I recently read the story of how Tobi left Moniepoint and returned, and it made me reflect a bit more on my own story. And during my reflection, I decided to share. I like to think of myself as an explorer. In my bid to explore, I’ve found myself in and out of Moniepoint, but I’m back, and here’s my story.

First of all, introduction…

My name is Opemipo, and I work in the finance department. Currently, most of my time is spent on the Financial Control Management side of things. As required, I work with the Corporate Finance team, supporting them with fundraising, etc. So, just call me the finance guy.

In the beginning

As I said at the beginning, I am mostly intrigued by exploring things, so I became very interested in the tech space after my university education. I’d equip myself with as much information as possible about tech and startups in Africa. One of the days I was doing my ‘mindless’ scrolling, I came across a blog post on one of my tech editorials. It was a story about how TeamApt (Moniepoint) had bootstrapped, and they were doing it successfully. I remember reading the story repeatedly, researching about the founders and the company, just to be sure I understood what I was reading.

Till this moment, that is still the most fascinating story I have read about a fintech startup in Nigeria. You know, it is one thing to bootstrap and another to make a profit. So, during my research, I went to the Careers page and searched for a role that I was a good fit for. That’s how I first joined the company. I joined as an intern, and that doubled as my placement for my NYSC. 

It was a smooth, rough ride. I enjoyed how fast-paced we were. Even if it was my first official experience in a corporate setting, the pulse felt right. When I joined the team, the finance team was being built, so Kemi and I pretty much started the team and created the operational processes. I learnt on the job and learnt fast. But as someone who always wants to see what options are out there, I felt like I wanted to spend more time doing core finance, and TeamApt (now Moniepoint) didn’t seem to be giving me the level of finance work I wanted, so I applied to a traditional bank as a graduate trainee. 

How blue was the grass on the other side?

As a graduate trainee, the typical process is to be rotated across departments, and I had my fair share of this. I worked across customer support, operations, and sales until I landed in my desired department—finance. Here, I was rotated again until I ended up in the investment management team. 

My work was mainly to support fund managers with analysis. My colleagues liked me, especially my line manager. For them, there was something about how I worked, how I desired to work more and my use of finance software that thrilled them.

Absence makes the heart…

I was away for 9 months, but I don’t think my heart really left Moniepoint. At every slight instance, I’d compare the process of getting things done here vs. there, as well as the expertise DreamMakers displayed. I had hoped we’d imbibe some of the core values there, but I soon understood that those core values made Moniepoint stand out, and no other company would mirror what we had here. I was finally doing the finance I wanted to, but it was moving a bit slowly. Because I was in contact with a couple of people from Moniepoint, I had a bit of an idea of what our growth was like, so I decided to come back. 

Back to the dream

Returning has been one of the greatest growth trajectories for my career. Returning to see the growth and having to work on more exciting projects has made up for the two years I was away. When I left, we were just an agency bank barely processing up to 1bn in a month, but on rejoining, we were doing as much as 1 trillion a month. Also, evolving to a full business bank caught my attention again because of the problems we were solving for them. 

When I returned, I joined as a corporate finance analyst, working with the VP of corporate finance on various projects, including financial planning and analysis, fundraising, and M&As. I got the thrills I missed almost immediately, as I was tasked with creating an investor report for a fundraising round we were conducting at that point. I still consider this one of my most significant projects, especially because of the time frame I had to complete it. 

One thing I am happy about is that as the company grows, I can also see myself growing. As a Corporate Finance Analyst, I am now a director, leading the Finance business partners, who are responsible for managing the financial affairs of Moniepoint’s SBUs.

Why am I sharing my story?

I’ve had many people ask me if I am glad I returned to Moniepoint and what the big deal about Moniepoint is that I had to return. The answer is so within reach - we have high-quality people. People who are ready to roll their sleeves and get the job done. You also get paid well. And of course, the impact we’ve had across business and personal banking. These are the top reasons for me. So if you’ve left and want to come back, or it’s your first time, I’d tell you for free that you’re making a good choice. Check our careers page for a role that suits you.