Eftcorp Names Mike Smits Group Md, Eyes Ethiopia, DRC

In Short

• Eftcorp has appointed Mike Smits as Group Managing Director.
• The company says it is targeting growth in Ethiopia, DR Congo, and Kenya.
• No new funding round was reported in the announcement.

What Happened

Eftcorp has named Mike Smits as its Group Managing Director, and tied the move to a push for regional growth in Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Kenya.

A Group Managing Director is the senior executive responsible for running the business across markets, setting priorities, and overseeing execution across teams.

The company operates in payments infrastructure, the behind-the-scenes software that helps banks, merchants, and payment providers move money securely. This can include services like payment switching (routing transactions between institutions) and card and digital payment processing (authorising and settling payments).

Eftcorp did not announce a fundraising round alongside the leadership update. The focus appears to be operational execution and expansion, rather than capital raising.

Why It Matters

Leadership changes like this often signal a new phase of expansion, especially for fintech infrastructure providers. These businesses need strong local partnerships, regulatory alignment, and reliable uptime because they sit on critical transaction flows.

Ethiopia, DR Congo, and Kenya represent three very different markets. Ethiopia is opening up parts of its financial sector, DR Congo is a large and complex payments market with fragmented rails, and Kenya is highly competitive with mature mobile money and merchant payments adoption.

For banks and fintechs, more regional payment infrastructure options can improve redundancy and reduce single points of failure. For merchants, it can translate into better payment acceptance, fewer failed transactions, and faster settlement times, depending on how Eftcorp executes in each country.