Stephen Mwaura is a highly respected payments systems expert and fintech policy consultant with over 30 years of experience in financial sector regulation, payment system oversight, and innovation support. He previously led the National Payments System Division at the Central Bank of Kenya, where he oversaw Kenya’s Real-Time Gross Settlement system (KEPSS), retail payment systems, payments policy research, and legislative development.

Since 2017, Stephen has worked as an independent consultant on financial inclusion, payments modernization, and capacity building initiatives across Sub-Saharan Africa, supporting organizations such as GSMA, ITU, USAID, IFC/World Bank, and the Central Banking Forum.

His consulting work includes contributions to strategic planning for Sacco Central, development of regulatory frameworks for Rwanda’s National Digital Payments System, and advisory support to digital financial service providers such as JumiaPay and Tala.

Stephen holds academic qualifications in Mechanical Engineering, Law, and an MBA in Corporate and International Finance, and is a Fellow of the Fletcher School Leadership Program for Financial Inclusion.

Within the SCK project, Stephen provides senior-level expertise on national payments system integration, regulatory alignment, and interoperability, ensuring that SCK’s shared services and payment infrastructure align with regulatory expectations and operate on par with Tier-1 financial institutions.