Merchant Lead - Airtel Money

About the role

Airtel Money Kenya is recruiting a Merchant Lead who reports to the Head of Airtel Money Merchant and Distribution. The role expands and strengthens the Airtel Money acceptance ecosystem across Kenyan SMEs, corporates and payment service providers, driving merchant and micro-merchant acquisition, activation and performance, and managing key accounts, franchise partners and distribution channel productivity.

Key responsibilities

• Develop strategies to onboard merchants and micro-merchants across key trade segments and enforce trade compliance, branding standards and service quality across the field network.
• Drive growth and recovery in low-activity pockets such as peri-urban, estate and rural trading centers.
• Manage and grow strategic merchant accounts including chain retailers, bill-pay partners, digital platforms and aggregators, ensuring uptime, issue resolution and revenue growth.
• Expand distribution coverage by identifying gaps across counties, estates and high-density corridors.
• Recruit, train and manage franchise partners, super-agents and channel distributors, and strengthen liquidity models, float circulation and cash management.
• Provide data-driven insights on adoption in utilities payments, merchant payments, P2B and repeat usage, and work with Sales, Marketing and Zonal teams on county-level penetration plans.

Required profile

• Bachelor's degree in a business-related field.
• Minimum 5-8 years' experience in financial services, fintech, payments, mobile money, distribution, key account management or route-to-market.
• Proven track record in merchant acquisition, business development or payments strategy.
• Experience managing franchise or distributor networks.

Required skills

• Deep understanding of digital payments, mobile money and the Kenyan financial inclusion landscape.
• Strong commercial acumen, negotiation and partnership management.
• Strong analytics and data interpretation skills.
• FMCG distribution knowledge and trade channel execution.
• Route-to-market planning and channel penetration intelligence.