Eva Ngigi-Sarwari, head of Kenyan lender Equity's payments arm Finserve, dies at 45 on business trip to China

Eva Ngigi-Sarwari, managing director of Finserve Africa and group director for payments and international banking at Kenya's Equity Group, has died at 45 while on a business trip to China. Her colleagues announced the death in a statement on 20 October 2026, the Kenyan news sites Nairobi News and Techweez reported.

"It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our dear friend and colleague, Eva Ngigi Sarwari," the statement read, as quoted by Nairobi News. The colleagues called the news a sudden and profound shock.

The statement did not give the cause or the date of her death. It said further updates would follow. Her colleagues said their thoughts were with her family, friends and co-workers.

Equity Group had not issued a public statement when CIO Africa, an African IT news site, published its report.

Finserve Africa is Equity's payments and digital financial services subsidiary. Ngigi-Sarwari became its managing director in April 2026, overseeing strategy, commercial direction and operations.

The company runs Equitel. In August 2018 Equity spun it off as an autonomous commercial business that would provide solutions to Equity Group and to other organisations, the fintech news site FinTech Global reported at the time.

At the 2018 launch it unveiled two products. The Jenga Payment Gateway takes payments from cards and mobile wallets and gives businesses one platform to integrate with. Jenga APIs, 64 software connections at the time, let businesses send money, buy, pay, manage accounts and credit, withdraw, and run know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering checks. By then Finserve had offered solutions to businesses in seven countries: Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Tanzania, Ethiopia and South Sudan.

"Thanks to Finserve, 97 percent of all Equity transactions are now outside the branch," James Mwangi, Equity Group's chief executive, said at the time, as quoted by FinTech Global. He also said Equity controlled "60 percent market share in merchant banking and payments".

Ngigi-Sarwari joined Equity in January 2025 as group director for payments and international banking. Her remit covered working capital and cash management for governments, supranational and multilateral bodies, development institutions and corporate clients.

Before that she worked at Visa. She joined in September 2020 as senior director and country manager for Kenya, South Sudan and Somalia, and held the job until December 2024. She was responsible for Visa's growth strategy across the three markets.

Her career in banking and payments ran for more than 20 years. She started at the Co-operative Bank of Kenya in 2005 and stayed about five years. From 2010 she spent just over two years at Stanbic Bank Kenya, selling transactional products and services.

In November 2012 she moved to Standard Chartered, where she spent more than seven years in transaction banking. From July 2017 to January 2020 she was head of transaction banking for commercial banking, responsible for revenue growth, product relevance and digital transformation in Kenya and East Africa. In 2020 she worked at SC Ventures, the bank's venture-building arm, before joining Visa.

She held a Bachelor of Business Management in marketing from Moi University, awarded in 2004, and an MBA from the University of Nairobi, awarded in 2010. In 2019 she completed the Oxford Fintech Programme at the Saïd Business School, and in 2020 she earned a postgraduate diploma in digital business from the Emeritus Institute of Management.

She was a mother of three. Funeral and memorial arrangements have not been announced.