Tayo Oviosu

"“Make sure people are in the role that fits for them, where their strength can really be used and where they can fly.""

"I had to work my way through college, sometimes holding up to 5 jobs at a time. So I was excited when I finally graduated with an electrical engineering degree."

"I landed my first job with a small startup of 8 people. We were developing digital imaging chips that could capture images the way the human eyes do. I was way out of my depth so I worked weekends trying to catch up."

"I’d say the experience really shaped me because it taught me a few things. First, we tend to place a lot of focus on things that are hard for us. I think that’s wrong. You want to focus on your strengths and get better at the things you’re good at."

"If I had to go back to do it, I would not have concentrated on semiconductor chip design. As much as I found it interesting, it was not my strength. Digital design in electrical engineering was my strength. So I went on and focused on digital design."

"The investor entrepreneur relationship is almost like a marriage."

"The investors are bringing something on the table and so are entrepreneurs."

"The investors are typically investing someone else’s money, at least for the institutional guys, so they can’t just put the money anywhere."

"They have to be confident in your ability as an entrepreneur to execute the business."

"I don’t think I would have changed anything about how we raised money."

"I think I’d rather own a small part of a big pie than a big part of a small pie."

"Our aim as a business is to solve payments and bring financial services to the mass market in Nigeria."

"It will take a lot of investment to get to that vision. I wouldn’t be surprised if over the lifetime of Paga, we invest over $100 million — we are well on our way to that."

"The first person I actually hired on to Paga in the early days left and that was a very painful experience for me at the time"

"My personal mission is to help change the face of Nigeria and Africa at large, by helping to bring ideas to life"

"Single largest network of financial access points in Nigeria."

"70% of Nigerian adults” who don’t have bank accounts."

"We want to help individuals pay and get paid."

"We do not care if you are banked or unbanked."