So, I joined Stitch. Here is why
March till now, what have I been up to?
Five months ago, I reflected on a three-year journey with Softcom. I ended that post with “In the meantime, you can expect to see me on your TV soon 😌 , pending my next career announcement!”.
Well, the TV still hasn’t happened yet but I’m ready to make my next career announcement.
In March when I told you guys to await my next career announcement, I was trying to decide on where to settle long-term. I tried going into core Marketing and Growth but felt I would be better suited in a more generic leadership role.
By June, I had concluded the last shoot of the first season of a pan-African tech show I hosted for Accelerate TV and the AFF. The show is called The Big Tech Show 🎞. On that show, I interviewed entrepreneurs in Nigeria 🇳🇬, Kenya 🇰🇪, Rwanda 🇷🇼, Ghana 🇬🇭, and South Africa 🇿🇦. The goal was to uncover how they’ve built their businesses and learn the uniqueness of their market. I expect the show to air before the end of the year, but you never can tell.
As of July, I was helping set up conversations with entrepreneurs in Nigeria, while running a few operational duties for them as a Market Entry Consultant. Before I completed my Consulting contract with them, they offered me the job of their Nigeria Country Manager, which I started in August.
The story about how I found about Stitch and “shot my shot” has to be a different post, but I’m glad it has all worked out to this point.
Why Stitch?
You cannot truly appreciate why I joined Stitch if I do not tell you a little bit of history from my lens.
A brief recap of my journey through tech
Over the past six years, I’ve witnessed the development of the tech ecosystem in Nigeria by covering it and working at startups.
One way to measure or track such ecosystem progress is to ask;
What startups are being founded and funded at this time?
In 2015, I joined my first startup, Andela — a startup that was “paying people to learn how to code” in Nigeria. At the time, Andela was in Yaba, just like many other Nigerian startups. I had the chance to attend tech events at CcHUB, and interact with other people in the ecosystem.
At one of those events, I met the cofounders of Stutern — a company I’d later work with in 2016. By the December of 2016, I’d spent a year within the tech startup space and was going to cover it on TechCityNG’s platform. Big shout-out to BellaRose and the Techcityng team for the opportunity!
In 2018, I started my blog — benjamindada.com — and continued writing about tech while working at a tech company, Eyowo. Another person joined me to write on my blog and slowly as I got deeper into my tech 9–5 work, I started to write less on my tech blog. Anyway, today, the blog successfully runs without me, as we have staff working on it.
Tech in Nigeria from 2015 till date
In that same 2015, card-processing payment startups were being born. Paystack and Flutterwave were founded in 2015 and 2016, respectively. In 2016, they both got into the much-coveted YC-program, in what was, as of then, a rare feat. By the end of 2016, Paystack had raised a whopping $1.3 million seed round.
“Piggyvest started as a result of a viral tweet we saw on the 31st of December, 2015” — Josh Chibueze, a co-founder and CMO of Piggyvest told Benjamindada.com. “It wouldn’t have been possible for us to start Piggyvest at the time if there was no Paystack”, he added in this video.
In 2016, Piggyvest officially launched, heralding the future of digitally-enabled businesses built on the back of these newly-minted infrastructure companies. Paylater (now Carbon) emerged in 2016. In 2017, Cowrywise came to the scene, Branch launched in Nigeria. FairMoney also started operations in 2017. In 2018, Eyowo relaunched as a digital bank, Kuda and OPay also launched. Need I say more? The year 2016–2018, saw the start up of many digital: banks, savings, and lending platforms.
In 2019, newer fintech industries were being explored. Wealthtech platforms; Chaka, Bamboo, and Risevest launched in 2019.
In summary, the spark of 2015/2016 had given birth to a new set of million-dollar companies in Nigeria. We had built online payment rails (predominantly, card), digital platforms were now able to collect payments online but there could be more. So, soon enough it was time for us to go deeper as an industry and as a country.
Since 2018, developed countries like the UK had already passed into law a new concept called “Open Banking”. “The aim of this regulation was to increase competition and choice for consumers and small businesses”, reads an excerpt from a reflective post made this year. Recall, in 2018, we were still trying to convince: more businesses to collect payments online, and more shoppers to pay online in Nigeria. Hence, the surge in the number of new fintechs that launched off the back of online commerce, as we knew it.
So, yes, we’d enabled inter-bank transfer, online payments with card & bank account. Open banking is the next step.
In 2020, Open Banking startups — Mono and Okra were in the news for raising pre-seed funding almost the amount that Paystack raised as seed, just five years ago. So, to be at the cutting-edge of fintech innovation in Nigeria, working at an Open Banking startup feels like the right place to be.
Stitch is an Open Banking startup that although started in South Africa has pan-African ambitions. Having witnessed the rebirth of a digital bank, Eyowo, working at a startup as Stitch gives me that opportunity to contribute to the making of an industry-defining moment.
I see my media work as having contributed to the promotion and positioning of Nigerian startups in the world. Now, I wonder how many future Piggyvests will be born on the back of Open Banking in Nigeria, in the next five to ten years.
I believe the continued development of my career and contribution to tech in Nigeria is in both sponsoring its coverage and working to shape it. Especially because I have the passion, resources, and qualifications.
To conclude, I joined Stitch because it presented an opportunity to advance the cause of the next generation of Nigerian entrepreneurs and startups.
Thank you for reading!
