Richard Meseko
Cross-border payments · Africa and its diaspora
Carry it home.
For more than twenty years I have built the routes that carry money from the diaspora to Africa. I believe culture should travel the same way.
- 20+years in cross-border payments and banking
- 4regions served: Africa, Europe, North America, Latin America and the Caribbean
- 7cities worked from, from Lagos to Paris
- 2working languages, English and French
The corridor
For twenty years his work has been the corridor: the systems, partners and trust that let a nurse in Montréal or a driver in Paris send money to a family in Abidjan, Accra or Lagos.
- c. 2022–2023 · ParisRapidtransfer International, EcobankHead of Global Sales
- to 2020 · MontréalWorldRemit (now Zepz)Country Director roles: Canada, North America, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean
- earlier · Accra, GhanaTravelex Money TransferRegional Manager, Africa
- earlier · Brazzaville, CongoEcobankCountry Operations Director and Head of Technology
- earlier · Abidjan, Côte d’IvoireEcobankHead of Money Transfer and International Trade
What he speaks and writes about
- 01
Corridors
Cross-border payments, remittances and the partnerships that make them work: the professional proof.
- 02
Inclusion
Financial inclusion as the first step to cultural inclusion. His own thesis, and the argument of his work.
- 03
Heritage
Africa’s music, instruments and history, carried to its next generation.
Speaking
Speaking from both sides of the transfer.
He has spoken at the Global Forum on Remittances, Investment and Development at the United Nations in Nairobi. He speaks in English and French, on panels, in keynotes and in conversation.
Essays
- 27 September 2017 · CultureThe “First Black” SyndromeWhy celebrating the “first black” to reach a milestone concedes the measure to someone else, and why Africa enriches the world only by improving its own ways rather than imitating others.
- 7 September 2013 · SocietyDeath and the SocietyThe death of Brian Sinclair, left unattended for 34 hours in a Winnipeg emergency room, and what a system that fails its most vulnerable says about the society around it.
- 5 July 2013 · SpiritualityWhy Did the Psychic Get It Wrong?A psychic told a grieving mother her missing daughter was dead; the daughter was found alive ten years later. On the limits of a gift, and the humility to admit them.
Culture
The pan flute, and the stories it carries.
Alongside the career, Richard tells Africa’s history through music: a troupe of musicians, percussion, and the pan flute he plays himself.
Sound business principles come from the broader principles of life.