One of Africa's fintech pioneers is making its boldest move yet. Tayo Oviosu, who has steered Paga Nigeria for 17 years, is stepping back from day-to-day operations to become Group CEO in what represents the most significant leadership restructuring in the company's history.
Opeyemi Oyinloye, currently Paga's general manager of business operations, will assume the role of Acting CEO of Paga Nigeria. The appointment awaits regulatory approval from the Central Bank of Nigeria.
A Strategic Pivot After Record Growth
This transition comes at a remarkable time for Paga. The company processed an impressive ₦17.1 trillion ($12 billion) in transaction value in 2025, representing a staggering 96% year-on-year increase. Notably, how Oviosu frames this change — not as retirement, but as evolution.
"Act 1 of Paga ended, and Act 2 is beginning," Oviosu told TechCabal in an interview at his Lagos office in March. "It became very clear to me about a year ago that for us to accelerate, we need someone else to come and run the day-to-day of the business lines."
The timing is no coincidence. Paga launched US banking services for the African diaspora through a partnership with Regent Bank in September 2025. More significantly, it became PayPal's local partner in Nigeria in January 2026, marking the global payments giant's return to the country after two decades.
Continental Ambitions and New Technologies
Oviosu's new role as Group CEO signals Paga's transformation from a Nigerian payments company into what he calls the "global financial services infrastructure for Africa." His focus will shift to expanding into new African markets while building out investments in stablecoins, cryptocurrency, and artificial intelligence.
The company has raised $45 million to date from investors including the Global Innovation Fund, Omidyar Network, and Adlevo Capital. A new funding round is already in the works, which makes sense given their ambitious expansion plans.
Jay Alabraba, Paga's co-founder and director of business development, is also transitioning to group director of special projects. His initial focus involves building out Paga's financial services offerings around credit and lending while supporting Oviosu on new market entry.
A Natural Evolution, Not Disruption
Alabraba described the restructuring as a natural evolution rather than a disruption. He emphasized that neither he nor Oviosu is stepping away from the company entirely. They remain available for design discussions, escalations, and partnership engagements, but operational decisions will shift to the new leadership structure.
What I find particularly interesting is that Oviosu said this transition had been planned since last year, before the PayPal partnership and US expansion materialized. The trigger was purely strategic — recognizing that continental expansion requires different leadership structures than domestic operations.
For an industry watching how African fintech companies scale, Paga's leadership transition offers a blueprint for mature startups navigating growth beyond their home markets. The success of this restructuring could influence how other continental fintech ambitions take shape across the region.
"We have a strong enough team that can continue to run certain things while other parts of the business can focus on new areas of growth," Alabraba told TechCabal in a separate interview.
After 17 years of building Paga from the ground up, Oviosu is not stepping back — he is stepping up to tackle even bigger challenges across the African continent.