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
Project 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 Yibeltal has studied Mathematics and Physics at Manhattanville College in New York and has experience in CAPI software for financial diaries research, video making, technology management and data base design. He is particularly experienced in quality management through technology. He is the Technology Manager at L-IFT in charged of data management, technology and logic responsibilities.
Bezawit Hailegiorgis
Finbit Interim Manager
Bezawit Hailegiorgis is working as a Finbit Interim Manager in L-IFT. She holds a Masters degree in International Relations. She is experienced in Global and African Political Economy, International Relations, Political Affairs and Foreign Policy. She is interested in Social Enterprise, Financial Technology, Communication, Research, Saving Groups Technology, Economic & Financial Inclusion, Social Entrepreneurship, and Economic Empowerment
Minh Deo
Video Maker
Minh Deo has been working as a videomaker 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.
Andrew Magunda
Country Manager – L-IFT Uganda
Andrew Magunda is a researcher, monitoring and evaluation specialist with 14 years of experience in financial literacy programming and evaluation in East, Central and West Africa, mainly working on youth financial education and products, and adult rural saving initiatives. He is a Country Manager with L-IFT in Uganda and has worked on SEEP’s evaluation of the long-term performance and evolution of savings groups in Uganda and Mali and the Refugee Financial Diaries research project in Uganda. Read More>>
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>>
Eric Anjeo
Data Analyst
Eric Anjeo is L-IFT’s Data Analyst/statistician skilled in recording, interpreting and analyzing data in a fast-paced environment, advanced proficiency in all aspects of data analytics (data mining, data visualization, predictive modeling, machine learning, and time series analysis in Python and R). He is responsible for supporting research analysis and development processes. He has a bachelor degree in statistics from the University of Nairobi (UON).
Mekdes Hailegiorgis
Programme Assistant
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
Accountant and Office Assistant
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 Assistant
Frehiwot Sinishaw has a Master’s degree in Public International Law at Addis Ababa University Law school, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She is responsible for recruitment, coaching and monitoring field researchers and supervisors. She assists in giving training to field researchers, report writing, proposal writing and data processing. She is also the communication staff in which she manages social media and website activities, in addition to document organization.
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.
Michael Asnake
Android Developer
Michael Asnake has a Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology from Addis Ababa institute of Technology. He’s part of the Android development team based in Ethiopia. He has over 2 years of experience in Android and web development as a part-time developer, in freelance and as an intern. Currently, as a member of the team, he’s involved in the active development and maintenance of the android application.
Biruk Tsegaye
Android Developer