adsObinna Chukwujioke is a Nigerian entrepreneur and fintech infrastructure builder known for founding and scaling innovative financial technology platforms across Africa. He co-founded Wirepay before transforming its infrastructure into Maplerad, a Banking-as-a-Service platform powering payments, virtual accounts, cards, and FX solutions for businesses across the continent. He also launched Capera and Roam, expanding access to global remittances and USD banking services for Africans worldwide. In this interview with BusinessDay, he discusses fintech infrastructure, cross-border payments, and Africa’s digital finance future.
You moved from oil and gas into fintech at a time when Africa’s digital payment space was still developing. What problem convinced you that financial infrastructure was worth building?
In Oil & Gas, you see massive scale but also massive silos. When I looked at the digital payment space, I saw a fundamental “plumbing” problem. The problem wasn’t a lack of ideas; it was that every new founder had to spend 18 months just building the pipes, banking integrations, compliance, and ledger systems, before they could even launch. I realized that if we didn’t build the infrastructure, the ecosystem would move at a glacial pace.
