Stanford GSB: Scaling Innovation in African Fintech

On May 19 th I will be a guest speaker at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. I will be joining Tayo Oviosu Founder and Group CEO of Paga and Agnes Aisleitner

Managing Partner and Co-Founder of First Circle Capital to participate in a business

case presentation and discussion in Steve Cisinski’s class on Entrepreneurship in

Emerging Payments Markets.

This is my second opportunity to participate in one of Steve’s classes. This upcoming

class will focus on a case study of Tayo’s company Paga. Paga is a payments and

financial services ecosystem for Africa. They focus on helping consumers and sellers

pay, get paid, and access financial services. We will hear about the progress Paga has

made, their current challenges and examine how Paga best moves forward.

We will also have a discussion on the state of Fintech in Africa. I expect part if the

discussion will address the impact of blockchain and AI. These are not new, Africa has

been actively deploying these technologies for several years, but it will be helpful to

assess how these technologies have met, failed or expected expectations and how

fintechs can most effectively incorporate them into their businesses.

We will also address how African fintechs can scale up. Investors want to know how

their investment will drive growth and valuations. That has been a challenge for African

fintechs. Only a handful, such as Flutterwave have been able to gain a $1 billion plus

valuation. We will discuss the barriers to growth and what African fintechs must do to

overcome them.

Will keep you posted on what promises to be an exciting, engaging and informative

discussion.