BIAN Appoints First East African Member to Executive Board
Rita Apell Akot’s appointment is set to accelerate the exchange of ideas between banking markets worldwide and expand BIAN’s global footprint
16 July 2026, Frankfurt am Main, Germany – The Banking Industry Architecture Network (BIAN), a global, not-for-profit standards association, has today announced the appointment of Rita Apell Akot, Chief Information Officer at Stanbic Bank Uganda, to its Executive Board, marking a significant milestone in the organisation’s global expansion.
As the first Executive Board member from East Africa, Akot’s appointment reflects BIAN’s desire to expand its existing portfolio of banks in the region, whilst fostering opportunities for collaboration and diversification across the global banking ecosystem. The appointment comes as participation from African banks continues to grow across the BIAN community. Akot was selected asked for her deep banking transformation expertise and strong regulatory relationships across the region, following her contribution to a BIAN regional meeting hosted by Standard Bank in Cape Town.
Africa’s banking sector is at a turning point, with economic headwinds, technological changes and regulatory challenges reshaping the competitive landscape[1]. With Akot’s expertise, BIAN aims to extend its engagement with African financial institutions to support the adoption of best-practice architectures to enable sustainable, long-term growth.
As Chief Information Officer at Stanbic Bank Uganda, Akot brings more than two decades of experience leading digital transformation and enterprise technology strategy across the financial services sector. She is recognised for delivering large-scale transformation programmes, strengthening governance, and advising executive leadership and boards on technology, risk, and innovation.
On her contributions to BIAN, Akot said “It’s an honour to join BIAN’s Executive Board, and to be contributing to an organisation that’s shaping the future of banking globally. East Africa is home to a dynamic and innovative banking sector, and I look forward to fostering greater dialogue around the world. By bringing together worldwide perspectives and experiences, we can drive meaningful transformation for East African banks, to equip them for the future.”
Commenting on the appointment, Hans Tesselaar, Executive Director of BIAN, said: “We are delighted to welcome Rita to BIAN’s Executive Board. Throughout our 18-year history, we have seen how bringing together different perspectives and experiences strengthens our organisation and the value we deliver to the industry. We look forward to working with Rita and benefiting from her insight as we continue to support collaboration and innovation across the global banking community.”
This appointment forms part of BIAN’s broader strategy to advancing banking interoperability through common standards and collaborative innovation. Akot’s contributions will further strengthen the organisation’s ability to connect leaders across regions, to support the necessary conversations that will facilitate change in the industry.
About BIAN
Established in 2008, the Banking Industry Architecture Network (BIAN) is an independent, member owned, not-for-profit association, designed to build and promote a common architectural framework for banking interoperability issues. BIAN’s goal is to define operability and semantic definitions for IT services in the banking industry.
The community of more than 100 members focuses on creating a standard semantic banking services landscape, while ensuring consistent service definitions, levels of detail and boundaries. This will help banks to achieve a reduction of integration costs and take advantage of a microservices architecture.
Financial institutions, software vendors, and system integrators, along with technology partners and consultancies, are invited to join the association and play a collaborative role with other industry leaders in defining, building, and implementing next-generation banking platforms.