Head of Commercial Payments Orchestration Unit 294 views

Reports to: Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Level: Head of function, peer to Finance, Operations, and Risk and Compliance

Location: Kanifing, The Gambia. Regional and diaspora candidates considered, subject to residence.

Governance: Member of the CPO Steering Committee on appointment

Purpose

To build and then run the Commercial Payments Orchestration unit: a commercial layer operating above BANTABA 2.0, the national instant payment system, generating revenue from money transfer operator and remittance landing fees, enterprise collections, merchant acquiring, settlement float and platform licensing.

The unit does not exist. The first task is to create it. The postholder joins during the build, takes it through first live transaction, and then operates it as a commercial business. This is a builder’s role before it is an operator’s.

Accountabilities

• Deliver the unit to plan, from technology implementation through to first live transaction and full commercial launch.
• Own the commercial performance of the unit: originate and grow revenue across all five streams — FX and remittance landing fees, enterprise collection fees, merchant acquiring fees, settlement float income, and API and platform licensing fees — with pricing and unit economics.
• Originate, build and hold the commercial relationships on which every revenue line depends: money transfer operators, enterprise clients and their treasuries, merchants, banks, mobile money operators and platform This is direct business development, not account management of relationships built by others.
• Manage the technology vendor relationship through implementation and into service, holding it to the contracted timetable and service levels.
• Work with Gamswitch on connection, certification and ongoing operation, and support the regulatory relationship with the Central Bank of The Gambia led by the Managing Director.
• Build the team, define the operating model, and put in place the procedures, controls and reporting the unit requires.
• Report to the Steering Committee at each meeting on progress, risk, and commercial
• Operate within the risk appetite, compliance framework and licence conditions applying to

Essential

• Substantial experience in payments, gained in a bank, payment service provider, switch, mobile money operator or fintech, with direct exposure to transaction processing and settlement.
• Experience of building something rather than only running it: a new product, unit, market entry or platform taken from design to live operation.
• Demonstrated business development with money transfer operators and with enterprise clients and their treasury functions: deals originated, negotiated and closed, with evidence of revenue grown across more than one product line.
• Working understanding of payment system architecture, integration and settlement, sufficient to hold a technology vendor to account without being an engineer.
• Experience of operating within a regulated environment, and of dealing with a central bank or comparable regulator.
• Ability to lead a small team through ambiguity, and to work across finance, technology, risk and operations without formal authority over them.

Desirable

• Familiarity with instant payment systems, ISO 20022, or Mojaloop-based
• Experience of money transfer operator or remittance corridors, or of merchant acquiring at
• Knowledge of the Gambian or West African payments
• Experience of partner negotiation and commercial

What this role is not

It is not a technology delivery role. Platform build, integration and system configuration sit with Reliance Technical and the appointed vendor. Nor is it a project management role: the postholder is accountable for the commercial outcome, not only for the plan.

Terms

Permanent, full time. Remuneration within a band approved by the Board, benchmarked against Reliance head-of-function roles and adjusted for the scarcity of payments and switch integration skills in the market. Performance measured against the phase milestones in the programme plan and, from first live transaction, against revenue.

Kindly note that all applications and CV should be submitted in hard copy, addressed to the HR Manager, Reliance Financial Services,46a Kairaba Avenue.

Deadline: Tuesday 27th October 2026.