Natalie Baatjies

Senior Program Officer, Gates Foundation

Natalie Baatjies is a Senior Program Officer with the Inclusive Financial Systems team at the Gates Foundation, where she leads initiatives focused on digital merchant payments and cash-in/cash-out networks.

Prior to joining the foundation, Natalie served as Head of International Remittances for MTN South Africa as well as Fintech Product Strategy at MTN Group in Johannesburg. She has also held leadership positions at Fundamo, Visa, and Oradian, and worked as a financial services consultant with organizations including Oxford Policy Management, FinMark Trust, Mobile Finance Experts (MFX), and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). 

By Natalie Baatjies

Blog

Why Merchants Still Choose Cash in Sub-Saharan Africa

Digital merchant payments remain limited in Sub-Saharan Africa because current systems impose costs, frictions, and risks that don’t align with the realities of informal, low-margin MSMEs, making cash the more rational choice.