Meet The Founder And CEO Of Interswitch Group

Mitchell Elegbe is the MD/CEO of Interswitch, an integrated payment and transaction company in Nigeria. He is a graduate of Electrical Engineering from the University of Benin. He was formerly with Schlumberger Wireline and Testing, and Telnet, an ICT engineering and consulting company until 2002, when he started Interswitch Group where he is currently the Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer.

He is also an alumnus of the IESE/Wharton/CEIBS Global CEO Program. Mitchell lost his father when he was still in his mother’s womb. His uncle took care of him and nurtured him from childhood. After graduation, Mitchell Elegbe went for his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). He was posted to serve at Computer Systems Associates (CSA), a software implementation company connecting banks to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT).

After his service year, he got a job at Telnet, an ICT engineering and consulting company as a business developer. He then moved to Schlumberger Wire line & Testing in Scotland as a Field Engineer.

Mr Elegbe is married to Mrs. Mercy Elegbe and they are blessed with three children.

HOW HE CAME UP WITH THE BIG IDEA

It was at Scotland that he had his first experience with an automated teller machine (ATM). The machine seized his card and he felt really embarrassed about the situation.

At this time, there were no ATM machines in Nigeria. Mitchell thought that it will be nice to have an automated teller machine (ATM) available in Nigeria to solve the problem of the brick-and-mortar tiring financial transaction system. He conceived an idea to develop a payment system that would make electronic payment a reality in Nigeria.

HIS AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS

In 2012, he was awarded the West Africa Business Leader Award at the All African Business Leaders Awards (AABLA) organized by CNBC Africa. He is an Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award recipient and he won the Harvard Business School Association (Nigeria) Leadership Award in the General Management Category in 2015. He is a Bishop Desmond Tutu fellow of the African Leadership Institute

In recognition of his stellar attributes and his success with Interswitch, Mitch has won several awards including the CNBC/Forbes All African Business Leader (AABLA) for West Africa and Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award among others.

He was named a winner in the African Banker Awards 2019 as the African Banker Icon. He was awarded the Transformational Business Award by the African Leadership Network at the 2013 Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship. The award is in recognition of a notable business leader who has created a significant socio-economic impact in Africa by building a business with revenues greater than US$50m.