Bashir Are

Bashir is a dynamic, innovative, result driven private and public sectors executive with over 28 years of proven technical, entrepreneurial, and managerial expertise. He’s vastly skilled in conceptualizing and implementing transformative business solutions, his background includes Business Process Reengineering, Project Management, Strategy Planning, Systems Integration, FINTECH, and International Trade. Bashir distinctly worked as Principal Consultant for Getronics, EMC, and Northrop Grumman Corporations at U.S. Departments of Treasury, Energy, Labor, U.S. Patent & Trademarks Office (USPTO), and U.S. Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC) long-term projects. He also worked as Senior Systems Engineer and Network Operations Manager for Lockheed Martin Corporation and Large-Scale Proteomics Corporation respectively in Germantown, Maryland, USA. He once served as Sole Administrator (Mayor) at Lagos Island East (LCDA) Government between June, 2016 and August, 2017; where he actively participated in strategic collaborations with Lagos State Ministries, Departments and Agencies on Growth and Employment in States (GEMS3), a U.K. DFID funded project designed to boost employment opportunities and promote “ease of doing business” framework in Local and State Governments. Prior to Sole Administrator calling, Bashir worked as Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Funds & Electronic Transfer Solutions (fets) Limited in Lagos, Nigeria. He superintended the operation of revenue collections and electronic payments for public and private clients in excess of $31M monthly, managed 12 District Managers and 3,782 Agents nationwide. He also oversaw development of Lottery, Payment Aggregation and Mobile-Money platforms that saved the company more than $1.8m of annual software licensing fees and co-authored an innovative concept to amplify Mobile Money and Cashless Nigeria policy adoption that won fets $4 million in the IFC, DFID, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded EFInA Innovation Grant. He liaised copiously with Telecommunication companies, Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBBS), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and National Communication Commission (NCC) on regulatory compliance, policy advisory, and technology platforms inter-operability strategies. As an entrepreneur, he operated MoneyMart in Maryland, USA between 1994-1996 serving the unbanked and underbanked clienteles with licenses from the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Commission, Western Union and Global Express Money Order Companies as a payment processor, lottery and money remittance agent.