Digital services provider VEON announced on Tuesday the appointment of Erwan Gelebart as the chief executive officer (CEO) of JazzCash, a widely used digital wallet in Pakistan.
Gelebart is bringing over 15 years of experience to the company and spent years in the many leadership roles in scaling up businesses in developing markets.
He is taking the new role after heading Orange Money in Madagascar for one-and-a-half years, spending a total of 3 years and 4 months in the company, according to his LinkedIn profile.
He also spent years in various leadership roles at Orange and Grameenphone, a major telecom operator in Bangladesh.
Commenting on his new role, Gelebart said: “I am excited to join VEON as it executes on a strategy of growing its connectivity business while building out digital services across all ten operating companies. JazzCash has never been more important in addressing Pakistan’s unbanked population and encouraging greater financial inclusion in an increasingly cashless world.”
Tapping a major market for digital payments
Pakistan is one of the largest remittance markets and with recent digital penetration, the market has a huge potential for such businesses. According to the company, JazzCash digital wallet has 7.3 million users in the country.
The wallet platform is operated by Jazz, one of the leading telecommunication networks in the country.
“With 7.3 million active digital wallets, JazzCash has enormous potential in Pakistan – a country with a young, fast-growing population of more than 200 million. Erwan’s background of success and entrepreneurial spirit will play a crucial part in our growth plans for JazzCash over the coming period,” Sergi Herrero, CEO of VEON said.
(Photo: VEON)
