Sebastine Odimma

Head of Tax at Yellow Card App

Speaker

Sebastine Odimma, is currently a Tax Director with Yellow Card, a digital asset company and the largest and first licensed Stablecoin on/off ramp in Africa.

In his current role, he oversees tax strategy and compliance for the Yellow Card companies across Africa and Europe. He is currently focusing on building strong tax structures with the Group. In addition to this, he is responsible for defending the Group’s tax position in front of the tax authorities while working with the business to ensure full complaint with relevant tax laws across different jurisdiction.

Sebastine is currently championing Digital Asset Taxation across Africa with presentations and contributions to the Kenya National Treasury as well as the Finance committee of the Kenya Parliament set up to review tax law amendments. He has also be involved in engagement with Tanzania Ministry of Finance on similar law changes.

As part of the senior leadership team of Yellow Card, he partners with the business in ensuring that new products do not negatively impact the Group’s tax position. He leads a team of other tax experts in different countries working to ensure Yellow Card is compliant with taxes in all the countries they operate in.

Prior to joining Yellow Card, Sebastine occupied different roles in Maersk group, a Transport and logistics company. The roles included Global Tax advisor, Africa Head of Tax Controversy among other roles for about 80 companies in about 41 Africa countries. These companies included Shipping companies, port management companies, Logistics companies and oil and gas support companies. During his time in Maersk, he has acted as Expert witness in tax cases, Advised on the strategies for Group tax policies and processes.

Sebastine spent more than 9 years in KPMG professional services in Kenya, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. During his time in Kenya he was involved in TP studies and reviews of companies in the FMCG and mining. Sebastine has led teams on review of Petroleum Profits Taxes, Companies Income Tax Planning & Compliance services, Withholding Tax Planning & Management, Due Diligence Projects, Transfer pricing reviews. He has several years of experience providing advisory opinions on several business options, provision of support on big mergers and acquisitions in Nigeria.

Sebastine is a Fellow of Institute of Chartered Accountants and Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria. He also has Master of Law (LLM) in International Business Law.

Sebastine is a regular speaker at West Africa Tax Administration Forum (WATAF) High Level Policy Dialogue conferences. WATAF is a forum for Tax Administration in West Africa to discuss issues of common interest.