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Marcello Schermer, who leads international expansion at Yoco, a South African digital payments startup, wants African fintechs to create products that nudge customers toward smarter decisions in real time. For him, fintechs should be more of a financial partner. Conversations about African startups today almost always circle back to fintech, a “leapfrog effect” that has reshaped how the world views the continent’s innovation. That shift is happening at scale. Africa now hosts more than 5,000 startups, a sharp rise in just a few years. Even as global venture capital cooled in 2024, the continent proved resilient, and fintech attracted over 40% of funding, about $1.37 billion. Thanks to investors who continued to bet on a young, urbanising population and digital infrastructure. Traditional banks, once the main gatekeepers of money, are steadily giving way to mobile wallets, digital kiosks, and all-in-one super-apps that now power everyday commerce from street markets to small businesses built around fintech. Nowhere is that transformation more visible than in the fintech sector itself. In Lagos and other commercial hubs, smartphones are the engines of trade. Fintech remains the heavyweight, accounting for over 30% of startups on the continent. “A few years ago, instant cross-border trade wasn’t possible,” Schermer told TechCabal in an interview. “ We relied on cash. Now, half of all transactions run on digital rails.” After a decade of startups digitising payments and expanding financial access, he believes the next phase is to become a true financial partner, with tools that not only record transactions but also guide smarter decisions in real time. “These changes may shift how fintechs do their business and how customers think about money and opportunity,” Schermer said. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. How would you describe the state of Africa’s fintech ecosystem right now? It’s a pretty exciting place to be. We’ve got one of the most mature financial services industries, particularly in the big four markets: Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. At the same time, we’re seeing a wave of new fintechs putting fresh spins on old models and finding real traction. Fintech is foundational infrastructure for the economy and for society. If people don’t have ways to earn, save, invest, and spend safely, a lot of other things break, because so much of life is tied to how you make and manage money. What’s beautiful is seeing fintechs across the continent build that foundational layer in their local contexts. In some markets, that means giving people access to crypto because it’s more stable than the local currency. In others, it’s aggregating multiple mobile money wallets so users can see everything in one place. Remittances are another big one: helping people send money home or across borders more efficiently. All of this gives people better tools to improve their lives, to fund education, live better, invest, and that’s high‑impact work. Both the mature players and the new players are innovating, and that creates a very interesting dynamic. In 2026, what do you think is a must‑have for fintech startups in Africa? A must‑have is building proactive tools instead of reactive ones. For a long time, most financial tools have been backward-looking. Your spend‑management app told you what you spent last month, your investment app showed you how your portfolio performed last month, and your banking app told you what your balance ended up. What’s really interesting today is that a lot of financial services applications can become more partners and start nudging founders and customers toward better financial decisions in real time. Imagine your banking app saying, ‘If you save a little more here, you can afford that December holiday,’ instead of just showing you that you overspent. Or your investment app pinging you when a stock you’re tracking dips and saying, This might be a good entry point, instead of only reporting performance after the move. A lot of these capabilities used to be available only to people who could build them themselves, but now the underlying technology is accessible enough that they can work for everyone. That’s what’s exciting: tools that proactively help you live better financially rather than just documenting what already happened. Looking back at 2025, what happened in fintech that you think will matter in 2026? Africa’s reserve or central bank’s payments ecosystem modernisation is a big move. It’s an effort to update the national payment systems, make them more inclusive for fintechs, more technologically advanced, and more inclusive for society. These are regulatory projects, so they move at a regulatory pace, but once they land, they are going to unlock a lot for Africa’s fintech ecosystem. How do you feel about the fintech regulatory environment in African markets? As a starting point, payments should be regulated. We’re dealing with people’s money, financial crime risks, and the stability of the wider economy, so there has to be a framework and a level playing field where everyone knows the rules. In South Africa, the regulators have taken measured steps: for example, there are now licences for crypto providers and for different payment activities, which gives clarity on what’s allowed. Could they move faster? Probably, but their primary job is to protect the financial system, and that’s more complicated than it looks from the outside. You sit in the payment space. What should we be watching there in 2026? Payments in Africa are in a very interesting state because the space is so competitive. We’ve got many different offerings, with traditional banks and new players all active, and that competition is translating into more choice and better value for customers; that’s what we have to keep watching. For consumers and merchants, that means more choice and better quality, better pricing, better experiences, and more tailored products. That’s what we want to see in a healthy market. What patterns do you see fintechs struggle with as they build? The biggest challenge is how to balance partnering and building. It’s easier than ever to partner and stitch together solutions from different
Read MoreNigeria’s university admissions body has said its biometric rules—not religion—are behind a viral dispute over a candidate’s hijab during registration for the country’s most important entrance exam into tertiary institutions. The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), which administers the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) for millions of candidates annually, said requests for candidates to adjust their hijabs or other head coverings during registration are strictly a technical requirement for biometric photo capture, not a religious restriction. This clarification follows a viral social media video, alleging that a candidate at a JAMB registration centre at the Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Southern Nigeria, was asked to remove her hijab before her photograph could be taken to complete her registration. According to the claim, the candidate was also asked to confirm in writing that she declined to fully comply with the ear-visibility guideline. The episode highlights the tension with implementing biometric identity systems in a deeply cultural and religious clime like Nigeria, where inconsistent enforcement or weak communication can quickly spark controversy. In a statement on Saturday, JAMB said its registration process aligns with global biometric standards used for passports and visas, which require certain facial features—including the ears—to be visible to ensure accurate facial recognition. “This requirement is purely technical and is intended to ensure that proper facial recognition and identification do not require the candidate to remove her hijab,” the examination body said. JAMB said candidates are not required to remove their hijabs, and that the guideline exists solely to meet the technical demands of biometric registration. In 2024, the examination body said it had no policy prohibiting candidates from wearing religious attire, following a similar controversy involving a hijab-wearing candidate.
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In 2008, Damilola Ogunleye argued with his dad about his decision to study abroad instead of enrolling at a university in Nigeria. He was 16. China, he insisted, was where he needed to be. His older brother had just relocated there from Bells University, a private Nigerian institution, and the photographs he sent home—clean campuses, wide boulevards, gleaming train stations—unsettled Ogunleye’s assumptions. “I remember seeing my brother’s pictures from China during the [2008] Beijing Olympics,” Ogunleye told me. “Back then, all we knew was kung fu and crowded markets. Then, suddenly, you’re seeing this country on TV, hosting the Olympics, building massive infrastructure. My brother would send photos, and I’d think, ‘Is this really China?’ I told my dad that I wanted to see this world for myself.” He won the argument. His father ran the numbers: at the time, tuition in China was comparable to what he was already paying at a private university in Nigeria. The naira held far more value then, with an exchange rate of ₦16 to ¥1 in February 2008 compared to ₦194 to ¥1 in February 2026. Ogunleye packed his bags for China that same year. He studied aircraft manufacturing at Shenyang Aerospace University for four years. He later earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering and automation from Northeastern University, a public university in Shenyang, Liaoning, China, completing it in 2014. On paper, the plan was clear: follow the aeronautical path, perhaps even become a pilot, like his brother. But after six years of study, Ogunleye did not pursue an aviation career. Instead, he veered toward the automotive industry and would eventually become an advocate for electric vehicle (EV) adoption in Africa. The journey to China and finding love in the auto market When Ogunleye arrived in China in 2008, the Asian nation was not yet the technological powerhouse it is today. “China then was ambitious, but not as polished as now,” he recalled. “You could see the hunger. You could see the drive. It wasn’t yet this seamless digital society people talk about today, but the foundations were there.” Ogunleye in China as a student. Image Source: Damilola Ogunleye Ogunleye in China as a student. Image Source: Damilola Ogunleye After six years of engineering training, Ogunleye had developed what he described as a systems-oriented mindset. But it was the internships that changed the course of his life. In 2014, he secured an internship with Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW), the global car manufacturing company, in its technical support division. It was his first deep immersion into the automotive ecosystem. “That was where the movement started,” he said. “Today I could be at BMW for a project. Next week I’d be in another city, maybe at Mercedes-Benz in Beijing, or Volkswagen in Changchun, or Shanghai. I was constantly in factories, constantly on trains and planes. I think, naturally, I’m actually just that kind of person who loves to be on the move. I do not really enjoy routines.” Ogunleye’s early days working at BMW and Suzhou Dech Automation. Image Source: Damilola Ogunleye The exposure broadened his appetite. He later worked at Suzhou Dech Automation, a technology consulting firm in China, picking up computer-aided design (CAD) skills for mechanical manufacturing. His first full-time role out of school placed him at the intersection of robotics, automation, and automotive production lines. In those years, Ogunleye travelled across industrial China, supporting projects for car manufacturers and understanding how partnerships are built in the auto engineering industry. Ogunleye in China. He says he has been to over 40 cities in the Asian country. Image Source: Damilola Ogunleye “I started discovering I was good at more than engineering,” he said. “I enjoyed talking to clients. I enjoyed negotiating. I enjoyed building relationships. That partnership side of me started to grow.” The seeds of his current career—engineering, cross-border movement, partnerships—were already planted. Coming home: OPay, Viajio, and the Malta leap In 2018, ten years after leaving Nigeria, Ogunleye returned home. “Coming back at 26 was surreal,” he said. “I left as a teenager. I came back as an engineer with global experience. But I knew I had to build something here. I needed to build contacts. I needed to build relevance. Tech was picking up; I saw the trend and started taking extra courses online on Udemy and Coursera. I was taking different courses that were geared towards tech.” Image Source: Damilola Ogunleye Before his return to Nigeria, Ogunleye was trying to become familiar with the tech space despite his engineering background. Image Source: Damilola Ogunleye By 2019, he joined OPay as a Senior Product Manager at a critical moment. The startup was pivoting aggressively into fintech, using ride-hailing as a user acquisition strategy. “We were building while running,” Ogunleye said. “The idea was simple: people didn’t trust digital banking yet. So you give them something they use daily—transport. They download the app to call a bike. Over time, they trust the wallet.” He helped expand operations into multiple cities, including Abeokuta, Enugu, Jos, and Kano, often arriving before launch to conduct preliminary research. “We’d enter a city, set up the office, recruit, onboard riders, hit our target, then move to the next one. It was intense. It taught me scale.” In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic rewired the global tech ecosystem, Ogunleye left to launch his own startup, Viajio, a geo-travel documentation and experience platform. “We wanted to aggregate travel curators in Nigeria,” he explained. “You know those ‘three days in Ibadan’ or ‘two days in Ondo Hills’ packages? We wanted to give them a digital storefront. Users could curate their own travel experiences and book directly. We’d take a small commission.” Viajio evolved to include curated events and corporate experiences. He ran it for nearly three years before capital constraints forced a shutdown. Around this time, a friend introduced him to Malta’s digital nomad visa. In 2022, Ogunleye applied, and within months, he relocated. Europe wasn’t new to him—he had travelled across the continent since 2018—but Malta offered
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