At work with Meryl Afrika

When she’s not working her day job, Meryl Afrika leads the Canadian Association of Urban Financial Professionals (CAUFP) as a strong President determined to empower Black communities professionally. She told Efma’s Boris Plantier more.

Tell me a little about your background.

I was born and raised in a township in the southern part of Johannesburg and graduated with a Bachelor of Business Systems from Monash University’s South Africa campus, prior to moving to Canada. My career in financial services started with a job at a fintech in Western Canada before I transitioned to Sales and Product roles within the payments space at various banks. As a result of my career path, I’ve benefited from having lived in three different provinces and this includes managing clients who were based as far north as the North West Territories and Nunavut.

When I moved to Toronto, I wanted to expand my network and so I decided to join CAUFP as a volunteer before applying to join as a member of the board. In 2018, I managed all external relations for the organization as Vice President of External Affairs, before taking over my current role as President.