Nathalie Gabala

Regional Director for Western, Central and Northern Africa, Mastercard Foundation

Nathalie Akon Gabala is the Regional Director for Western, Central and Northern Africa at the Mastercard Foundation where she leads the delivery of the Foundation’s Young Africa Works strategy in Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal. Young Africa Works is the Foundation’s bold ambition to enable 30 million young Africans access dignified and fulfilling work by 2030.

She also oversees the Foundation’s global Access to Finance and Gender strategies, key enablers of the Mastercard Foundation Strategy to Promote and Expand Employment Opportunities for Young People in Africa.

Prior to joining the Mastercard Foundation, Nathalie was a Partner with a pioneer financial inclusion-focused Chicago based Fund Management company which invests in microfinance, small business banks and fintech companies in Asia and Africa. She has over 25 years of industry experience and deep expertise in small and medium enterprise banking, micro-finance, and fin-tech institutions across Sub-Saharan Africa.

Nathalie started her career in commercial banking and has held various roles with Citibank and Standard Chartered Bank Groups in West, Central and Southern Africa. She holds a Master’s degree of Management in Strategy with a minor in Finance from École Supérieure de Commerce de Paris in France. She also studied at the Université Nationale de Côte d’Ivoire, Abidjan where she completed a Master’s degree in Accounting and Finance.

She serves as an independent Non-Executive Director for several financial institutions across Africa. She is a member of The G7 Impact Task Force. Nathalie is passionate about unlocking the creativity, dynamism and resilience of Africa’s youth. She was recently named as one of the 100 most influential women in Africa by Avance Media in the 2020 rankings.