Nigus Asres Ayele
Addis Ababa,AA
Summary
Dynamic Senior Card Payment Switch Officer at EthSwitch S.C, adept in EMV compliance and project management. Proven track record in optimizing payment operations and enhancing stakeholder engagement. Successfully led system integrations and UAT activities, driving efficiency and ensuring seamless transaction processing across multiple channels. Passionate about delivering impactful solutions in fast-paced environments. High-performing professional with integrity and leadership skills. Applies knowledge and abilities to positively impact organization. Flexible in different situations and dynamic conditions. Works great under extreme stress and deadlines.
Overview
10
10
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Senior Card Payment Switch Officer
EthSwitch S.C
Addis Ababa
06.2022 - Current
- Lead payment application monitoring and ensure uninterrupted switch operations across ATM, POS, and digital channels.
- Provide second-level support for the national switch, lead system integrations, and manage UAT activities in both test and production environments.
- Manage national payment switch, customization, reporting, and troubleshooting for over 30+ member institutions.
- Drive MasterCard and Visa Acquiring, POS integration, and card personalization projects, ensuring full EMV and ISO 8583-1993 compliance.
- Provide Level 2 operational support, analyzing transaction life cycles and resolving complex switch issues.
- Support national interoperability for ATM, POS, and card schemes (EthioPay, Mastercard, Visa, UnionPay, Discover).
- Collaborate remotely with international vendors and scheme partners on certification, UAT, and production rollout.
- Contribute to PCI DSS certification compliance and data center migration projects.
- Delivered onboarding for new participant’s national switch services.
- Train bank and partner teams on Payment operations, card acquiring, and reconciliation platforms.
Senior IT Project Management Officer
ETHIO ICT SOLUTION
Addis Ababa
11.2019 - 06.2022
- Managed full project lifecycle for diverse IT initiatives, including planning, execution, monitoring, and closure.
- Developed and implemented project methodologies, risk mitigation plans, and budgets for digital transformation projects.
- Coordinated communication and alignment among technical teams, clients, and vendors to ensure project objectives were met.
- Introduced process improvements that optimized project delivery, enhanced efficiency, and improved resource utilization.
- Led cross-functional teams to successfully deliver projects on time and within budget.
- Monitored project performance using KPIs and reporting tools, providing actionable insights to stakeholders.
- Facilitated stakeholder meetings, status reports, and post-project reviews to ensure continuous improvement.
- Managed vendor relationships, negotiated contracts, and ensured compliance with project requirements.
- Implemented Agile and Scrum practices to enhance team collaboration and responsiveness to change.
Business Analyst
ETHIO ICT SOLUTION
Addis Ababa
09.2015 - 10.2019
- Collaborated closely with stakeholders to gather, analyze, and validate business requirements, ensuring alignment with strategic objectives.
- Documented comprehensive functional and non-functional requirements, use cases, and business process flows to support effective solution design and implementation.
- Conducted gap analyses to identify inefficiencies and areas for improvement across existing systems and business workflows.
- Performed data analysis and business intelligence reporting to support evidence-based decision-making for internal and external clients.
- Designed and maintained interactive dashboards and performance KPIs using Excel, Power BI, and Tableau, enhancing operational transparency and accountability.
- Acted as a key liaison between business units and technical teams, ensuring clear communication and smooth translation of business needs into technical specifications.
- Facilitated stakeholder workshops, interviews, and focus groups to refine project scope, elicit feedback, and ensure shared understanding of goals and deliverables.
- Contributed to Agile project delivery by participating in daily stand-ups, sprint planning, backlog grooming, and sprint reviews.
- Supported user acceptance testing (UAT) by drafting test cases, validating business rules, and coordinating with QA and development teams.
- Assisted in developing business cases, feasibility studies, and cost-benefit analyses for proposed projects.
- Created high-quality documentation including business requirement documents (BRDs), software requirement specifications (SRS), process maps, and training materials.
- Monitored post-implementation outcomes to ensure solutions met business needs and delivered intended value.
Education
Master of Science (M.Sc.) - Software Engineering
Addis Ababa Science & Technology University
01.2020
Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) - Information Technology
Wolkite University
07.2015
Skills
- ATM/POS acquiring
- Card issuing
- EMV/ISO 8583 compliance
- National payment switch
- Data center migration
- Requirement gathering
- Process modeling
- BRD/SRS documentation
- Project management
- Scrum
- Agile methodologies
- Waterfall methodologies
- Project lifecycle planning
- Budgeting
- Risk management
- Level 2 incident analysis
- Settlement/reconciliation
- Performance optimization
- Business intelligence
- Transaction lifecycle analysis
- ITIL practices and change management
- Vendor management
- Adherence to payment network standards
- Adherence to regulatory standards
- Cross-functional collaboration
- User training
- Capacity building
- Remote Team Collaboration
- Slack
- Jira
- Trello
- Zoom
- MS Teams
- Payment processing
- System integration
- UAT management
- Transaction analysis
- PCI DSS compliance
- IT project management
- Stakeholder engagement
Certification
- Scrum Fundamentals Certified | Scrum for Ops and DevOps
- ITIL v4 Foundation (itSC)
- Fintech and Digital Finance Transformation
- Product Management | Leading Teams: Developing as a Leader
- PCI DSS Awareness and SVIPS Operations (Train the Trainer – EthSwitch)
- Project Planning and Management (University of Virginia, Coursera)
- Digital Money | EMV Chip Card (Barnes International)
- Change Management | Financial Risk Analysis | Data Visualization (Power BI)
- Database Design and Foundations (Oracle Academy)
- Cybersecurity Foundations (NYU / IBM – Coursera)
References
Available upon request (Professional references from EthSwitch and ETHIO ICT SOLUTION).
Languages
- English
- Amharic, Native
- English, Excellent (Written & Spoken)
Research And Publications
- Multi-Tier Ensemble Learning Model with Neighborhood Component Analysis to Predict Health Diseases — IEEE Access, 2021
- Developing Classification Model for Chickpea Types using ML Algorithms, IJITEE, 2020
- Software Project Management Cost Minimization through Architecture-First Approach, IJITEE, 2020
- Crime Prediction Model Using LSTM RNN, IJRTE, 2020
- Telemedicine Network Architecture for Ethiopia, IJERT, 2020
Timeline
Senior Card Payment Switch Officer
EthSwitch S.C
06.2022 - Current
Senior IT Project Management Officer
ETHIO ICT SOLUTION
11.2019 - 06.2022
Business Analyst
ETHIO ICT SOLUTION
09.2015 - 10.2019
Master of Science (M.Sc.) - Software Engineering
Addis Ababa Science & Technology University
Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) - Information Technology
Wolkite University