In my almost two years at Moniepoint, I’ve had the opportunity to speak with quite a number of people on the engineering team. A few minutes into the conversation with Emeka about his decade at Moniepoint, I decided that he’s quite unlike many of them. 

From making a detour after years of wanting to be a doctor and then another to computer science just as the iPhone was gaining popularity, Emeka describes his journey with one word - Serendipitous. And given that he’s gone from being the first employee at what was just a bright idea, to SVP of Customer Success Tools at Africa’s fastest-growing fintech, it’s not hard to see why. 

Drifting in and out, you see the road you’re on.

Emeka describes the first phase of his time at Moniepoint with the genre “Dream Pop”. If, like me, you don’t know what that is, you can start with this song by Beach House. One thing that seems to stand out for him is that he almost did not join Moniepoint. Having come to Nigeria just for his NYSC with a clear plan to return for his Master’s degree as soon as he was done, joining a startup as its first employee was not exactly in the picture. But this would not be the first time he’d be changing his path.

“I used to carry medical books around when I was younger. My grandfather lost his sight, so I wanted to be a surgeon when I grew up, so I could possibly save his sight and that of others”, Emeka recalls. But he had a reassessment just before he got into college to do biology as a premed. Did the person he was at that moment want to be a doctor, or was that just some dream he clung to from his childhood?

Realising he felt no strong passion for it, he decided to lean towards electrical engineering, just like his father. He started and was doing fine, still, he hadn’t quite found his path yet, and admits that he lost interest at some point. He then started to fall in love with programming, and around him, the technological climate was changing.

“Some of my friends in engineering had changed their majors to computer science. At that point in time, my first year in college was when the new iPhone came out. So, just seeing all that was going on around apps and tech started pushing me towards that. I had a conversation with my dad about it, and while he disagreed, he understood in the end and pushed me towards it. I changed my major to computer science and graduated.”

Chance meetings at Computer Warehouse Group

The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) is a mandatory, post-tertiary scheme set up by the Nigerian government. Every young Nigerian is required to undergo it, and Emeka’s year in this scheme would mark another pivotal point in his path to Moniepoint.

“My professional journey began at Computer Warehouse Group (CWG), where I was doing my NYSC. There, I met Chidum (current SVP, Engineering at Moniepoint) and Tosin, who was selling a solution to CWG then.”

“I sort of enjoyed the job I had.  I started as a software engineer, customising pre-existing banking applications. This role provided me with a foundational understanding of the financial technology landscape, but I wasn’t given the kind of responsibility I’d have liked. I was leaning towards product management, but there was no opportunity for that, and then I started hearing conversations around me having to leave. I spoke to Chidum about it, and he had also heard the same. He suggested I should speak to Tosin”.

Tosin’s apartment in 1004 is an iconic piece of Moniepoint’s early history, and like many of the company’s first employees, Emeka had an experience there, too.

“I met with Tosin, and he explained in detail what he was trying to do. I still remember some of the words he said to this day. He described how ambitious his goal was but also how possible it was. And at that moment, I said Yes.”

Tosin was clearly dissatisfied with how things were, and Emeka was sold on his vision to execute things differently. He walked into the apartment unsure of his next step but walked out absolutely sure that he wanted to be part of whatever Tosin was building.

Adrian, Felix, Emeka and Dumebi at 1004.

Ready, rock & roll…

Emeka’s soft-spoken voice and tempo pick up as we begin to talk about his first and favourite project at Moniepoint - Profectus. Perhaps rightly so, too, because he compares this phase of his Moniepoint journey to the Rock genre - energetic and raw.

“When I joined Moniepoint, I focused on working towards our vision, which we then described as ‘owning the channels’. We wanted to own all the channels of payment processing and payments."

From software engineer, Emeka soon sought the project manager responsibility he had wanted at CWG and found it on their first major project with Fidelity Bank. They had developed a product called Profectus to automate their back-end processes, significantly improving their operational efficiency. This project was a success and led to more opportunities for the team. As they secured more projects, his role expanded, and he was appointed head of Service Delivery, overseeing the delivery of all of Moniepoint’s B2B products.

However, this was just the start. Soon enough, Emeka became a VP within Moniepoint. 

Leading Profectus

With Profectus's success, the team wanted to grow rapidly and needed people with product context to drive said growth. So, Emeka became VP of Profectus. In this role, he led the expansion of the product as Moniepoint ventured into new markets and closed deals with a larger set of banks locally.

“Profectus is a product that holds a special place in my heart. It was a solution for settlements, reconciliation, customer support, etc. It was a back-office application for e-payments. It was something to help you settle e-payments transactions, reconcile them, and handle customer support. I have a strong affinity for it because I saw the impact immediately.”

While it started as just a project to build something to automate settlements and reconciliations, Profectus ultimately stood as a product of its own. Operations that would typically take hours were taking minutes to seconds. Working from within the bank, they could see the impact directly.

Moneytor, the partner product, managed the merchants and POS acquiring process end to end and enabled businesses/merchants to track incoming payments and make outgoing payments.

Agency Banking set on. 

With both their products serving the majority of banks in Nigeria, the team realised there was a lot more they could do to improve financial services in Nigeria. They decided to serve customers more directly, and Emeka worked on the early parts of Moniepoint’s agency banking product.

After doing their research and becoming certain this was the company's next step, they decided to close the other projects and focus on this one.

“I had enough context on all the other projects, so I had to go back outside to start working to close them. We did this, but by 2021, I had some personal issues that I spoke to Tosin about, which he completely understood. I got an extended time off for about two and a half months, and when I came back, the agency banking product was doing pretty well.

Providing credit to agents

Back from his break, Emeka was ready for his next challenge. With Moniepoint already becoming one of Nigeria’s leading agency banking networks, they wanted to extend their offerings to provide credit.

He led the first iteration of the overdrafts product, which was designed to enable Moniepoint to give credit to agents and small businesses. Leading this initiative required a deep understanding of the market needs, technical expertise, and the ability to manage cross-functional teams effectively. Emeka describes it as a challenging but rewarding experience that significantly impacted the company’s growth and market position.

The product lasted for a year and some months, but soon, it was clear that it couldn’t scale to the needed level. It worked perfectly to provide these agents with microloans, but if it were to provide these businesses with any more, the product would have to be much more thorough.

In parallel, Tobi was building what eventually became working capital loans, using some of the insights that Emeka’s team had gotten. He was able to build that into what it is today, so they shut down the previous version.

Monie trees is the perfect place for shade…

Emeka chooses hip-hop to describe his current position as SVP of customer success tools. Anyone familiar with the genre knows that it’s the perfect blend of the quaint and the modern, bringing decades of refinement into one continuously evolving cultural phenomenon. Nothing embodies this like Kenrick Lamar’s Money Trees.

“One of my current responsibilities is building products like Moniedesk, designed to help our customer support agents resolve issues quickly and efficiently. This product is a testament to our commitment to improving customer service and operational efficiency.”

“Leading a team of Technical Product Managers (TPMs) and working with cross-functional departments like compliance, channels, and payments, I ensure that our products are innovative and compliant with industry regulations. This involves regular meetings, strategic planning, and continuous learning to stay ahead of industry trends.”

Evolving alongside Moniepoint.

There’s a wistful tone in Emeka’s voice as he reaches the end of his retelling. On my end, it’s fascination, and I worry a bit if he’s bothered by the excitement in my voice. I’m unsure what it’s like to work in the same company for nearly a decade, but from everything he’s shared, it sounds quite worth it.

From one lens, it would seem like serendipity, but from where I stand, I see a lot of the core values that make Moniepoint what it is today - Customer empathy, technical depth and the Grit to get things done. His closing statements reflect this.

“Over the years, I have evolved alongside the company, and Moniepoint continues to align with my long-term goals. The experiences and lessons learned over the years have shaped me into the leader I am today. The merit-based culture, recognitions, and compensation make it an outstanding place to build impactful products.”

If you just read this, and you're feeling as pumped as I was, the next step of your career might just be a decade at Moniepoint. The only way to find out is to apply here.