Eva Ngigi Sarwari, Equity Group’s director for payments and international banking, has died.
Sarwari died at the age of 45 while on a business trip to China.
Colleagues confirmed her death on Tuesday, October 20, 2026. The cause of death had not been disclosed by the time of publication, and Equity Group had not issued a public statement.
Ngigi Sarwari joined Equity Group in January 2025 as group director for payments and international banking. She also served as managing director of Finserve Africa, the group’s digital financial services subsidiary, a role she took up in April 2026.
Her career spanned more than two decades in the banking and financial technology sectors, with senior positions at Visa, Standard Chartered Kenya and other financial institutions.
Eva Ngigi Sarwari’s Career at Visa and Equity Group
Before joining Equity Group, Ngigi-Sarwari served as senior director and country manager for Kenya, South Sudan, and Somalia at Visa from September 2020 to December 2024.
At Visa, she was responsible for the company’s operations across the three markets, building on her experience in banking and transaction services.
She began her career in 2005 at Co-operative Bank, where she worked in customer relationships and electronic banking. She later moved to Stanbic Bank before joining Standard Chartered Kenya in 2012.
At Standard Chartered, Ngigi-Sarwari rose to head of transaction banking for the commercial banking division. In 2020, she moved to SC Ventures before joining Visa later that year.
Her January 2025 appointment at Equity Group put her in charge of payments and international banking, two areas that have become increasingly important as financial institutions expand digital transactions and services.
In April 2026, she took up the role of managing director at Finserve Africa, which operates within Equity Group’s digital financial services business.
Her Studies at Oxford University
Alongside her banking career, Ngigi-Sarwari pursued further training in strategic management, digital business and financial technology.
She attended the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, where she completed the Oxford Strategic Management Executive Programme between August 2022 and April 2023.
She also completed the Oxford Fintech Program in 2019, further strengthening her training in financial technology.
She also completed a postgraduate diploma in digital business from Emeritus between 2019 and 2020.
Ngigi-Sarwari earned a Master of Business Administration in Strategic Management from the University of Nairobi, where she studied between 2008 and 2010.
She had earlier completed a Bachelor of Business Management in Marketing Management at Moi University, where she studied from 2000 to 2004.
Her studies in management and digital business complemented her experience in banking, transaction services and payment systems.
Her Work in Digital Financial Services
Ngigi-Sarwari had built a 20-year career in financial services, working on digital payment systems, working capital and cash management solutions for clients across the region.
Her experience included serving governments, supranational organizations, multilateral institutions, international development organizations and both large and mid-sized local businesses.
In her professional profile, she said she took pride in developing solutions that improved how clients operated, crediting the teams she worked with for delivering changes in working capital management and digital financial services.
She viewed technology as a tool to improve the value financial institutions offer clients and expand access to financial services.
“Paired with an obsession for client value, it is how we drive financial inclusion, and I intend to stay at the forefront of that agenda,” she wrote.
Ngigi-Sarwari also emphasized the importance of understanding clients’ businesses, challenges, and long-term goals before recommending financial solutions. She said building relationships was central to her approach, with a focus on developing services suited to each client’s needs.
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