before co-founding Innotribe, SWIFT’s innovation initiative. There, he launched the Innotribe Startup Challenge, an early global fintech startup competition that connected emerging innovators with the financial industry.

Matteo later became General Partner at SBT Venture Capital, a $100 million fintech-focused venture fund, where he built a portfolio of 12 startups. He went on to co-found FinTechStage, now FTS Group, a global platform focused on fintech research, innovation, startup support, talent development, and industry events.

His advisory and investment experience includes organisations such as Omidyar Network, Bamboo Capital Partners, Société Générale Ventures, and NEVA Finventures, the venture arm of Intesa Sanpaolo. He also serves as a Senior Advisor to Elevandi, the innovation arm of the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

A recognised voice in global fintech and the author of The FinTech Revolution and Talents & Rebels, Matteo brings Sproutly a global perspective on financial innovation, investment, entrepreneurship, and the future of financial services.

  Supporting Sproutly’s Growth

Chris, Djiba, and Matteo have each spent their careers working on a challenge closely connected to Sproutly’s own ambition: making financial services more accessible, more innovative, and more useful to the people and businesses they serve.

Their combined experience across banking, fintech, technology, investment, and financial inclusion gives Sproutly a stronger strategic foundation as we scale.

We’re excited to have them alongside us as we build the next chapter of Sproutly, and continue working toward a future where access to education doesn’t have to be limited by how or when families can pay for it.