Lesaka Technologies: Lincoln Mali Wins Top African Leadership Award 2025

Prime Highlights

Lincoln Mali recognized for transforming Lesaka Technologies into one of Southern Africa’s leading fintech innovators.
Mali emphasized a customer-centric approach, focusing on technology that serves people, not just products.

Key Facts

Lesaka turned around from an EBITDA loss of R268 million in FY2022 to a profit of R922 million by FY2025 through disciplined operations and positive cash flow.
The Lincoln Mali Leadership Foundation, founded in 2022, supports youth mentoring, community feeding programs, and sports development in Africa.

Background

Lesaka Technologies CEO Lincoln Mali named ‘All Africa Business Leader of the Year’ at 13th AABLA Awards for his strong leadership and for transforming the company into one of Southern Africa’s top fintech innovators. Accepting the award, Mali said, “This recognition is for everyone at Lesaka. In just three years, we’ve created a connected ecosystem where technology serves people, not the other way around.”

The recognition highlights Lesaka’s dramatic turnaround from an EBITDA loss of R268 million in FY2022, the company went from burning more than R500 million in cash annually to securing an EBITDA profit of R922 million by FY2025, thanks to positive cash flow and disciplined operational strategies.

Mali credited the company’s success to its customer-centric approach, commenting, “We are not a business driven by products. We focus on understanding our customers’ needs to deliver meaningful digital solutions. We are just getting started.”

In 2022, Mali and his wife, Sva Mali, founded the Lincoln Mali Leadership Foundation. The foundation helps youth mentoring, community feeding programmes and sports development, which is a reflection of Mali’s extensive dedication to the social ‍‌‍‍‌‍‌‍‍‌sector.

In his closing message, Mali urged African innovators to keep pushing forward, saying, “Recognition isn’t the final goal; it’s a call to keep building and collaborating. The future is there for us to co-create.”

Lesaka is a South African fintech company offering a connected platform for financial services, software, lending, insurance, merchant acquiring, and digital payments, aiming to advance financial inclusion across Southern Africa.