In this episode we chat with Jason Njoku, in one of his first interviews since announcing that iROKO will be IPOing on the London Stock Exchange in 2022. iROKO (which is often described as the Netflix of Africa) has had a number of companies under it's umbrella with the most successful being the ROK Group which was acquired by Canal+. In this episode: 

0:00 - Introduction of Jason Njoku & iROKO

In case you missed our panel event in partnership with On Deck here is a recording! We are joined by Yele Bademosi (the ex-Head of Binance Labs Africa & founder of the African social crypto payment network Bundle), David Nandwa (the founder of HoneyCoin a startup backed by Elizabeth Yin that is a mix of Gumroad & Patreon & crypto for the African creator) & Theo (the founder of BitLipa a peer to peer crypto app).

In this episode we speak to Sola the co-founder of Brass which provides banking and financial services for SMEs. SMEs are fundamental to Sub-Saharan Africa with them accounting for about 80% of the region's economic growth in 2015 according to The World Economic Forum. Sola and Brass have quickly gained respect and traction for the SME neobank that they are building. We hear about: 

0:00 - Introduction to Sola & Brass 

02:15 - The SME banking experience in Nigeria without Brass

06:31 - Brass' approach to user research 

07:46 - SME loans and needs

10:22 - Why Nigerian SMEs have multiple bank accounts & other cultural nuances

12:52 - Brass' evolution & learnings from past iterations

17:50 - How Brass approaches design & their learnings 

20:09 - Brass & expansion 

22:01 - Brass & partnerships 

23:30 - The differences between Kenyan & Nigerian customers

24:40 - Brass & the future

In case you missed our first panel event here is a recording! We are joined by an amazing panellist including Nathalyn (the 1st Product Designer at Facebook Nigeria), Chuba (the co-founder and Design partner at the top African VC fund Future Africa and co-founder of Akanka Design Studio), Chine (co-founder of Akanka Design Studio whose clients include Google and Nigeria’s Centre for Disease Control) and David (Product Design Manager at Fliqpay and Andela).

We chat about:

0:00 - Introduction of Nathalyn, Chuba, Chine & David

2:46 - Advice on getting into Product Design and tips on avoiding common mistakes

12:13 - Common mistakes in FB Product Design interviews (including in SV)

17:33 - Nuances and differences designing products for Nigeria

25:14 - Advice on managing stakeholders

27:37 - How to cultivate design talent

35:07 - Common design mistakes startups make

42:23 -  Sources of inspiration for Afrocentric visual style and design

46: 43 - Advice for Senior Product Designers in the African tech ecosystem

52:48 - Thoughts on building global products

01:01:14 - Lessons the panellists have learned as they have grown as designers

1:07:24 - The relationship between Product Managers & Product Designers

01:14:42 - Nigerian startups that are great at Product Design

01:23:58 - Closing thoughts

In this episode we speak to Odun the co-founder of PiggyVest a micro-savings and micro-investment platform with a focus on building affordable micro-financial products for millennials. When people think of Nigerian FinTech founders Odun is always one person that is mentioned and PiggyVest currently helps its over 2 million customers save well over a billion naira per year. We hear about

0:00 - Introduction of Odun & Odun’s journey & learnings pre PiggyVest;

5:04 - Product development & future product plans - microinsurance, SMEs & more;

12:40 - How to build a product that can adapt to regulatory changes;

16:47 - Growth hacks & how PiggyVest uses social media to grow a strong community;

22:16 - PiggyVest & other markets;

23:48 - Problems with current conceptualisations of financial inclusion;

27:09 - Odun’s hopes for the evolution of the Nigerian fintech scene;

28:32 - Odun’s newest endeavor, FirstCheck - a female-focused angel fund.

Today, we talk to Ngozi Dozie the founder of Carbon, a pan-African neobank that has been written about by the likes of Forbes and TechCrunch. We hear how Carbon has grown to processing over $240million in payments, his experience building a neobank in Kenya vs in Nigeria, his thoughts on SMEs and fintech on the continent and much much more!

0:00 - Introduction of Ngozi & Carbon;

3:29 - The SME opportunity & Carbon’s SME products;

9:08 - Building a neobank in Nigeria vs in Kenya;

12:59 - COVID learnings & the impact on loans;

17:42 - COVID & unexpected behaviours with savings;

20:17 - How to approach product development & learnings from product mistakes;

26:41 - Carbon’s ID verification & payment products;

31:50 - Ngozi’s career journey & learnings;

38:14 - The future of African FinTech.

In this episode, we talk to Atsu the founder of Bitsika (a CashApp/ Revolut for Africa), Africa’s first stablecoin & ear1 social (a new social media platform). We get exclusive insight into the expansion plans for Bitsika & Africa’s first stablecoin and hear more about how he managed to grow Bitsika by 4000% to them processing over US$40million worth of transactions in the space of one year!

0:00 - Introduction of Atsu & Bitsika;

2:48 - Bitsika's expansion plans & how they determine what product to build next;

6:55 - Africa’s first stablecoin introduction & expansion plans;

11:28 - Bitsika’s evolution from MVP to its current form & what drove these changes;

14:37 - Bitsika’s growth strategy;

19:29 - ear1 social