Meet Nsamwa Banda, our head of Merchant Acquisition who has been in Cellulant for 3 years now. She pursued a degree in Agriculture Economics..(from farm to desk literally) and is responsible for ensuring we onboard merchants on our global product that is relevant locally for the Zambian market.
Nsamwa considers herself a brand champion—she believes in the brand and wants others to share this belief too. She describes herself as a hard working, meticulous, and most importantly cheerful person.
What and where did you study?
I have a bachelor’s degree in Agriculture Economics from the University of Zambia and I am currently finalising my Masters degree in Business Administration at the same University with a plan of enrolling into a Bachelor’s degree in Project Management.
What drives you?
Impacting the lives of Others – I want to see changes in people’s lives and to champion home grown solutions that improve the quality of lives of the African people.
What drove you towards sales considering your background in Agriculture?
Even though I studied Agriculture Economics, Sales was an interesting venture for me because I love to seize opportunities in addition to the fact that I am very persistent in nature. I also wanted to make a difference in the continent whilst learning new things, solving complex problems, and building lasting relationships with clients.
What would you say have been some of the most challenging moments for you on the job?
I don’t think I can pinpoint one particular moment that was challenging. There have been several challenging moments varying from trying to retain dissatisfied customers to losing a sales pitch/tender or even a customer. All these just hit differently.
What’s the one problem you are best at solving for your clients/customers/market?
Working for Cellulant has allowed me to be able to solve real problems that pertain to digital payments, collection and reconciliation for merchants that would like to collect payments across various payment channels via one platform. Therefore reducing the amounts of money collected as cash which come with challenges such as fraud, theft and COVID.
Read Also: Takudzwa Mafemera – Salesperson with a Passion for building Africa
Which have been the most rewarding moments?
I think I’ve had a lot of rewarding moments at Cellulant ranging from being awarded various tenders with the banks that are currently in my portfolio to getting an opportunity to manage a global bank account . To be honest the most exciting rewarding moment recently was when I got a promotion from senior business development executive to the Head of Merchant Acquisition. This one I don’t see coming. (I am glad my hard work is paying off!)
What do you love most about working at Cellulant?
- Having a forward-thinking, supportive company that realizes employees are their greatest asset.
- Collaboration. “I love my job because everyone is working towards the same mission i.e. creating prosperity and opportunity for Africa and I like that we know it takes each one of us.”
- Agility to execute: my boss always says “ at Cellulant we don’t hold board meetings to discuss how we move forward, we weigh the pros and cons and decide accordingly.
- Work-Life Balance. “I love that my work does not get in the way of my personal life. I get to do my work and also have my family time.”
- Culture: “open door policy, we don’t work in silos, we more of a family then workmates”
- Challenge. “ There is always a new unique problem or opportunity that requires one to challenge the status quo.
Can you describe your professional Journey in 150 words?
During my undergraduate studies I majored into Agriculture Economics with the view to work for a commercial bank as an agribusiness relationship manager. But you know what they say “if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans”. From school,I joined Amiran Zambia Limited as a technician, evolved to a resident agronomist and finally to a sales agronomist for seeds and seedling . skip to 3 years later, i’m the head of merchants acquisition and a bank relationship manager in a fintech selling digital payments platforms. From agriculture to financial technology. In a nutshell, it has been exciting, an eye opener and challenging. I’ve taken daring and bold steps. All in all, from wanting to working for a bank to managing relationships across various banks
Read Also: Customer Experience Led me to a Sales Path- Abdul Shares how
How do you want to be remembered?
- A happy soul that always chooses peace..
- “A goal getter”, someone that ensured that they achieved whatever they set out to do.
- A team player with the belief that “ if we win we win together we fail, we fail together as well.
- Determined to get things done even when the odds are against me.
In your own words, what does Cellulant want to do in Africa and why is that inspirational for you?
- We want to be the preferred platform for digital payments “when someone thinks about digital payments, let them think Cellulant/ Tingg.
- This is exciting because it’s an African built firm full of young brilliant people with entrepreneurial minds. Creativity and innovative employees.
