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I describe Fisayo Osilaja, a Lagos-based UX researcher at the Nigerian payments company Interswitch, as an occasional daredevil. On a mountain hiking trip in Sydney, Australia recently, Osilaja joined her colleagues to jump off a cliff into a lake. “It felt like I was falling for hours, but in reality, it was probably five seconds,” she recalled. When I asked her if this was the craziest thing she’d ever done, she blurted, “Yes!” “But I’m never trying that again.” Despite her tendency to seek out adventure, Osilaja did not appreciate the kind that many years ago, disrupted her childhood. “When I was nine years old, my mother took my brother and I to Nigeria,” she said. “Growing up in the States (Osilaja was born in Los Angeles, California), our parents made sure we stayed aware of our Nigerian roots. But this time, when we travelled to Nigeria, we thought it was for a summer vacation—but it wasn’t. We got enrolled in boarding school that week. That’s how I grew up in Nigeria.” Initially, Osilaja disliked living in Nigeria. The thought of spending many years of her life in the country made her shudder. “It was a tough adjustment for me. The cultural difference weighed heavily. My mannerisms were different, and it didn’t win me a lot of friends. And then, there was the lack of infrastructure [like electricity] that we were used to as kids,” she recalled. It took a year, but eventually, she got used to life in Nigeria. It was here, in Nigeria, that she discovered her love for UX research. I spoke to Osilaja about her career, travels, and upbringing. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. What is UX research? Can you explain your job to me as if I were 5? I’d guess that five-year-olds use mobile applications now because I see some of them with their tablets. So, I’d show them an app and explain that while using it, they might face issues. For example, if they’re on YouTube trying to find a video, they might face certain issues looking up the videos or playing them. As a UX researcher, I try to understand how to make that process more seamless for you to navigate or find your way around. My work helps businesses make these apps that kids love. Everybody is happy because the businesses make money. So it’s a win-win on both sides. What inspired you to become a digital nomad? I have a dream lifestyle, and I’m willing to do whatever work brings me closer to it. Ideally, I enjoy my work, but the main goal is the life I want. And by lifestyle, I don’t just mean money or borrowing power—I mean my ideal life. What does that look like? And which work gets me closest to it? I’ve always loved traveling, and as I’ve gotten older, I genuinely enjoy it even more. I also value flexibility, creative freedom, and having control over my time. Naturally, I looked for roles that aligned with that vision. That’s where tech came in. I’ve always liked research, but tech allows me to merge my interests—UX research and a flexible life. Even with my current hybrid role, I see the benefits. Tech companies often offer more leave days, emphasising work-life balance. So when I travel, I have more time to unwind. Even outside of leave, I work three days in the office and two from home. This flexibility lets me travel while working—for example, I worked remotely from Cotonou recently. As long as I plan my office and remote days, I can work from anywhere: a café, a friend’s house, or another country. That freedom improves my quality of life. Digital Nomads: The digital marketer travelling across Africa on a $2,000 budget What was the trip to Cotonou for? A modeling gig. I was mostly being driven around the city and trying out clothes and dresses, and taking pictures. I didn’t quite stay long enough to soak in the pleasures of the city. What challenges do you face in balancing work with occasional travelling for pleasure? As much as I can help it, I try not to work when I’m travelling. The time zones are a major blocker. One time, I had to travel to the US for my cousin’s wedding. I was working at PwC Lagos and requested to work remotely at the time. But it was grueling for me. My waking hours were the closing hours at work. So I signed up never to try that again. You’ve travelled to several countries; how can you describe the cultural differences between all these places you’ve been to? People are friendly in America, but this depends on the part of the country. On the West Coast, people are nice and friendly—but they can be fake. But on the East Coast, life is fast-paced, so the people are not as nice. Australians find Americans really loud; it’s always a funny sight. Australians are a calm bunch and they love nature and generally living with this kind of pleasurable ease. I find the people in Paris, France to be rude, and I don’t think they like foreigners very much. Thai people are very friendly, and I also find their monastery lifestyle intriguing. I visited a Buddhist temple during my stay. A presiding monk prayed for me and gave me a bracelet. I enjoyed my time there. Cotonou [Benin Republic] is equally a quiet place—much quieter than Lagos. The people speak French and Yoruba so it was an easy blend for me. Osilaja at the Panyee Muteara Seafood Restaurant, Thailand I imagine travelling to these countries must’ve required a bit of adjusting, especially on the language side. What did this look like? I didn’t need to learn Bengu when I went to Thailand. My knowledge of English was enough. I speak a little Yoruba (native Nigerian language) and my French skill is 40% conversational at best, but I got by in Paris. Où puis-je
Read MoreAlphabet, the parent company of tech giant Google, is picking up a fresh fight—this time with Elon Musk’s Starlink. Taara Lightbridge, a project originally developed under its X “moonshot” division, will become a standalone company, challenging Starlink in the race to connect underserved regions with high-speed internet. Taara’s selling point? It uses Free Space Optical Communication (FSOC) technology to beam high-speed internet through light over long distances, unlike satellite broadband. The move, announced on Monday, March 17, signals Alphabet’s renewed push into connectivity solutions after the closure of its Project Loon balloon venture in 2021. Taara, led by CEO Mahesh Krishnaswamy, is targeting 3 billion people globally, including 860 million in Africa without reliable internet access. The company will compete directly with Starlink, which has amassed over 5 million subscribers across 125 countries. While still in testing, Taara is operational in 12 countries globally and is now focusing on scaling its operations across Tanzania, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Nigeria. The global push for more affordable, high-speed internet solutions has become a priority for multinational tech companies as demand surges. Yet fiber-optic infrastructure remains underdeveloped in many regions, hindering access. Its expensive and complex deployment, especially in challenging terrains, has driven the need for alternative solutions. Taara Lightbridge functions like an invisible fiber-optic cable in the sky. Instead of transmitting light through glass fibers, it sends narrow beams of light through the air, achieving speeds up to 20 gigabits per second over distances of up to 20 kilometers. This method takes advantage of light’s shorter wavelength than radio waves, allowing it to carry more data at higher speeds. However, light-based communication requires line-of-sight connectivity, meaning that obstacles like fog, rain, or buildings can disrupt the signal. To overcome this, Taara has developed advanced AI-driven mirror systems that detect, track, and maintain precise alignment between two connected units, ensuring a stable connection. “We have this sophisticated set of mirrors that searches for this light signal, and the moment they find it, they lock in,” Krishnaswamy said while explaining Taara on Google’s Moonshot Podcast on Monday. “The team created a traffic light-sized box to house the laser that could be mounted on a rooftop or cell tower.” Early deployments have demonstrated the technology’s potential. In India, Taara was successfully tested on cell towers to connect buildings in urban environments. In Africa, it bridged the Congo River in Central Africa, linking Kinshasa and Brazzaville, where traditional sub-river fibre deployment was deemed impractical. Taara will work with internet service providers, telecom companies like Liquid Telecoms, a subsidiary of Cassava Technologies, a pan-African technology group, and governments, to extend connectivity to rural villages, disaster-stricken areas, and regions where traditional infrastructure is not feasible. While fibre optic cables remain the backbone of traditional internet networks, their deployment is often uneconomical in remote or challenging terrains. Taara’s ground-based approach offers a potentially more cost-effective alternative to satellite constellations, requiring less energy and avoiding the launch and maintenance costs associated with space-based systems. Krishnaswamy said the Taara team has come up with a solution that requires taking the Taara terminal, which is the size of a traffic light, and shrinking it down to the size of a fingernail. This is meant to reduce the cost of deployment. “You could have the small little devices on everybody’s home with no speed breaks anywhere in between, at a fraction of the cost of the terminals, and without the time and challenges of trenching fibre,” he said. While Starlink looks to the stars, Taara’s aiming for a laser-focused victory on the ground.
Read MoreBaobab, a global financial services group with over $900 million in its loan portfolio, has fully acquired Boabab Nigeria, its local subsidiary, marking the first exit for Alitheia Capital and Goodwell Investments from their jointly managed uMunthu Fund. The Baobab acquisition gives uMunthu a 3x return on its original 2012 investment in Baobab Nigeria, formerly Microcred Microfinance Bank, which offers banking services to individuals and small businesses in underserved areas. The acquisition also contributed to the fund’s 39.3% internal rate of return—a measure of the annual profitability of its investments. The exit comes as private capital exits—returns on investments—in Africa remain below their 2022 peak of 82. Only 43 exits were recorded in 2023, a 48% decline from 2022, and the 31 exits recorded by 2024’s third quarter indicate that last year’s numbers are similar to 2023. Since Alitheia and Goodwell’s initial investment, Baobab Nigeria has expanded from a single branch in Kaduna to 38 branches across 16 states, growing its customer base from 19,000 to 230,000. During this period, the bank’s balance sheet expanded 37-fold, while its loan book grew 43.5-fold, according to uMunthu. Despite its rapid growth, the bank focuses on small-scale financial inclusion, with average loan and deposit sizes of ₦2 million ($1,300) and ₦91,000 ($60), respectively. “This was a bank operating out of a single room in northern Nigeria when we invested, and today it is a top-three nationally licensed microfinance bank,” said Alitheia’s managing partner, Tokunboh Ishmael. “We’re proud of what’s been achieved together, and look forward to seeing where the future will take Baobab Nigeria.” The fund said in a statement that the growth strategy of Boabab Nigeria was supported by local governance expertise, financial structuring advice, local market insights, and access to key networks provided by uMunthu. Exits signal the viability of investing in a region, and with Africa lagging behind other developing markets like Asia—where exits exceeded $65 billion—the continent risks losing out on foreign capital to regions with stronger returns. “This [exit] is not only a testament to the impressive growth and financial stability Baobab Nigeria has achieved with the support of these two investors, but it also proves the ability of patient capital to drive both financial and impactful returns,” uMunthu said in a statement.
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