E-Financial
Obi, eTranzact Founder Tasks Business Leaders on Creating Unique Value for Customers
Dr. Valentine Obi, founder and group CEO, eTranzact, has called on business leaders to be unique in formulating business strategies in order to deliver valuable products for its customers.
L-r: Dr David Olaniyi Oyedepo, Chancellor, Covenant University, Canaanland, Ogun State and Dr. Valentine Obi, founder and group CEO, eTranzact, after the lecture recently.
Dr. Obi’s eTranzact is Nigeria’s premier payment processing platform boasting of home grown Switch with its processing power which activates its partners’ to drive billions of dollars in transactions yearly through eTranzact card, and direct from bank account gateways.
Delivering a speech at the African Leadership Development Centre, ‘ALDC Leadership Masterclass’, with the topic: Business Strategy and Innovation, held recently at Covenant University, Ogun state, recently, Dr. Obi, urged business leaders to identify set of customers they intend to serve in their respective markets, in order to enable them create unique strategies that will deliver valuable products to these customers.
According to him, “if you’re trying to serve the student community, being the best is different from if you’re trying to serve working class people with families. There is no best way to compete.
“There are lots of good ways to compete depending on who you’re trying to serve.
“So we are not competing to be the best, we are competing to be unique. It is about making choices and the most fundamental choice is, Who am I trying to serve.”
He also described business leaders quest to serve everyone in their sector as one of the mistakes in strategy formulation.
He said, “One of the worst mistakes in strategy is to try to serve everybody.
“You can’t meet the need of every customer, you just can’t do it, it’s impossible.
“You can’t meet all the needs of every customer. Fundamentally, if you have a strategy, you’ve got to decide which needs, of which customers, you’re actually going to seek to meet.
“Secondly, Another tremendous mistake in strategy is to get into a competition with your competitors on the same thing.
“If your competitor is trying to be the lowest cost, it’s pretty unusual to win, if you then try to chase them and be low costs.
“The essence of strategy is to find a unique position in your business that delivers unique value to the customers you choose to serve.
“So, to be truly successful, we really need a strategy and that strategy isn’t about just being the best, but a set of choices we make on a long term to distinguish ourselves from competitors.
“It defines how we are going to compete differently. And it also really articulates the competitive advantages that we will seek to create and use, in order to win.”
He further pointed out that if we’re doing the same thing as our competitor, it means we don’t have a strategy.
“You’re just trying to do the same thing better. That’s not strategy, that is operational excellence.
“Strategy is around choices that you make, versus the choices that your competitors are making
“Simply implementing best practices, buying the latest machine, using the internet to communicate with your customers. There are lots of things that managers do, to actually keep making the company more productive and more efficient. All those things are a necessity, but they’re not strategy.
“Strategy is not about doing the same thing better. Strategy is about finding that different place for the organisation to deliver value.
“What makes it challenging, however is that, you have to do both of these things at the same time .You have to keep adopting best practices, but at the same time having real clarity about what is going to make you different in the marketplace”.
Speaking on the part of businesses craving to be number one or number two in the industry, Dr. Obi said that those are mere goals and aspirations but not strategy, he noted that strategy is the unique positioning that allows us to get to whatever goal we set for ourselves.
He called on businesses not to confuse strategy with goals, noting that the two cannot be mixed together.
He said, We cannot mix goals and strategy together, we have to separate them, we need to separate the goal we’re trying to achieve, and then the strategy is how we’re going to get there.
“Also, When we think about strategy, we also have to recognize that strategy is holistic. It’s not about any single action that you might want to take. It is not just one thing one steps. Strategy is not to go international, that’s not a strategy. Raising research and development is not a strategy. Strategy is holistic.
“It’s the whole set of choices that you make collectively in order to position the company for success, over time, in the marketplace.
“It’s not just, one step, it’s a set of steps. Strategy involves all the functions of the organisation. It includes marketing, production, finance, everything together to create that unique positioning, that’s what strategy is all about”, he added.
PalmPay, an African digital bank fintech, is in negotiations to fund between $50 million and $100 million in a Series B financing, according to people with knowledge of the situation.
Although its target worth is unknown, its most recent round in 2021 placed it among the most valuable firms on the continent, coming in just short of unicorn status.
A representative for PalmPay stated that the 6-year-old fintech company is “in a strong financial position and exploring growth opportunities,” but the company declined to comment on the specifics of the fundraising.
People with knowledge of the company’s finances say it is now profitable after raising about $140 million in seed and Series A rounds.
The additional funding, which is anticipated to consist of both loan and stock, will support PalmPay’s growth by expanding its presence in Nigeria, growing its more recent business-oriented product line, and introducing both goods in new African and Asian countries.
PalmPay reported last month that its 35 million registered users were responsible for 15 million daily transactions.
The corporation claims that the value of these transactions now totals “tens of billions of dollars” every year.
Revenue has increased as well. According to those with knowledge of PalmPay’s finances, the company’s revenue has more than doubled since 2023, when it was $64 million, as reported by the Financial Times.
PalmPay was first introduced in Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa and a significant engine for fintech, in 2019.
Since traditional banks primarily served salaried or formal-sector clients, frequently with restrictions that barred mass-market users, more than half of the nation’s adults were unbanked at the time.
PalmPay saw a chance to reverse that approach by creating a digital bank from the ground up while tailoring it to the needs of the unorganized sector in Africa. To meet the needs of underbanked people and small companies, the company released an app with rapid onboarding, no transfer fees, and an expanding range of services (such as credit, savings, insurance, and bill payments).
Importantly, PalmPay relied on more than just digital acquisition. Through the PalmPay Business app and point-of-sale devices (for cash-in, cash-out services), the fintech established a massive on-the-ground network of over 1 million small businesses and agent merchants that currently serve over 10 million clients each month.
The hybrid strategy, which combines digital apps with physical touchpoints, has also been adopted by other significant fintech companies in the nation, such as OPay, Moniepoint, and Paga.
According to 25% of its members, PalmPay was their first banking account, and it promises to execute more transactions than any traditional bank in Nigeria. According to the report, that percentage rises to 60% among borrowers for loan products provided in collaboration with authorized lenders.
PalmPay’s relationship with Transsion, the Chinese phone manufacturer that controls the majority of smartphone sales in Africa with a market share of more than 40% across its brands (Tecno and Infinix), contributes to its strong distribution and marketing edge.
As part of the collaboration, PalmPay pre-installs its software on a few financed smartphones, which promotes user engagement and acquisition.
Now that it has become one of the most popular fintech applications in the nation, PalmPay is getting ready to expand its business strategy overseas.
The neobanking platform has made its first appearance outside of Africa in Tanzania and Bangladesh, where PalmPay is introducing consumer credit and device finance as stepping stones before adding more services. (With differing degrees of success, other African digital banks have extended their financial services into Asia, notably TymeBank, MNT-Halan, and FairMoney.)
According to a business representative, the company also intends to launch device financing in Nigeria.
The Fintech firm is aggressively looking into partnerships with additional original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), according to a representative for the firm, even if Transsion, who spearheaded PalmPay’s seed investment, is still a key partner.
Other investors include MediaTek, one of the biggest producers of mobile chipsets worldwide, and GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund.
PalmPay’s newly launched business feature, which is currently available in Nigeria, Kenya, and Tanzania (with South Africa in the works), handles “hundreds of millions of dollars monthly,” according to a company spokesperson. PalmPay facilitates cross-border payments for merchants who wish to send and receive payments across Africa via a single API, a persistent pain point (despite the promise of stablecoins).
Source: techbooky.com
The Board of Directors of Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), the parent company of the Ecobank Group, is pleased to announce the appointment of Ayo Adepoju, the current group chief financial officer (CFO), to the Board as Group Executive Director, effective June 4, 2025.
Ayo brings two decades of broad-based leadership experience and deep institutional knowledge as a proud product of the Ecobank Group. His expertise spans financial management, capital markets, strategic planning, capital raising and structuring, treasury management, investor relations, business performance management, governance, enterprise transformation, financial due diligence, internal control, and risk-based audit.
As a distinguished finance executive, he has been instrumental in shaping the Group’s financial transformation, capital strategy, and long-term resilience. Since joining Ecobank in 2012, he has held several key leadership positions, including Group Financial Controller, Group Head of Business Performance and Analytics, and currently Group CFO.
Over the years, Ayo has led numerous strategic initiatives, including landmark capital market transactions such as Eurobonds, Basel III-compliant instruments, and sustainability-linked debt. These efforts have significantly enhanced Ecobank’s presence in international capital markets and strengthened transparency and investor engagement.
Prior to joining Ecobank, he worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in London and Lagos, serving in the Financial Services Practice.
Commenting on the appointment, Papa Madiaw Ndiaye, Chairman of the Ecobank Group, stated: “On behalf of my fellow directors, I commend Ayo for his outstanding performance and warmly welcome him to the ETI board. His proven leadership has fostered trusted relationships with the Board and made this appointment both natural and strategic for the Group’s future.
“I believe that Ayo embodies Ecobank’s renewed talent philosophy, a homegrown leader with global exposure and a compelling track record.
“His intellect, integrity, and impact-driven leadership have long been evident. His appointment to the Board is a testament to our belief in recognizing and elevating excellence from within.”
Jeremy Awori, Group Chief Executive Officer, added: “Ayo has played a critical role in strengthening Ecobank’s financial resilience and enabling sustainable business growth.
“His ability to manage complexity, innovate in financial strategy, align finance with enterprise-wide transformation, and lead collaboratively has made him a critical member of our executive team. I look forward to deepening our partnership as we drive forward our Growth, Transformation and Returns strategy.”
Ayo holds a First-Class Honours degree from the University of Lagos and is a Fellow of both the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), UK. He also holds an MBA from Warwick Business School and a Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership from Regent University, USA.
He has completed executive education programs at Wharton, London Business School, and most recently in 2024, the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. An official member of the Forbes Finance Council, he is also a published author and respected thought leader in finance and organizational strategy.
This appointment reinforces Ecobank’s continued commitment to nurturing internal talent and promoting leadership excellence across Africa.
In a strong demonstration of its commitment to community development and poverty alleviation, leading financial institution, Fidelity Bank Plc has donated food packs to over 1,500 individuals in Ihie Town, Etche Local Government Area of Rivers State, through its Food Bank initiative.
Speaking at the donation event, the Regional Bank Head, Rivers/Bayelsa 1 & South Commercial, Fidelity Bank Plc, Mr. Ibisiki Eretoru, noted that the success of the bank is essentially linked to the well-being and prosperity of the communities in which it operates.
“The Food Bank Initiative is our way of contributing to the well-being of our host communities through regular food support. Each month, with the support of our network of dedicated partners, we distribute food packs to individuals and families across the country,” Eretoru said.
He further highlighted that the Fidelity Food Bank initiative, launched in April 2023, is part of the bank’s broader corporate social responsibility drive aimed at combating hunger and improving livelihoods across Nigeria. The initiative also perfectly aligns with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 2 which aims to achieve zero hunger.
“To date, we have distributed over 200,000 food packs through similar outreaches aimed at supporting individuals, strengthening businesses and transforming entire economies,” Eretoru added.
The food distribution in Ihie town was executed in partnership with The Reach Nigeria Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on sustainable development. Speaking at the outreach, the Foundation’s CEO, Benedicta Ibiyemie Ayarete, said that the community was selected due to its need for food support during the post-planting and pre-harvest period.
“Though Ihie is an agrarian community, we identified it as needing food support at this time. The peaceful nature of the community also makes it a viable location for Fidelity Bank to sustain and grow its presence. We are proud to be part of the meaningful impact of this outreach on the people,” she explained.
Expressing his gratitude, the paramount ruler of Ihie community, His Royal Highness, Eze Richard Amadi, commended the bank’s timely intervention, describing it as “a stitch in time” and a noteworthy effort that addresses the needs of the people.
Also speaking at the event, Chairman of the Ihie Community Development Committee, Mr. Stephen Asoh, expressed appreciation to Fidelity Bank, highlighting the positive difference the donations will make in the lives of many residents.
One of the beneficiaries, Mike Okere, praised Fidelity Bank for the initiative and called on other financial institutions to emulate the bank’s approach to community engagement and impact.
The Fidelity Food Bank continues to be a beacon of hope for underserved communities across Nigeria, reflecting the bank’s unwavering commitment to social responsibility and inclusive growth.
Ranked among the best banks in Nigeria, Fidelity Bank Plc is a full-fledged Commercial Deposit Money Bank serving over 9.1 million customers through digital banking channels, its 255 business offices in Nigeria and United Kingdom subsidiary, FidBank UK Limited.
The Bank is a recipient of multiple local and international Awards, including the 2024 Excellence in Digital Transformation & MSME Banking Award by BusinessDay Banks and Financial Institutions (BAFI) Awards; the 2024 Most Innovative Mobile Banking Application award for its Fidelity Mobile App by Global Business Outlook, and the 2024 Most Innovative Investment Banking Service Provider award by Global Brands Magazine.
Additionally, the Bank was recognized as the Best Bank for SMEs in Nigeria by the Euromoney Awards for Excellence and as the Export Financing Bank of the Year by the BusinessDay Banks and Financial Institutions (BAFI) Awards.
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