James Hokans Email & Phone Number

Little Rock, Ar, Us

Nairobi, Kenya

Jiwambe is a new digital credit provider that finances the home improvements and incremental house building by primarily rural households and residents of peri-urban settlements in secondary towns of Kenya. Provides advice on housing micro-loan products, marketing and promotion of incremental housing loans and climate adaptation efforts. Main responsibility is driving fundraising as a continuous business process in partnership with the CEO and CFO, and working with CIO and field staff to establish a data-driven M&E system, complemented with qualitative human-centered design. Will also facilitate ESG system and train staff and partners on incremental housing finance and practices of our borrowers.

Greater Boston Area

My home office is Brewster, MA USA, but my clients and colleagues operate primarily in Eastern and Southern Africa and SE Asia.

Eastern And Southern Africa

Nairobi, Kenya

My responsibilities included working with a matrix team of mobile money and agriculture experts to facilitate partnerships between mobile money schemes, banks and NBFIs, promising fintech companies, as well as farmer organizations, buyers and traders, to develop and distribute digital financial and non-financial services aimed at small holder farmers in Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia. I also developed our communication strategy, managed three direct reports and several consultants as well as acted as interim country director in Tanzania for three months..

Greater Boston Area

Practice Director and Digital Financial Services expert, particularly focusing on business and marketing strategy, product and services development, channel management, demand studies of domestic payments markets, and interoperability of national retail payments systems. Over a 10 year period worked with many private and public sector clients and key ecosystem actors in the digital financial services arena and housing microfinance primarily in Southeast Asia and Sub-Sahara Africa, but also in India and Mexico. Established a formal presence for BFA in Kenya in 2014.

Johannesburg Area, South Africa

Managed a housing portfolio of debt and equity investments in 20 South African microfinance institutions in collaboration with South African counterparts and KFW. RHLF is considered as one of the most innovative and successful wholesale rural microfinance institutions in the world.

Windhoek, Namibia

With support from The Ford Foundation, represented CHF International and advised the government to pursue policies to advance private sector and NGO participation in urban policy development. During this period, also supported the new Mandela government and civic organizations in South Africa to develop its social housing policy and designed a housing project in Port Elizabeth with funding from USAID.

Eastern And Southern Africa

Set up a new urban poverty program for one of the largest, decentralized private foundations in the world. Provided seed capital and capacity building support to some of the most enduring housing microfinance institutions in Kenya, supported policy advocacy by slum dwellers and enabled innovations in land ownership through the community land trust model.

Msc., Economics, Public Policy

Ba, History

Activities and Societies: High Honors, Phi Beta Kappa, Rufus Choate Scholar, Samuel Aronowitz Prize from Tucker Foundation, Varsity Soccer