Hi all, please note an upcoming special talk at UW. *Who*: Benjamin Fernandes, CEO of NALA, a digital payments company in East Africa *What*: Building a Digital Payments Company for East Africa *When*: Thursday, May 10, 3:30-4:30pm *Where*: Paul G. Allen Center, Room 403 *Abstract*: With the ever-changing payments ecosystem around the world, learn what it's like to build a digital payments company in Africa. Hear insights from needs-finding to prototyping, to beta testing and finally becoming the number one trending finance application on the play store one day after launching. Learn about the challenges, the key insights and valuable lessons learned in the journey. Co-founded by UW's very own Sam Castle. *Bio*: Benjamin Fernandes (Stanford MBA'17) is an award-winning speaker, entrepreneur and former national TV personality from Tanzania. Fernandes is co-founder and CEO of NALA (www.nala.money), a consumer mobile payments company that works offline operating in Tanzania. NALA has been backed by the DFS Lab (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) and CGAP (World Bank). Fernandes is currently listed in the top 15 Most Influential Tanzanians.