Cellulant, a leading pan-African payments firm, has appointed Michael Muriuki as Chief Product & Technology Officer, consolidating leadership over product strategy and technology execution to accelerate enterprise solutions, platform scale, and product-led growth across the continent.
Cellulant, one of Africa’s largest payments companies, has announced the appointment of Michael Muriuki as its new Chief Product & Technology Officer (CPTO), a role unifying oversight of product strategy, platform architecture, and software engineering as the company sharpens its focus on enterprise solutions and large-scale infrastructure growth.
Muriuki, a decade-long veteran of the company, began his career at Cellulant as an implementation engineer during its early mobile banking days. Over the years, he has been instrumental in building the technology infrastructure that transformed Cellulant from a mobile-focused startup into a fully-fledged, resilient payments platform serving businesses across Africa.
Driving technology and product innovation
In his early years at the company, Muriuki led the consolidation of MPESA B2C integrations across most Kenyan banks and was pivotal in redesigning Cellulant’s mobile banking platform. He also oversaw the design and expansion of Ecobank’s mobile banking system in 33 African countries, cementing his reputation as a scalable technology architect in the continent’s payments landscape.
Most recently, as Vice President of Software Engineering, Muriuki led a geographically distributed engineering team to modernise Cellulant’s Tingg platform. This involved migrating critical systems to the cloud, transitioning to a cloud-native microservices architecture, and significantly scaling transaction throughput while improving platform reliability. The results were tangible: in 2025 alone, the Tingg platform grew from processing 1 million to 4.5 million transactions daily.
“Over the years, I’ve seen Mike’s deep technical judgment, calm leadership, and strong sense of ownership translate directly into measurable business results,” said Peter O’Toole, Chief Executive Officer at Cellulant. “He has been central to building scalable customer-centric solutions for our bank and enterprise merchants, and to Cellulant’s journey to profitability. Our next chapter is about scaling this success, and it only makes sense for a respected leader with a deep knowledge of our products and infrastructure, the African payments ecosystem, and a deep care for our customers to lead us forward.”
Expanded mandate as CPTO
As CPTO, Muriuki will hold executive ownership of Product, Platform, and Software Engineering at Cellulant. His responsibilities will include shaping the company’s product portfolio, strengthening its technology foundation, and building robust AI, data, and insights capabilities while ensuring disciplined execution across teams.
“I’m honoured to step into this role at a company that I’ve grown with over the years,” Muriuki said. “Cellulant has continually shown the ability to adapt, reinvent itself, and build for the realities of Africa. I’m excited to work with our product and technology teams to keep raising the bar as we scale our platforms, serve our customers, and make the businesses we serve across the continent as successful as possible.”
The role reflects Cellulant’s strategic intent to expand offerings for enterprise clients, increase market penetration, and deliver end-to-end value for businesses across Africa.
Scaling enterprise payments in Africa
Cellulant’s Tingg platform, central to its enterprise strategy, supports over 200 payment methods, including bank transfers, cards, and mobile money. It processes millions of daily transactions across sectors such as travel and hospitality, e-commerce, ride-hailing, telecoms, trade, and remittances. The platform has been critical in helping African businesses streamline collections, disbursements, and reconciliations at scale.
Muriuki’s leadership in modernising Tingg has positioned the company to handle increasing transaction volumes while offering enterprise-grade reliability and security. This is expected to deepen Cellulant’s penetration across African markets and enhance its competitiveness amid growing digital payments adoption on the continent.
Industry analysts note that the consolidation of product and technology leadership under a single executive is a trend among high-growth fintechs, enabling faster decision-making, better alignment between engineering and customer needs, and accelerated innovation.
Implications for African fintech
The appointment signals Cellulant’s commitment to strengthening its technology and product capabilities at a time when digital payment infrastructure is central to enterprise growth in Africa. As fintech adoption accelerates, companies that combine scalable technology, robust payment networks, and enterprise-focused products are well-positioned to capture market share.
For businesses and banks using Cellulant’s platform, Muriuki’s leadership is expected to bring enhanced reliability, expanded product offerings, and faster innovation cycles, supporting the broader growth of digital commerce and cross-border payments in Africa.
