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FNB's Michael Jordaan chairs Mxit

Cape Town - Outgoing FNB CEO Michael Jordaan has been appointed as chairperson of mobile messaging company Mxit with immediate effect.

At the announcement of his departure from FNB in May this year, Jordaan said he wanted to travel and possibly enter the entrepreneurial space.

In a statement on Monday, he said he'd been watching Mxit with interest for several years now.

"It is difficult not to have a sense of pride about a homegrown South African company making such an impact in the social media and mobile space. It was an easy decision to join as chairman and I am looking forward to playing a part in the future of Mxit, both in South Africa and internationally,” he said.

The "entrepreneur, economist and wine enthusiast", as Jordaan describes himself on twitter, said Mxit is a "really cool company and has built some world-first innovations over the last eight years".

"I have spent some time with their development and design team and they have shown me some of the projects they are working on, especially in the smart phone space. I look forward to the announcements that are planned over the next few months,” Jordaan said.

In his first tweet on the announcement Jordaan said: "Great speaking to Mxit staff as their new chairman, using quotes from Game of Thrones and analogies from Breaking Bad."

Under Jordaan's leadership, FNB was the first South African bank to launch a transactional banking application for smartphones and last year the bank was honoured with the Most Innovative Bank of the Year Award at a prestigious award ceremony in Washington DC.

Jordaan was also the recent recipient of the CNBC Africa Business Leader of the Year for Southern Africa award.

Newly-appointed CEO Francois Swart said Mxit is in better shape than it has ever been.

“Businesses and organisations are experiencing the power of Mxit as a way to reach consumers, resulting in record-breaking advertising revenues almost every month.”

Mxit recently announced that its monthly active base of 7.4 million users spend an average of 95 minutes a day on the social network, making it the most engaging media platform in South Africa.

According to Mxit’s monthly brand index, the top three brands on Mxit have well over a million followers, indicating that Mxit is a fertile ground for brand and social media engagement.

Mxit also said it has seen some remarkable brand partnerships since giving the market ‘Mxit Launch’, its publishing platform for creating pages on Mxit.

"In the last year alone, big brands such as Vodacom, SPAR, BlackBerry, Unilever, Mainstay and KFC have used Mxit Launch and joined the platform. In the run-up to the 2013 elections, political parties such as the ANC and Agang joined rival DA, which has been on Mxit since 2012."
 
Jordaan said one specific aspect of Mxit that he believes is unique is how Mxit is leveraging its technology to help people, particularly in the fields of mobile education and health care.

Jordaan takes over from Roger Grobler, who remains on the board as non-executive director.

- Fin24



 
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