Cellulant has appointed Anthony Hernandez, a seasoned fintech and banking operations leader with over 25 years of global experience, as its new Chief Operating Officer to strengthen execution and scalability as the firm expands across the continent.
The appointment, announced on Wednesday, forms the latest addition to Cellulant’s refreshed leadership team. It follows the February 2026 hiring of Michael Muriuki as Chief Product and Technology Officer and the March 2026 appointment of Darren Makarem as Chief Financial Officer.
Hernandez, who most recently served as Head of Customer Operations at Railsr (formerly Railsbank), a UK-based embedded finance platform, brings deep expertise in operational transformation, risk management, customer onboarding, and scaling complex financial services. His previous roles include Head of Risk and Head of Operations at Xapo Bank, Chief Operating Officer at Demica, and several senior leadership positions at GE Capital and GE spanning more than 13 years.
At Xapo Bank, a digital and crypto-focused private bank, he transformed operating frameworks, automated processes to achieve over 98% straight-through processing, improved customer satisfaction metrics (NPS above 60), and built scalable global operations. His earlier work at GE involved managing large-scale asset transitions worth over $200 billion, optimising working capital solutions, and driving operational excellence across multiple jurisdictions.
“In payments today, trust is the real currency, and operational excellence is what earns it. As we continue to grow our volumes and support market-leading businesses across Africa and beyond, we are deliberately strengthening our operational foundations,” said Cellulant CEO Peter O’Toole.
Hernandez will be responsible for overseeing onboarding, transaction processing, and customer growth initiatives, with a strong emphasis on reducing payment failures and enhancing visibility and reliability of transactions across Cellulant’s markets.
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“Payment flexibility starts with access to the right options and is grown by how reliably those options work in practice,” Hernandez said. “Cellulant has built a powerful payment infrastructure for businesses operating across Africa, and I’m excited to join a team that is at the very heart of Africa’s digital economy.”
Founded in 2004, Cellulant provides a unified payments platform that allows businesses to accept payments across more than 20 African markets through a single integration. The company processes approximately 4.5 million transactions daily and achieved profitability in 2024, a milestone that has positioned it to deepen its footprint amid rising competition from both fintech players and traditional banks developing in-house systems.
The series of senior hires in product, technology, finance, and now operations signals Cellulant’s focus on tightening internal execution, improving reliability, and scaling sustainably in markets where infrastructure, compliance, and regulatory environments can vary significantly.
