Jo-Ann Strachan

Nkahiseng Ralepeli is VP of Product: Digital Assets – Tokenisation & Stablecoins (CIB) at Absa Group, a position he has held since July 2023. In this role, he leads product development, strategy, and execution across two workstreams: tokenisation of real-world assets and stablecoin product development. His stated focus is on bridging traditional payment rails — including SWIFT, RTP, ACH, RTGS, and card schemes — with blockchain rails across both permissioned and permissionless chains, with application across FX markets, trade finance, and domestic and international payments. Absa's stablecoin offering targets Corporate and Investment Banking clients, with services including treasury management and cross-border payments facilitation.

Prior to Absa, Ralepeli worked across startups operating in payments using emerging technology, with exposure spanning EMEA and the US. He also sits on the board of the Cloud Security Alliance (South Africa) as Director of Research, covering cloud security, infrastructure, and AI applications. He writes on product management, blockchain, and AI across platforms including Finextra, Ledger Insights, and FintechAO. He holds a Master's in Public Policy and a Master's in Law (BCL) from the University of Oxford, an LLB and a Diploma in International Arbitration from the University of the Free State, and has completed the International Executive Development Programme at the UCT Graduate School of Business. He is a Chartered Digital Asset Analyst (CDAA), a certified Authorised Representative and Key Individual, and a Rhodes Scholar. Additional awards include the Abe Bailey Bursary, Mail & Guardian Top 200 Young South Africans, Jim Leech Mastercard Fellowship, and E4E Blockchain Fellowship.

Rob Downes is Head of Salesforce Platform and Digital Assets, CIB Africa at Absa Group, leading the development of the digital assets portfolio for Absa Corporate and Investment Banking. In late 2022, two weeks after the FTX collapse, he presented the case to Absa Group Exco for a structured digital assets strategy — one built around a dedicated team, a product roadmap, and a regulated offering. The build began with custody, on the basis that wallet infrastructure forms the foundation for all subsequent digital asset services. The work also included a gold-backed stablecoin designed with regulator visibility embedded in the architecture. By the team's account, the resulting custody offering is among the first regulated digital asset custody products on the African continent. A significant part of the build involved systematic engagement with risk, compliance, and financial crime teams to enable the programme. Downes has also noted that blockchain's capacity to surface years of transaction history for any given asset creates a genuinely new policy problem for institutional KYC frameworks — one that large banks are only beginning to address.

Downes has over 20 years of experience in financial services across Europe and Africa, working across large-scale transformation programmes and in retail, bancassurance, and corporate banking contexts. His current mandate spans both the Salesforce platform function and the digital assets portfolio within Absa CIB.