E-Financial
TLcom Invests $1mn Pre-Seed Funding into Okra
Nigerian fintech platform Okra has secured a $1mn pre-seed fundraise from TLcom Capital, strengthening its push to build the infrastructure for Africa’s next wave of fintech innovation.
With the first API in Africa to retrieve real-time financial data from a bank account to any web or mobile app, Okra’s new investment will be used to scale their team and operations as they cater to their growing client base.
Launched in January 2020, Okra’s “super-connector” creates a secure portal and process to exchange real-time financial information between customers, applications and banks. Currently, developers and organisations in Africa do not have access to real-time banking data, creating large hurdles during the onboarding and verification of customers.
Okra is the first in Africa to bridge this gap, delivering a new layer of transparency between organisations and users in the lending, personal & corporate finance and real estate sectors.
Supported by the strong engineering background of their founding team, Fara Ashiru Jituboh (formerly of Fidelity Investments and Canva) and David Peterside (from UCML Capital and Fashion Map), the company’s technical expertise has already seen them connect with all of Nigeria’s commercial banks as well as the likes of Branch, AIICO Insurance PLC, Travelstart, Bamboo, Renmoney and Swipe (YC) amongst others.
With the capacity to onboard new clients in under 24 hours, the startup has seen a 175% rise in demand since March 2020 as more companies digitise their services due to COVID-19 and is seeking to expand across Africa.
Speaking on the new investment, Fara Ashiru Jituboh, Okra’s CEO/CTO stated: “Our thesis is simple — financial innovation cannot exist without the proper infrastructure, which is data.
Essentially, how far the African fintech sector can grow is intrinsically tied to the success of an infrastructure like Okra and with our core market in Nigeria; we’re opening the door to another level of innovation in Africa’s largest market.”
“There are approximately 125mn banks accounts in Nigeria alone — but over the course of the next two years, we will see that figure rise exponentially, which presents huge opportunities for growth.
“Our role within this is to deliver ease, speed and transparency to key players within the fintech space so they can get back to driving our continent forward.”
The $1mn investment in Okra marks TLcom’s first investment in the fintech sector and as part of the deal, Andreata Muforo, Partner at TLcom, will join Okra’s board. Ido Sum, also a Partner at the VC firm, will join as a board observer.
Andreata Muforo, Partner at TLcom, added “We are always looking for startups with the potential for high value-generation and Okra’s technology provides the foundation for new fintech solutions in Africa for years to come.
Equally, it was important for us to know that their leadership had the entrepreneur-led focus which is crucial for execution.
Fara’s background was vital here — she’s an expert in over 20 programming languages, worked with multiple Fortune 500 companies and is a great example of why we’re committed to investing in more female founders.
She leads by example and we have seen her and David build a really exciting business, in a little under a year, we’re excited to help them grow further”.
Okra marks the latest company to take advantage of Open Banking initiatives across the globe, which has attracted increasing attention from investors.
In the USA, Plaid, which allows users to connect their bank accounts to an app, has been acquired by Visa for $5.3bn since launching in 2013. Yodlee, an American company offering a similar service, secured more than $140mn of funding before being acquired by Envestnet in 2015.
Okra’s Co-Founder and COO, David Peterside, concludes, “When we started Okra last year, our priority was to help African fintechs and banks build the best in class technology and solve problems for their customers.
This investment marks the next chapter of this mission. For too long, simple financial tasks like budgeting, internal reconciliations and credit assessments have been additional stressors for businesses and we’re filling a long-standing gap in the market. Our aim is to make these processes as seamless and pain-free for our clients so they can focus on their core services.”
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has unveiled a technology adoption assessment survey for registered capital market operators as part of efforts to deepen innovation and efficiency in the Nigerian capital market.
In a circular, the SEC stated that the exercise was designed to evaluate the level of adoption of advanced technologies among CMOs operating within the Nigerian capital market.
According to the notice, “The following technology adoption survey is designed by the Commission to assess the adoption of advanced technologies among registered Capital Market Operators.”
The SEC directed all registered operators to log into the e-portal at using their current access credentials to complete the survey. The exercise will run for two weeks, from 5 to 20 May 2025.
Speaking recently on the role of innovation in the capital market, Emomotimi Agama, director-general of the SEC, urged stakeholders to embrace technology as a catalyst for growth, improved transparency, operational efficiency, and market resilience.
He noted that the SEC recognises the emergence of new financial products and services driven by technological advancements, and remains committed to adapting its regulatory framework to meet the evolving needs of the market.
According to him, the commission’s approach to innovation is anchored on three pillars: investor safety, market deepening, and problem-solving aimed at building a robust and efficient capital market ecosystem.
Agama also highlighted the commission’s Regulatory Incubation Programme, which allows fintech startups to operate within a controlled environment for one year while appropriate rules are developed to govern their activities.
He said the programme is part of the SEC’s broader strategy to support innovation while safeguarding market integrity and investor interests.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) ,has confirmed that Nigeria has fully repaid about US$3.4 billion loan it got in April 2020 under the Rapid Financing Instrument to help alleviate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the sharp fall in oil prices.
IMF said the loan has been repaid as of April 30, 2025 in a statement issued in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital on Thursday.
However, IMF said Nigeria is still expected to honour some additional payments in forms of Special Drawing Rights charges hat will amount to US$30 million annually.
“In line with the IMF’s Articles of Agreements, these charges, levied at the SDR interest rate, which is updated at the beginning of each week, apply to the difference between Nigeria’s SDR holdings (SDR 3,164 million) (US$4.3 billion) and its cumulative SDR allocation (SDR 4,027 million) (US$5.5 billion)
“The net payment of the charges stops when Nigeria’s SDR holdings reach the cumulative allocation amount,” IMF said in the statement. Online fitness
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has allotted N598.33 billion in Nigerian Treasury Bills across three different maturities, with the 365-day bill dominating the auction, accounting for 80 percent of total sales and subscriptions.
A total of N482.62 billion was sold in the 365-day tenor, highlighting strong investor interest in the longer-term security.
The 91-day bill saw the least demand, with subscriptions of N48.4 billion and actual sales amounting to just N38.4 billion. This latest issuance brings the total Treasury bill sales for the year to N7.248 trillion.
At the auction held on Wednesday, May 7, the CBN offered N550 billion across the three maturities, N50 billion for the 91-day, N100 billion for the 182-day, and N400 billion for the 364-day bills. Despite total subscriptions dipping to N1.08 trillion from N1.53 trillion recorded at the previous auction, the auction was still oversubscribed, reflecting continued high liquidity in the financial system.
This demand pressure kept yields largely stable. The 365-day bill saw a marginal increase in yield to 24.41 percent from 24.36 percent, while the 182-day and 91-day yields remained unchanged at 20.38 percent and 18.85 percent, respectively. Yields have maintained a consistent level over the last four auctions, indicating a stable interest rate environment despite fluctuations in demand.
As of May 6, 2025, system liquidity stood at N1.21 trillion. When combined with maturing bills worth N287.98 billion, the total available liquidity more than tripled the N550 billion offered at the auction, further underscoring the robust investor appetite for government securities amid high market liquidity.
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