Kippa, the fast-growing fintech start-up offering digital business and financial management solutions for SMEs in Africa, today announces the appointments of Toyin Albert as Executive Director of Payments Services, and Niyi Ajao as an Independent Non-Executive Director within Kippa’s Nigerian subsidiary. Toyin Albert and Niyi Ayao are two of the most seasoned fintech veterans in Nigeria, who each have over 20 years of industry experience as well as a deep understanding of the African market and regulatory landscape.

Toyin and Niyi join at a period of significant growth for Kippa. The firm now has roughly 350,000 users in its network since launching its flagship bookkeeping product less than one year ago in June 2021. Kippa also launched a business registration service in March this year, ‘Kippa Start’, which allows informal business owners in Nigeria to register their business within 72 hours, including free legal consultation. Earlier this month, Kippa announced the launch of ‘Kippa Payments’ a digital payments solution and its second proprietary fintech product to date.

Prior to joining Kippa, Toyin Albert was Chief Growth Officer for ITEX Integrated Services, a digital payment solutions provider. Before this, Toyin worked at Xpress Payment Solutions, where she was Group Head of Operations and Product Development. Toyin began her career with Unified Payments Services where she left as Head of Payments and Infrastructure. Toyin holds an MBA from the University of Lagos and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Ondo State University. In her new role with Kippa, Toyin will lead the Financial Services team to drive the expansion of Kippa’s fintech solutions across sub-Saharan Africa.

Alongside his new role at Kippa, Niyi Ajao will continue to lead Digital Finance Solutions as CEO, an IT services firm he founded in 2021. Prior to this, Niyi worked as Deputy Managing Director at the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), a platform that provides the infrastructure for automated processing, payments settlements and fund transfer instructions in Nigeria, which is owned and licensed by all licensed banks, including the Central Bank of Nigeria. Niyi started his career with Societe Generale Bank where he left as Head of IT. He holds a BSc in Computer Sciences from Obafemi Awolowo University and an MSc in Computer Sciences from the University of Lagos. In his new role with Kippa, Niyi will advise the company on the management of its fintech products and services across Nigeria, working closely with the executive team.

Toyin Albert, said: “I am thrilled to be joining the Payment Services team during such an exciting time at Kippa. I was impressed by the quality of the firm’s existing products, its passion for supporting SMEs, as well as the team’s ambitious growth plans. I hope to apply my knowledge of the digital payments space in Nigeria to help improve overall efficiencies of our services and grow our customer base across the continent.”

Niyi Ajao, added: “I am thrilled to begin working with the Kippa team and ultimately bridge financial inclusion challenges across sub-Saharan Africa. Having seen first-hand through my work at NIBSS the importance of enhancing efficiencies in the payments sector, and building upon the relationships between regulators and start-ups, I believe Kippa has the potential to be a game-changer in the fintech space with its unique solutions to advance the entire financial ecosystem in Nigeria and beyond.”

Kennedy Ekezie-Joseph, co-Founder and CEO at Kippa, added: “Both Toyin and Niyi have an impressive track record in leading and growing successful fintech products as well as companies, and I am excited to have them join us at Kippa as we head into our next stage of growth. Toyin’s skills will be an extremely strong addition to our already robust financial services team, and bringing in Niyi’s extensive experience from NIBSS and other roles will open up new opportunities for us at Kippa. I hope this will be a powerful step in helping us to meet our goals, roll out additional bespoke products for our SME customers and expand into new markets later this year.”