Fintech company, Paga, has announced a major leadership restructuring that will see the founder, Tayo Oviosu become the Group CEO, while a new Nigeria CEO is named for the company.
Oviosu disclosed the changes in a corporate announcement shared on his X handle on Tuesday, confirming his transition into the role of Group CEO of Paga Group.
He will also serve as Executive Chairman of the Group Board and Non-Executive Chairman of Paga Nigeria.
The restructuring introduces a new Group Chief Operating Officer (COO) role, which will oversee all established business lines across the group.
What the Paga founder is saying
As part of the changes, Oviosu said Ope Oyinloye has been appointed Group COO and CEO of Paga Nigeria.
- According to him, Oyinloye, who has spent over seven years at Paga, has played a key role in scaling its operations and will now be responsible for driving execution across its core businesses.
The dual role positions Oyinloye at the centre of Paga’s operational strategy, particularly in Nigeria, its largest market.
Co-founder Jay Alabraba will transition into a new role focused on special projects and market expansion, reflecting the company’s growing emphasis on entering new territories.
- “My focus going forward shifts to driving our expansion into new geographies and bringing new technologies to market through Paga Labs (stablecoins, crypto, AI),” Oviosu said while providing more details on his role as Group CEO.
Get up to speed
Paga made the headlines recently as it entered a strategic partnership with global payment platform, PayPal, marking a return of the company to Nigeria.
- The partnership came nearly 13 years after Oviosu first reached out to PayPal with a proposal to work together, at a time when Nigeria’s fintech ecosystem was still in its early stages.
- For years, Nigerians were unable to receive funds through PayPal due to restrictions placed on accounts in the country.
- Under the new arrangement, users can now link their PayPal accounts to Paga wallets, enabling them to receive funds directly through PayPal, a functionality that had previously been unavailable.
What you should know
As of 2024, Paga said it had processed transactions worth N14 trillion over 15 years.
- According to Oviosu, the company had created 1,000 direct jobs and over 100,000 indirect jobs through its agents spread across the country.
- The Paga founder added that the company has expanded beyond the agent network to be providing infrastructure for others through platform-as-a-service and serving 150 businesses.
The figure from Paga further confirms the rising embrace of mobile money in Nigeria. Recent data released by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS) revealed that mobile money operators in the country, including Paga, Opay, and Palmpay, among others, processed N71.5 trillion between January and December 2024.
