Meet Tayo Oviosu, the founder and CEO of Paga, and our MCM for the week.
Born in Nigeria, Tayo left for the United States in 1994 and earned his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, from the University of Southern California in 1998. He landed his first job with a small startup, which was into the development of digital imaging in Los Angeles, U.S.A.
While at this job, he experienced a setback in his career with a prototype failure that cost him the job, three months after he got it. Subsequently, he worked in a mailroom, as a database administrator, and at a call centre, all to earn a living.
In 1999, he joined Deloitte Consulting where was primarily responsible for leading technical implementation teams in five industries such as high tech, telecom, pharmacy retail, government, and healthcare.
He completed his Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University in 2005 and also led Cisco’s investment expansion in Africa including the $130 million acquisition of Reactivity and investments in Aquantia and Guardium.
In 2008, 13years after working in the United State, he moved back to Nigeria and dedicated himself to building the financial ecosystem of the country. The following year, 2009, he started Paga, a mobile payment platform that has transformed the financial space of Nigeria. When he founded Paga, Tayo Oviosu had to rely on his savings but the platform currently has over 30 investors.
The leading payment platform now has over 1.2million users and is a multiple-time awardee for outstanding performance and achieving the highest transaction count on the Global Mobile Regulatory & Monitoring Platform by Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems Plc (NIBSS).
Tayo Oviosu is a resilient go-getter and we celebrate his wins!