According to the World Bank, up to 65% of the adult population is unbanked in sub-Saharan Africa. In Nigeria alone, some reports estimate the number of unbanked adults to be 59 million. For those reports, the situation is due to several challenges namely the conservative policies and distance to access points. Babs Ogundeyi wants to address some of the problems with Kuda Bank, a digital-only bank.

Babs Ogundeyi (photo) is a young Nigerian entrepreneur and co-founder of Kuda Bank, a digital-only bank. Founded in 2017, the fintech startup was initially named Kudimoney with Musty Mustafa as its co-founder. It became Kuda Bank in 2019, following the obtention of a central bank license,  in line with its ambition to make banking services more accessible to a larger number of the population in Africa. 

Nowadays, via its mobile app, Kuda Bank allows Nigerians to manage their expenses and make savings online without paying maintenance or hidden fees. For its CEO, Babs Ogundeyi, the startup can even offer instant loans to its users provided their salaries are domiciled with Kuda.  

Its co-founder Ogundeyi graduated from Brunel University London with a BA in Business Studies and Accounting. Right after his graduation, he went into the entrepreneurship world (in 2002) by co-founding MotorTrader Nigeria, a classified car ad magazine. One year later, he sold the magazine to a major Nigerian media. Around the same period, he joined PwC Nigeria as an Engagement Manager. In 2010, he left PwC Nigeria to become a partner at investment company Redbrick Ltd. 

Some months later, he became the Oyo State government’s special advisor on finance. In the five years he spent in that position, he piloted the state’s largest-ever bond issue (NGN55 billion), advised on several fiscal policies, and set public and private partnerships. 

Two years later, he resumed his entrepreneurship career with Kudimoney, which later became Kuda Bank. In 2021, the tech entrepreneur secured US$55 million series B financing to boost his startup’s presence in Nigeria. The Series B round raised the volume of investments attracted by Kuda Bank since 2019 to US$91.6 million and its value to US$500 million. At the time, Babs Ogundeyi said that Nigeria was an important market to be conquered before thinking about any international expansion. 

Melchior Koba