Mastercard names Yasemin Bedir to lead its 81-country EEMEA region as Africa's payments landscape evolves

Mastercard has appointed Yasemin Bedir as President of its Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (EEMEA) region, putting the nearly 20-year company veteran in charge of an 81-country business from September 1, 2026. Bedir will succeed Dimitrios Dosis, who has moved into the newly created role of Chief Commercial Payments Officer, while also joining Mastercard’s Management Committee.

The appointment gives Bedir responsibility for Mastercard’s strategy and operations across a region that spans some of the world’s most varied financial markets. Her remit will include relationships with retailers, fintechs, financial institutions, governments and businesses, according to Mastercard. She most recently spent four years as Division President for Eastern Europe, after previously serving as general manager for Mastercard’s Turkey and Azerbaijan operations and spending nearly five years overseeing community institution and processor relationships in North America.

The scale of the assignment is important. Mastercard expanded its regional structure in 2021 to bring Eastern Europe into what became the EEMEA organisation, creating a portfolio that now covers 81 countries. Bedir therefore takes over a business whose markets range from highly developed payment systems in parts of Europe and the Gulf to African economies where mobile money remains central to everyday commerce.

That diversity also explains why the job is broader than the traditional image of a card-network executive. Across EEMEA, Mastercard is working with financial institutions and technology companies on merchant acceptance, money movement, fintech infrastructure and newer forms of digital settlement. In May, for example, Mastercard and Yellow Card announced a partnership to investigate stablecoin-enabled applications for cross-border remittances, B2B settlement, digital loyalty and treasury management across EEMEA.

Africa provides some of the clearest examples of how that business is being built. In Kenya, Mastercard and Safaricom agreed in 2024 to expand payment acceptance and cross-border remittance services across more than 636,000 M-PESA merchants, combining Mastercard’s global payment infrastructure with Safaricom’s extensive mobile-money network. Mastercard said the partnership was intended to help merchants serve customers across global markets while strengthening remittance services.

That relationship is revealing because Kenya’s payment market does not fit neatly into the traditional card-network model. M-PESA has created a large mobile-money ecosystem around wallets, agents, merchants and digital financial services, while banks, fintechs and international payment networks are building connections into the same ecosystem. Mastercard’s own recent work with Kenyan SMEs has included the M-PESA merchant partnership, Tap to Pay and collaborations with banks including KCB, I&M Bank, NMB Bank and Diamond Trust Bank.

For Bedir, this means the EEMEA opportunity will involve markets where payment competition is tied to the strength of local financial ecosystems. A global network can provide international acceptance and infrastructure, but its relevance depends increasingly on how well those services connect with mobile wallets, banks, merchants, fintech platforms and cross-border payment corridors.

The movement of senior executives across Africa’s financial-services industry provides another window into this change. In February, Absa appointed former M-PESA Africa Managing Director Sitoyo Lopokoiyit as Chief Executive of Personal and Private Banking, effective April 1. Before joining Absa, Lopokoiyit had led M-PESA Africa across seven markets, overseeing a platform with more than 56 million active customers and more than five million SMEs and MSMEs.

In July, Stanbic Bank Kenya also appointed former Safaricom Chief Business Development and Strategy Officer Michael Mutiga as its chief executive, subject to regulatory approval. Mutiga had spent four years at Safaricom after a long banking career at Citibank and Barclays/Absa Capital, giving him experience across banking, telecommunications, corporate finance and digital financial services.

Those appointments are useful context for Bedir’s promotion because they show how experience built inside large digital platforms is becoming valuable across financial services. The executives moving between telecoms, mobile money, banks and payment companies have worked with customers at scale, managed complex partnerships and built products that sit across several parts of the financial system. That experience has become particularly relevant as African financial services expand beyond basic transfers into merchant payments, lending, savings, insurance, investment products and digital commerce.

Airtel Money illustrates the scale of the businesses behind that talent pool. Airtel Africa reported 56.5 million Airtel Money customers and annualised transaction values above $245 billion at the end of June 2026, with mobile-money revenue up 25.8% in constant currency. The figures were reported as part of Airtel Africa’s first-quarter FY2027 results, rather than its full-year results.

In Kenya, Airtel Money has also been building a broader financial ecosystem through partnerships. In June, the company opened access to KCB’s more than 22,000-agent network for Airtel Money customers, while earlier partnerships expanded its merchant and cash-access footprint. The moves show how mobile-money operators are building connections with banks and other businesses rather than operating as isolated wallet services.

The same dynamic is visible in Mastercard’s own regional strategy. Its partnership with Yellow Card places stablecoin infrastructure alongside conventional payment networks; its Safaricom relationship connects international acceptance to M-PESA merchants; and Mastercard’s work with banks and SMEs pushes the network deeper into the operating infrastructure of African commerce. None of these initiatives can be attributed to Bedir personally, since they predate her new appointment, but they define the business she is inheriting.

That distinction matters when considering what comes next. Mastercard has not announced that Bedir will pursue a particular Africa strategy, expand stablecoin products or change its approach to mobile money. Her appointment instead places an experienced Mastercard executive at the centre of a region where those questions are already becoming important.

Her previous experience could be useful in managing that complexity. Bedir joined Mastercard in 2007 and has worked across Turkey, Azerbaijan, North America and Eastern Europe, giving her exposure to different regulatory environments and payment markets. Mastercard also describes her as an advocate for talent development and notes her involvement in projects supporting small and medium-sized businesses.

Dosis leaves the regional presidency after five years and will now oversee Mastercard’s Commercial & New Payment Flows business globally. Bedir’s appointment therefore represents both a succession within Mastercard and a change in the executive perspective overseeing a very large and diverse portfolio.

For Africa, the more interesting question will be how Mastercard continues to fit its global network into payment systems that were often built around different local models. Kenya’s M-PESA ecosystem is one example, but the same challenge exists across markets where mobile wallets, banks, fintechs, national payment systems and newer digital-asset infrastructure increasingly overlap.

Bedir takes charge of that landscape on September 1. Her immediate task is continuity, but the size and diversity of the EEMEA portfolio give her considerable room to shape how Mastercard competes for the next layer of African digital payments.