Olu Akanmu, a former FCMB director, has been named co-CEO of Opay
Olu Akanmu, a former FCMB director, has been named co-CEO of Opay
It has been announced that Olu Akanmu will be the new president and co-CEO of OPay's Nigerian division. OPay is a Chinese-backed African fintech startup with a focus on mobile payments. Former FCMB Executive Director for Retail Banking, Akanmu has a wealth of experience in the industry.
In addition to working with the current leadership team, Olu Akanmu will assist the company in achieving all of its goals and objectives, according to a statement released by the company.
Let’s Meet Olu Akanmu
Olu Akanmu comes to this position with more than two decades of corporate leadership experience, having previously worked in the banking and telecommunications sectors, respectively.
Olu Akanmu worked as the Executive Director for Retail Banking at FCMB for more than eight years before being appointed as the president of Opay Nigeria in September 2015.
A former senior vice president and division head of retail banking at the same FCMB, he has a wealth of banking experience.
While his previous experience in the Nigerian banking sector may give him an advantage in his current role as CEO of a fintech company, he also has extensive knowledge of the Nigerian telecommunications services industry.
According to his impressive resume, he served as the Chief Marketing Officer for Airtel Nigeria between 2012 and 2013, among other positions.
After a five-year stint as managing director for retail and consumer banking at the now-defunct Bank PHB, he was appointed to this position shortly after completing his tenure there.
He also spent more than five years as General Manager for consumer marketing at MTN, having joined the company shortly after leaving his position as client service director at Insights Communication.
Olu Akanmu has a diverse educational background that spans several years both within and outside the country's borders. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Lagos. Awolowo University in Ile-Ife awarded him a Bachelor of Pharmacy degree, which he put to good use. Lagos State University also awarded him a master's degree in business administration, which he used to further his career.
Aside from these institutions, he also attended the University of the Witwatersrand and the Edinburgh Business School, where he graduated with honors from the Management Advancement Program and received a post-graduate certificate in Business Research.
The Nigerian business experience
The appointment of Olu Akanmu as president of Opay Nigeria comes after the company experienced a period of rocky and difficult business operations in Nigeria.
OPay officially entered the Nigerian market in May of this year. Additionally, the company recently launched ORide, a bike-hailing service, in addition to its fintech offerings. After a few years, the company would expand its service offerings to include a variety of other industry verticals.
OList (for classified ads), OFood (for food delivery), OKash (for loans), OCar (for ride hailing), OBus (for bus hailing), and OWealth (for wealth management) were all added later (investments).
After being forced to close several of its business units in July 2020, the company will now be able to devote all of its resources to providing financial technology services.
This was partly due to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it was also due to the Lagos State Government's policy of prohibiting commercial motorcycles in a large portion of the Lagos metropolitan area, which was implemented in 2015.
Consequently, the company's ride-hailing platforms (ORide and OCar), as well as its delivery service, OExpress, were all forced to close their doors.
Since then, the fintech company has recovered from its setbacks, achieving unicorn status in August after raising $400 million in a round led by Softbank and other investors.
Opay's current market capitalization of $2 billion is higher than the predicted market capitalization of $1.5 billion. The company declares that it will continue to be committed to assisting emerging markets in their economic development.
"We want to be the driving force behind economic development in emerging markets," Opay CEO Yahui Zhou said in an interview with Bloomberg.
Despite the fact that it has not been easy to compete in the Nigerian market, the company now processes more than $3 billion in monthly transactions and has more than 300,000 agents and more than 5 million users across the country.
