Rufaro Mapanda
Rufaro Mapanda is a philosophile, who enjoys being an academic, entrepreneur, technologist, businessperson, creative and adventurer to the fullest – he was named as one of South Africa’s Top 100 Brightest Young Minds in 2006. He holds a Bachelor with Honours in Finance, Statistics and Economics from the University of Cape Town and is reading a Masters in Philosophy in International Business at the GIBS Business School.
Rufaro’s true passion is people, particularly the people of Africa and he uses his passion for technology, financial markets and creativity to build toward a better future for the people of Africa.
Rufaro co-founded cGrate International, an African payments solution provider in 2008, a year after graduating from UCT with the vision to become a globally recognized partner that extends telco value added services and provides the link between business and mobile phone users worldwide.
With this vision, cGrate was founded In South Africa and over the next decade and a half expanded into Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ghana and Ethiopia. The company provides solutions to several African financial services and telecommunications companies, has more than 10,000 agents in the country and provides convenient payment services to millions of Africans. cGrate became the biggest electronic voucher distributor in Zambia and aims to be the biggest in Africa.
cGrate has become a great example of Africa’s ability to import globally and export locally. The company embeds its own internally and locally built and designed software systems into world class hardware from Europe and China to deliver cutting edge solutions into the heart of Africa. The Presidency of Zambia and Ministry of Finance awarded cGrate an award as the biggest contributor to financial inclusion in the country.
cGrate was the first African company to embed WhatsApp functionality into a payment platform in the form of 543pay and filed a patent for it. The company later built first in class solutions for cashless duties and taxes at African border posts.
Rufaro is passionate about knowledge sharing and sustainable and equitable upliftment. It’s not necessarily what he has achieved but rather what he has given to the technology and finance industry. He has mentored several young black individuals that have gone on to fill successful roles in and out of the industry and in particular a strong cohort of black females. He is an inclusive leader who wants the entire team to be in an environment where they learn and thrive.
He is a man of action that leads by example and is always willing to put the work in, attested by the fact he was selected to represent the country at the United Nations for the Global Young Leaders Summit.
He cultivates an environment that allows a wide variety of personalities to flourish . as such, he also forms part of one of Absa’s internal committees that focuses on transformation among other topics. He is not just a professional businessman, he embodies and exudes Ubuntu.
Rufaro understands the importance of educating those that cannot afford their own education and is passionate about assisting them and making a difference, thus in 2013 he co-founded a charitable organisation called the Grind Foundation which focuses on the upliftment of underprivileged youth in South Africa.
Rufaro’s values, beliefs and sheer determination have led to him being selected as one of the semifinalists in the Rising Star South Africa awards.