Don’t ever discount just keeping your head down and doing great work wherever you are because you just don’t know who sees you. On the 4th of December 2018, Paga CEO, Tayo Oviosu announced that the payments company is finally getting a Nigerian-based engineering team. By the third week of March, Eric Chijioke will have relocated from Ethiopia to Mexico, the newest market for Paga. Paga was founded in Nigeria in 2009 and publicly launched in 2011. After business school he joined Cisco Systems in San Jose California where he was responsible for strategy, acquisitions and private equity investments in a few segments and helped lead Cisco's investment expansion in Africa with investment opportunities. So you don’t have to carry all the stress. Lagos, Nigeria – Tayo Oviosu, Founder and CEO of Paga, has been announced as the “Entrepreneur of the Year” (West Africa) 2014, at the recent CNBC Africa All Africa Business Leaders Awards.. There’s no rule that says you must build a gang buster, huge business. Our aim as a business is to solve payments and bring financial services to the mass market in Nigeria. LAGOS, NIGERIA − Paga Founder & CEO Tayo Oviosu was featured in the Financial Times‘ May 22nd print edition. I was way out of my depth so I worked weekends trying to catch up. Paga has a team size of over 450. Before his wedding recently, Oviosu was one of Nigeria's most eligible bachelors. Jay Alabraba is a co-founder of Paga, a mobile payment company. It shouldn’t be about “me”. I don’t believe that’s entrepreneurship. TO: There’s an adage I always use which goes, “if you wanna go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.” If you do want to go far, you want to bring people around to your idea. How do you manage to find a work-life balance? TO: I think the biggest one is really around how you handle or deal with people; how to ensure that you are always honest upfront with everyone about everything. We present the 10 most powerful Under-40s in Business - #YNaijaPowerList » YNaija", "21 Nigerian Tech CEOs at the Top of Their Game", "Meet Tayo Oviosu, the man whose financial services company has wider reach than all banks in Nigeria combined", "7 Nigerian startup founder blogs every budding entrepreneur should follow", "NIBSS figures question Paga's 9 million unique user base", "Tayo Oviosu: Executive Profile & Biography - Bloomberg", "Meet Tayo Oviosu: The face behind Paga, Nigeria's largest mobile payment platform", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tayo_Oviosu&oldid=1017187393, Stanford Graduate School of Business alumni, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 11 April 2021, at 10:24. The first person I actually hired on to Paga in the early days left and that was a very painful experience for me at the time. You want to focus on your strengths and get better at the things you’re good at. This is especially true if you are an A type person. I would have probably figured out a way to keep everybody in the game until the deal was fully signed. The founder and Chief Executive Officer of Paga, Tayo Oviosu, has disclosed that the mobile payment company recorded over $2 billion worth of transactions in 2019 across all markets as it served the banked and unbanked communities in Nigeria. He is now off the market as he married his sweetheart Affie at a quiet but classy ceremony. As Chief Technology Officer, he has been a key cog behind the fintech’s decade-old mobile money platform, and will be at the forefront of their expansion beyond Africa. Paga is solving two key problems that exist around the world – eliminating the use of cash for transactions and access to financial services. [10], "Tara Fela-Durotoye, Tayo Oviosu, Funke Bucknor & more! Mr. Oviosu was featured as part of the FT‘s ongoing series highlighting successful entrepreneurs. Particularly from the perspective of mistakes you made coming up. We are very open with each other in how we run the organisation. Listen now! My former boss at Cisco also invested. Paga, along with many startups from regions such as Southeast Asia and Europe applied to be part of the programme, which has an acceptance rate of just 2 percent. Some people are of the opinion that you should never accelerate your startup. He also has a master's degree in Business Administration from the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University in 2005. Now, we have about 34 investors, a lot of them came early on. I was fortunate to have worked for about 13 some years before starting Paga. Lagos-based Paga holds more than 14 million customers across Nigeria, delivering them remittance, bill-paying and ecommerce services. MM: I understand that you are married to Affiong Williams, another high-achieving entrepreneur like yourself. Tayo Oviosu of Paga: I had to work my way through college, sometimes holding up to 5 jobs at a time. You just don’t know who can help you along the way. If we had written it in the beginning, we’d think we could do x and y but we wouldn’t know what we were talking about. I don’t have that time. It was the only part of electrical engineering I didn’t get As all the time. Have a joint account. Visa partners with Paga on payments and fintech for Africa and abroad. Our first product offering, Paga, is a direct to consumer mobile payments service. Tayo Oviosu has a passion to help entrepreneurs bring ideas to life and build scalable businesses. This passion is what led to co-founding Kairos Angels. I pooled together people to work in different aspects, most of them friends who were doing it as a favour. So I’m also considering taking up swimming and golf. Of course, I’ll be able to help whenever help is needed. Paga Nigeria Recruitment: Pagatech was founded in early 2009 with a vision to enable a cashless society and bank the unbanked in Africa. I was devastated; we spent a lot of money shipping between Los Angeles and Taiwan. Then the fabricated chip comes back and it doesn’t work. I don’t have a lot of money but I want to find people who I can make those kind of investments and bets as well. When we started Paga, our agent network was spread across 3 cities. His name will be ranked top among innovators in the fintech industry in Nigeria and Africa at large. TO: Absolutely, I don’t think I would have changed anything about how we raised money. SMEs should leverage digital platforms to cut costs — Paga co-founder. I worked with him for about 3 and a half years. I firmly believe that if you really do good work wherever you are, it will come back to be of benefit to you later on. I think that was very helpful with us. Paga was founded in 2009 by Tayo Oviosu but launched in 2011. She’s also an avid runner, so we both have that as a shared interest. The co-founder of Paga – a leading mobile payment company, Jay Alabraba has charged SMEs to leverage digital platforms to cut costs. Techpoint spent an afternoon with Tayo Oviosu, at the Paga HQ in Yaba, Lagos, where he shared his entrepreneurial wisdom and journey so far. Paga wallets can also be used to pay local bills, school fees … Do you think there exists those who are born entrepreneurs? As we scale our wallet across emerging markets such as Nigeria, Mexico, and Ethiopia, partnering with Paymentwall to give both consumers and … From day one, you’ve got to understand your books and ensure that you always have cash flow that enables that sort of creativity. Learn, grow, develop as a person/leader first. So he offered the artiste a few shares in Facebook. Visa has entered a partnership with Nigeria based startup Paga on payments and technology. You are tired right? “The big message is that we want to focus people’s minds on Paga as a payment platform,” Balancing-act-africa quoted Tayo Oviosu, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Paga. The company’s flagship service, Paga , is Nigeria’s foremost mobile money transfer service. I think that’s probably one of the most difficult experiences I’ve had. However, only one of them was willing to do invest before the license came — Goodwell-Alitheia Capital. Because by the time you then branch out, you’re more capable of convincing investors. He also has a Master’s in Business Administration from the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University. February 11, 2020. TO: I’d be lying if I said it was easy. Paga brings financial services closer to the mass market by using a large and rapidly growing agent network (small kiosk shops, pharmacies, etc.) Muyiwa Matuluko of Techpoint.ng: Tell us about getting fired from your first job and how it has shaped who you are today. Introducing Tayo Oviosu, the founder and CEO of Paga, a financial mobile payment platform which was founded in 2009 with the aim of solving the financial payments problem in … Paga is a mobile payments company with a mission to transform lives by delivering innovative and universal access to financial services. As a developer of money transfer applications designed to address the growing challenges around viable payment options in Nigeria, the company is “building an ecosystem to enable people to digitally send and receive money, and creating simple financial access for everyone” pointed out Tayo Oviosu, Co-Founder/CEO, Paga during a virtual interactive session with the media recently. Paga was founded in Nigeria in 2009 by Tayo Oviosu and publicly launched in 2011. Tayo Oviosu, Paga co-founder. There is enough business in Lagos. In this interview, the Co –Founder of Paga, Jay Alabraba speaks to Princewill Ekwujuru on the investment of the company on fraud prevention … Paga is a leading payments and mobile money business. He has over 13 years of experience in a variety of technical and business roles in high-tech and private equity. But in general, what I say to entrepreneurs is don’t be worried about taking investor money. Previously he was a manager in corporate development at Cisco Systems in San Jose California. They have to be confident in your ability as an entrepreneur to execute the business. Founded in 2009, Paga is a Nigerian mobile payments company that allows users to … You need to be comfortable with what size of business you want to build. But even when you think that you want a large business, you should go large by starting small and executing small successfully. MM: You eventually got funding anyway. Published 7 June 2020. Paga: A mobile payment platform that allows its users to transfer money and make payments through their mobile devices. So I went on and focused on digital design. We were developing digital imaging chips that could capture images the way the human eyes do. Paga’s first market is Nigeria, with commercial launch in August 2012. That artist agreed, did it, and years later his stock was worth $200 million. Nigeria is Paga's first market. Now she runs the largest Pharmacy chain in Nigeria. As a developer of money transfer applications designed to address the growing challenges around viable payment options in Nigeria, the company is “building an ecosystem to enable people to digitally send and receive money, and creating simple financial access for everyone” pointed out Tayo Oviosu, Co-Founder/CEO, Paga during a virtual interactive session with the media recently. I think for each person, you sorta have to figure out what works individually and what works as a couple. I cried right there. It wasn’t until it clicked for her that expansion followed. We never wrote a business plan for Paga until we were going out for our Series A in 2012. The second thing I learnt from that experience is that your present situation does not determine your future. First, we tend to place a lot of focus on things that are hard for us. Jamarlin Martin catches up with Tayo Oviosu at SXSW 2018. Tayo Oviosu is the Founder and Group CEO of Paga, a mobile payments company that is focused on digitizing cash in emerging economies. Everytime I enter a bank branch in Nigeria I'm amazed at the level of poor process and service. In 2009, he founded Paga to address the use of cash and expand financial access. Paga … Every new thing you add to your business creates so much more execution issues. Cash was long king in Nigeria despite more than a decade of efforts to bring cashless options to consumers, Jay Alabraba, co-founder of Nigerian payments platform Paga, told … Paga. Once you are comfortable with what you want to do, stick with it, don’t be moved by other things. Through Paga, you can pay bills, make bank deposits and even pay in certain stores. I would have actually pushed stronger for us to stay in Lagos. Paga was founded in early 2009 with a purpose to make it simple for one billion people to access and use money. Join over 17 million people who use Paga to: You want other people to come in to actually help take the idea to another place. Then that deal fell apart. But I’m glad we are back to being friends. Until the money is in the bank and you sign the deal fully, it’s not over. How did you convince investors to invest, especially when you hadn’t even secured a license for Paga? Vesicash: Bespoke escrow service for online businesses. Stanford-educated Oviosu founded Paga in 2009 as a mobile money transfer service in response to his frustration with having to carry cash around in Nigeria. If I had to go back to do it, I would not have concentrated on semiconductor chip design. Suggested Read: Tayo Oviosu and Affiong Williams are relationship goals. Tayo Oviosu is the Founder and Group CEO of Paga, a mobile payments company that is focused on digitizing cash in emerging economies. But I still feel like I need more hobbies as an opportunity to get away, so to speak. When you think about how big what we are going after is, you know we have to partner with investors to get to that kind of level. To pick up new cards we had to be in person to verify biometrics. Tayo Oviosu is the Founder and Group CEO of Paga, a mobile payments company that is focused on digitizing cash in emerging economies. Paga is a licensed financial services company and a leading payments company in Nigeria with a massive transformative purpose – to make it simple for one billion people to access and use money. Was this a deliberate move or you just happened into it? Paga has begun expansion plan into Ethiopia and Mexico. MM: You bootstrapped Paga for first 6 months before raising investment. Speaking on this new partnership, Tayo Oviosu, Founder and Group CEO, Paga commented; “We are excited to partner with Paymentwall, as they are constantly building world-class solutions for consumers and businesses. Paga is a licensed financial services company and a leading payments company in Nigeria with a massive transformative purpose – to make it simple for one billion people to access and use money. “I was frustrated about carrying cash around whenever I was in Nigeria. Early Professional Career. I’d say the experience really shaped me because it taught me a few things. Jobs BA/BSC/HND Jobs in Nigeria Jobs in Lagos State Nigerian Jobs. [8] He later went to work for Deloitte Consulting in the CRM and Technology practice as a Senior Consultant. If I could go back in time, I wouldn’t have done that. The founder and Group Chief Executive Officer, Paga, Tayo Oviosu, stated that the company had made adjustments to its fees aimed at helping to … I’ve gotten better at that over time. Meet Tayo Oviosu, the man whose financial services company has wider reach than all banks in Nigeria combined, Tayo Oviosu and Affiong Williams are relationship goals, Startup Profile: SWIFT Delivery -- order from your favorite restaurants in Southern Nigeria, Why WhatsApp will not replace SMS in Nigeria anytime soon, Paga founder Tayo Oviosu shares his major lessons on career, investments and building a startup, Nigerian payments company, Paga won’t be a bank and isn’t afraid of telco PSBs, Why Paga hired founding engineers of a startup its CEO invested in, Why Paga’s technology is built and managed in Ethiopia, Paga raises $10m Series B2, finally going global, NIBSS figures question Paga’s 9 million unique user base, Paga processed over 9.5 million transactions worth over ₦156 billion in 2016. MM: What’s the hardest thing you’ve had to learn over the years? There are challenges in many things in Nigeria including electricity and the Internet; so we have to answer those questions. Wanted two Visa cards. He said this while speaking on the growing adoption and challenges of electronic payments amid the COVID-19 pandemic, among other issues in a recent interview the Punch. All rights reserved. Everyone who helped us in the early days got paid below market rate. Share your idea, talk to people because you just never know how they can connect you to something else. Visa has partnered with Nigeria-founded start-up Paga to connect its networks to more African customers and collaborate on technology innovation for the continent, TechCrunch reports. One day I got called into my boss’ office and he told me he had to let me go. When I look at my journey so far, I realise that we are here sitting on the back of 34 people and 6 institutions who took a bet on us on. Vesicash: Bespoke escrow service for online businesses, 2021 © Techpremier Media Limited. Oviosu is the founder of Pagatech, Nigeria’s first mobile money company. [4][5] This is why I am not a fan having side gigs, which is common among Nigerians. “While we would never have wished for this pandemic, it really highlights the need for us as a nation to really turn the corner on this digital payments front,” Jay Alabraba, Paga’s co-founder and director of business development, tells me. Most recently, he was vice president at Travant Capital Partners. I had tested this thing numerous times in the lab; I was confident it was going to work. He formerly served as Manager Corporate Development at Cisco Systems in San Jose California and was vice president at Travant Capital Partners in Lagos, Nigeria until 2009, when he started Paga where he is currently the Group Chief Executive Officer. You’ve invested in startups like ChopUp and Reelfruit. Paga Nigeria. PAGA Founder/CEO, Tayo Oviosu Weds + Meet His Pretty Wife, Affie. The investor-entrepreneur relationship is almost like a marriage. The good thing is that we both understand what the other is going through because we go through it ourselves.