Shola Akinlade took the stage at Moonshot 2026 in Lagos with a clear message: Paystack is not done yet. The co-founder and chief executive said the Nigerian fintech is looking beyond payment acceptance as it enters its second decade, with plans to address more of the financial needs businesses carry every day.
Akinlade traced the company's journey from helping Nigerian merchants collect payments online to becoming a broader financial services group operating across several African markets. "I feel very qualified to talk about ambition because a lot of my ambitions over the last 10 years have been realised," he said. The original goal was straightforward: help merchants accept payments in Nigeria, and then across the continent. What followed surprised even him.
He pointed to PiggyVest, the Nigerian savings platform, as the story that captures what Paystack's infrastructure actually made possible. The founders came to Paystack with an idea to automatically debit users' accounts so people could save money consistently. Paystack already had what they needed. "The most exciting thing about that story is that I didn't do anything. The founders built the business; they took the risk," Akinlade said. "The only thing we had to do was focus on building our infrastructure."
That example shaped how he thinks about the next phase of growth. When the foundation is solid, entrepreneurs can focus on their products instead of rebuilding what already exists. For Paystack, the bet is that the same logic scales, and that more African businesses are waiting for infrastructure they do not yet know exists.
Originally published by TechCabal.