Anne Marie van Swinderen
Founder and Managing Director
Anne Marie van Swinderen is the founder of L-IFT BV. She has been active in financial inclusion for over 30 years. She brings along experience in numerous projects: agricultural and cooperative finance in Zambia, microfinance outreach in Bolivia, financial diaries in Colombia, studies about demand for mobile financial services, product development for mobile financial services in Ethiopia and youth financial diaries in Togo and Ethiopia.
Jose Vahl
Country Director L-IFT Myanmar
Jose Vahl is currently directing L-IFT’s business growth in Myanmar from 1 project with 800 respondents and 40 researchers in 4 geographical areas to a country wide program. She has been more than 6 years in Myanmar now, arrived as country director for an INGO, and continued with consulting in numerous projects. She brings along years of experience in Local Economic Development and Business Development, Value Chain Analyses and Women Economic Empowerment and a Masters in Agriculture from Wageningen University in The Netherlands.
Marcienne Umubyeyi
Programme Manager
Marcienne Umubyeyi is L-IFT Programme Manager and was engaged as a coordinator of the Livelihood Diaries in Ghana and Uganda. She has 14 years’ experience in financial inclusion and entrepreneurship, youth training, project formulation and implementation.
Mahlet Alemayehu
Programme Manager
Mahlet Alemayehu is a Programme Manager at L-IFT in charge of reporting, administration and data analysis. She has been with L-IFT since inception and has 8 years’ work experience in survey implementation and field work supervision. She is expert in data processing for financial diaries and data interpretation. She has a background in Economics and Human Resource (BSc and MSc). She has supervised five major high frequency studies (Ethiopia, 3 in Uganda, Nigeria).
Haimanot Yibeltal
Technology Manager
Haimanot Tiruneh is a technology manager with a passion for creating practical solutions. With a background in mathematics and physics during his undergraduate studies, he brings a strong foundation in analytical thinking and problem-solving to his work. As a technology manager, Haimanot has played a pivotal role in developing and delivering FINBIT, a multi-purpose financial monitoring system.His expertise has been instrumental in providing innovative products to help people get financial insights. Read More>>
Minh Dao
Video Maker
Minh Deo has been working as a video maker for L-IFT since 2015. She holds a master’s degree in modern languages and discovered her passion for content creation while travelling the world.
Theresa Thin
Programme Officer
Theresa Thin is L-IFT’s Programme Officer in Myanmar. She is responsible for recruitment, training, coaching and supervising the field supervisors and promoters / data volunteers for the different L-IFT Myanmar projects. She liaises with the clients on logistics and is an expert in working with the different software tools (including our own Finbit App) that L-IFT uses. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics of Dagon University and a Diploma in Business Management from De La Salle of St. Benedict College. Read More>>
Mekdes Hailegiorgis
Programme Manager
Mekdes Hailegiorgis has an MSC in Business Economics. She has been engaged as project management officer in charge of administrative tasks such as field supervision, reviewing financial reporting, assist on methodology implementation and data analysis.
John Kamau
Data Expert
John Kamau is currently working for L-IFT as a data expert. He has a degree in Economics from the University of Nairobi. He also has a certificate in CPA 2 and for Data Science in R and Python. He has over 5 years experience in Data: as an operations analyst in a transport Sacco, a market data analyst, an innovation analyst as well as a data scientist in the financial sector. He is experienced in Machine learning in both R and Python as well as SQL and big data analysis in Spark. Read More>>
Selamawit Alemayehu
Senior Finance officer and PA to Managing director
Selamawit Alemayehu has a Bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance at Addis Ababa University. She has 3 years’ experience in accounting and administrative works. She is L-IFT’s accountant and office assistant based in Ethiopia. She is in charge of coordinating the central finance system for the organization. She also assists in administrative tasks related to the organization and communication.
Frehiwot Sinishaw
Programme Officer
Frehiwot Sinishaw has a master’s degree in public international law. She has 6+ years of work experience in L-IFT. She is responsible for recruitment, coaching, and monitoring field researchers and supervisors. She assists in giving training to field researchers, reports writing, proposal writing, and data processing. She contributes to communication including assisting in social media and website activities, in addition to document organization and facilitation of conferences and meetings.
Fireayehu Zekarias
Software Engineer
Fireayehu Zekaris is a graduating ambitious problem-solving software engineer studying at Addis Ababa institute of Technology, currently working at L-IFT as a Front End Engineer. He has a ReactJS Nanodegree Certificate from Google Udacity and highly experienced with JavaScript/Typescript language and related frameworks. He is goal-oriented and eager to work with personnel in all areas of work to help boost profits and improve opportunities.
Biruk Tsegaye
Android Developer
Mhlalisi Ncube
Project Manager
Cosmas Biwott
Data Expert
Adonay Negash
Communications Officer
Joshua Byenkya
Senior Research Manager
Joshua is Senior Research Manager at L-IFT leading the Solar Adoption RCT In Nakivale and Kiryandongo refugee settlements, in Uganda. He has 11 years of experience in managing research and evaluation studies in Uganda and South Sudan in various development domains. He has conducted 11 project/programme evaluations, and 12 research studies commissioned by ActionAid Uganda, Reproductive Health Uganda (RHU), USAID/RTI, Compassion International, Dan Church Aid (DCA) in South Sudan, CIVICUS, HelpAge International, Read More>>
Nayad Mideksa
Data Integrity Officer
Nayad is a Data Integrity Officer at L-IFT in charge of routinely going through each data point to signal errors and inconsistencies then work closely and follow up with the Project managers to provide correct data. He has an experience in testing the FINBIT application.
Henok Biazin
Project Manager
Henok Biazin is currently managing RFDF project in Uganda and post SFD project activities in Ethiopia. He started working with L-IFT as a Field Supervisor for SFD Ethiopia in 2019, where he has been there since the inception phase up to the successful completion of the project. Henok has a BA degree in Sociology and Social Work from Jimma University and an MA degree in Sociology from Addis Ababa University. In addition to his five years’ experience of teaching at Ambo University, he has an excellent experience in research, survey coordination and Read More>>
Faith Kabanda
Junior Data Analyst and Project Assistant
Faith Kabanda is a Junior Data Analyst and Project Assistant at L-IFT in charge of data cleaning, sorting, analysis, data visualization, and tracking the progress of various projects. Faith has nearly 4 years of post-undergraduate experience in statistics, data handling, and data analysis in Python and R, as well as experience in data visualization in R, Tableau, and Google Data Studio. Faith is currently part of the ECD, CornerShop Diaries, Credit Scoring, and L-IFT’s Youth Conference projects. Faith is currently undertaking a master’s degree at Zimbabwe Open University Read More>>
Lynn Ajema
Data Analyst
Lynn Ajema is a talented data analyst with a Bachelor’s degree in statistics from Taita Taveta University, Kenya. She has a passion for transforming complex information into actionable insights. Lynn is proficient in R and Python, leveraging these powerful tools to extract valuable meaning from raw data. With expertise in data visualization techniques using Tableau, R, Python, and Power BI, Lynn excels at presenting data in a visually appealing and understandable manner, enabling stakeholders to make informed decisions.
Norbert Onyango
Data Analyst
Motivated Data Analyst Norbert Onyango brings a strong economics background from The University of Nairobi, certifications in Data Analysis from the same institution, four years of diverse data analysis experience, and expertise in statistical tools, data mining, and econometric modeling. Dedicated to optimizing data-driven solutions, he delivers concise reports and contributes valuable insights to inform decision-making. He is committed to continuous learning and staying updated with emerging trends.