Across African banking and social finance, Michael Monari has built a career that treats access to capital as both an engine of enterprise and a covenant with communities. He is the founder and chief executive of Longitude Finance in Nairobi, a firm that presents itself as a practitioner of practical inclusion through microfinance, fintech and social finance, and that places small and growing businesses at the centre of its mission. Company materials and allied profiles identify him as the team leader of Longitude Finance and describe more than two decades of executive banking experience shaped by work across Africa and Europe. 
Before founding Longitude Finance, Monari served in senior roles that gave him a continental view of risk, regulation and growth. Independent directories and public profiles record a period as chief executive and managing director at International Trust Bank in Nigeria, followed by leadership within the Ecobank group that included responsibility in Kenya and a later move to head Ecobank in Uganda. Those appointments matter to West African readers because they point to a banker who has worked inside the Nigerian market and understands its scale, liquidity and regulatory cadence from first principles. 
His boardroom record underscores a commitment to governance and stewardship. Official reports list him as an independent director of Kenya Reinsurance Corporation and the Kenya Literature Bureau, with responsibilities that extend to audit, risk and compliance. These positions demand long-term judgement and fluency in public accountability, which in turn inform how a lender balances innovation with prudence. Public filings also record the retirement of Monari from the Kenya Re board in the period after three years of service, which further evidences the formal and time-bound nature of these appointments. 
Monari’s education brings together managerial discipline and social impact. Profiles and institutional documents state a master’s in global management from the University of Salford and an executive diploma in social finance completed at the University of Oxford, Saïd Business School. That combination of management science and social finance helps to explain a leadership style that is commercially rigorous yet explicitly attentive to measurable outcomes for households and firms that have historically been underserved by mainstream credit. 
The thread that connects his executive work to public purpose is a belief that finance should accompany capability. Evidence of that approach appears in research collaborations and ecosystem work in which Monari is named among industry partners in field projects on lending models and enterprise performance linked to Oxford’s Saïd Business School. The presence of a practitioner within such studies signals method and humility, since it requires opening real operations to external evaluation and learning from evidence rather than relying only on anecdote. 
For BusinessDay readers, the relevance is immediate. Nigeria’s growth story depends on firms that can invest with confidence, and that confidence rises when a system makes finance accessible, ethical and predictable. Monari’s pathway shows how an African banker can move capital toward productive use while maintaining a strict view of governance. It also shows how careers that cross regions can enrich practice at home by importing what works and discarding what does not.
Longitude Finance positions its purpose in simple language. When credit reaches a capable trader, a small manufacturer or a young firm in a supply chain, the result is not only revenue. The result is learning, formalisation and resilience. Publicly available material on the firm and on Monari’s professional journey repeats a consistent idea. Inclusion is not a slogan. It is a set of contracts, controls and relationships that must stand up in the real world, through cycles and across borders. 
In a moment when many households and enterprises still struggle to unlock fair finance, this story offers more than optimism. It offers proof that standards and empathy can live in the same room. It offers a view of leadership in which titles are less important than outcomes and in which patient capital is not a luxury but a competitive advantage. It suggests that African banking can be both exacting and humane, and that this blend is not only possible but necessary for the next chapter of inclusive growth.
