Rwanda's leading tech firm Irembo has appointed Israel Bimpe as its
new Chief Executive Officer effectively on July 12th, 2022.
Mr. Bimpe, before his new appointment, was the Africa Director for
Zipline, where he led the national
implementation in Rwanda before heading the expansion of Zipline's drone
services across Africa and different industries, according to a statement issued on Friday.
"Israel brings his extensive background in business development and
expansion across various markets (growing Zipline's Africa operations from one
to five countries), his knowledge of the tech and public ecosystems in Rwanda
and on the continent, as well as his experience of being part of a scaling global
technology unicorn company," the statement said.
Bimpe will be taking over the CEO role from Faith Keza, who joined
Irembo as CTO in 2017 and has remained Irembo's CEO since 2018. She has been instrumental in leading the organizational culture and brand transformation of
RwandaOnline to Irembo and built the company's engineering capabilities that
brought the design and development of Irembo's products (IremboGov and IremboPay)
in-house, both efforts leading to the company's growth and profitability.
The outgoing CEO commented on Bimpe's appointment, saying, "It has
been such a pleasure to lead the fantastic team we have at Irembo and work with
mission-oriented partners in the Government of Rwanda to improve public service
delivery."
"Israel's insights and support as a board member have been
invaluable over the past two years, and I think of anyone better to lead Irembo
to the next great chapter," she added.
In his remarks, the incoming CEO also expressed his excitement in
joining the extraordinary team at Irembo and admitted his admiration for the
brand and platform the team has created and everything the company stands for.
"I deeply appreciate what it takes to scale a business like
this to the next level. Building on the existing foundation, together, we will
capture the next waves of growth for Irembo to continue driving Rwanda and
Africa's digital transformation," he stated.
By: Kanto Okanta