Tayo Oviosu

Tayo Oviosu is a Nigerian-American businessman who is the founder and group CEO of Paga, a mobile payments company that is focused on digitizing cash in emerging economies. Nigeria is Paga's first market.

Quote

• “Make sure people are in the role that fits for them, where their strength can really be used and where they can fly."
  • #FoundersConnect Live in Lagos: Interview with Tayo Oviosu]
• I had to work my way through college, sometimes holding up to 5 jobs at a time. So I was excited when I finally graduated with an electrical engineering degree.
• I landed my first job with a small startup of 8 people. We were developing digital imaging chips that could capture images the way the human eyes do. I was way out of my depth so I worked weekends trying to catch up.
• I’d say the experience really shaped me because it taught me a few things. First, we tend to place a lot of focus on things that are hard for us. I think that’s wrong. You want to focus on your strengths and get better at the things you’re good at.
• If I had to go back to do it, I would not have concentrated on semiconductor chip design. As much as I found it interesting, it was not my strength. Digital design in electrical engineering was my strength. So I went on and focused on digital design.
• The investor entrepreneur relationship is almost like a marriage.
• The investors are bringing something on the table and so are entrepreneurs.
• The investors are typically investing someone else’s money, at least for the institutional guys, so they can’t just put the money anywhere.
• They have to be confident in your ability as an entrepreneur to execute the business.
• I don’t think I would have changed anything about how we raised money.
• I think I’d rather own a small part of a big pie than a big part of a small pie.
• Our aim as a business is to solve payments and bring financial services to the mass market in Nigeria.
• It will take a lot of investment to get to that vision. I wouldn’t be surprised if over the lifetime of Paga, we invest over $100 million — we are well on our way to that.
• The first person I actually hired on to Paga in the early days left and that was a very painful experience for me at the time
• My personal mission is to help change the face of Nigeria and Africa at large, by helping to bring ideas to life
  • Tayo Oviosutalks about his startup, Paga
• Single largest network of financial access points in Nigeria.
• 70% of Nigerian adults” who don’t have bank accounts.
• We want to help individuals pay and get paid.
• We do not care if you are banked or unbanked.

Tayo Oviosu stated