There’s an image of fintech success that may seem impressive and convincing from the outside, with rising transaction volumes, new market entries, and frequent announcements of expansion. However, beneath that surface, many businesses are facing a different reality: high activity, slim profit margins, and, in some cases, a lack of a clear path to profitability.
For Ayodeji Osisami, Chief Financial Officer at Kora, that gap is where most fintech conversations fall short.
Growth, in his view, is not the problem. The real challenge is building a business that can sustain that growth without depending on constant capital injections or operating on margins that quietly erode over time.
From computer engineering to finance leadership
Ayodeji Osisami’s introduction to technology wasn’t dramatic. There was no singular breakthrough moment or early startup experiment. Instead, it was curiosity built gradually, through teenage interactions with computers running on command prompts and systems like Microsoft DOS.
That curiosity led him to study computer engineering at Covenant University. At the time, the goal was simply to understand how computers worked and explore what could be built with them.
By the time Osisami was rounding off university, it had become clear that engineering wouldn’t be his long-term path. What stood out to him wasn’t building systems, but understanding how businesses worked, how they grew, how they made money, and, more importantly, how they sustained it.
“I realised I had more affinity towards finance and business,” he says.
His first role reflected that shift. At a consulting firm, he worked in business strategy, helping companies think through positioning and growth. But beyond the job itself, he was building a parallel education, studying financial markets through platforms like the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, analysing company valuations, and taking courses to deepen his understanding.
After consulting, he moved into a head of finance role within an educational business, managing financial operations for several years.
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At the same time, he pursued an MBA at Lagos Business School, specialising in finance, which helped broaden both his technical grounding and professional network.
During and after his MBA, he held roles that deepened his exposure to capital and investment, including a stint in venture capital, deal advisory, private equity consulting, and a finance leadership position in the energy sector. Each role added a different lens to strategy, capital allocation, and operations, before eventually converging in fintech.
By the time Osisami joined Kora, the transition from engineering to finance had become an advantage.
His technical background meant he understood the infrastructure behind the products. His financial experience enabled him to evaluate sustainability beyond growth metrics. To solidify that transition, he also pursued professional certifications, including CFA and CIMA, alongside his MBA.
Growth without fundamentals
For Osisami, building a sustainable fintech doesn’t start with scale or expansion; it starts with discipline. And that discipline, he argues, is often missing.
“A lot of people think fintechs can ignore the fundamentals of business. They can’t.”
At the core of his thinking are three principles. First, profitability is non-negotiable. Not just revenue, but actual profit. After all expenses are paid, does the business retain value? In markets like Nigeria, where capital isn’t endlessly available, relying on fundraising as a long-term strategy is risky. Profitability, he argues, should be considered early, not as an afterthought.
Secondly, companies should master a niche before expanding. Fintech is often treated as one broad category, but Osisami sees it differently. Within payments alone are multiple segments. The goal is to dominate one segment and become known for it before diversifying. That initial focus becomes the “cash cow” that sustains growth.
His third principle is that companies should build for people, not just products. For him, sustainability isn’t only financial; it’s cultural. From leadership to team structure, companies need to build systems that keep people engaged through both growth and downturns. And while compensation matters, it’s not the only lever.
Where fintechs lose money
Beyond strategy, Osisami points to something more practical: cost discipline. Fintechs, especially in payments, can appear successful on the surface, processing large transaction volumes, while losing money underneath.
He says the problem often lies in provider and partner costs, technology infrastructure, and people and operational expenses.
Banks and infrastructure partners take a cut of transactions. If not properly managed, these costs can exceed revenue per transaction, turning growth into loss.
“You might see money moving through your system, but have nothing to show for it,” he explains.
Poorly managed systems can also quietly inflate costs. Inefficient databases, bloated infrastructure, and weak engineering oversight can lead to unsustainable operating expenses. And then, talent is expensive and necessary, but can quickly become a liability if not aligned with business realities. In many startups, people costs account for up to 70% of operating expenses. Layer on compliance and regulatory costs, and the margin for error shrinks further.
At Kora, financial planning starts from a simple premise that revenue defines possibility. The company projects what it can sustainably earn based on existing markets and investments. From there, every decision, including hiring, expansion, and operations, is built backwards from that number.
“There must be a bottom line,” Osisami says.
This approach forces discipline. Growth is not just about opportunity; it’s about what can be supported without breaking the business.
Expansion is a financial decision, not just a strategic one
Kora’s expansion across African markets isn’t driven solely by ambition. It’s tied to demand and economics.
Sometimes, that value isn’t even tied to a single market’s revenue. Instead, it comes from strengthening relationships with existing merchants, helping them operate across borders, and increasing their overall contribution.
Still, expansion comes with risk. Allocating capital to new markets remains one of the hardest decisions Osisami has had to make. Invest too little, and growth stalls. Invest too much in the wrong place, and returns disappear.
One of the most persistent misconceptions in fintech is that scale guarantees success. Osisami disagrees.
“You can process billions and still not make money.”
Profitability, he argues, is about efficiency. It is how well a company converts revenue into actual profit. Some smaller institutions, even within Nigeria’s banking sector, outperform larger ones simply because they manage this conversion better.
Scale can amplify success, but it doesn’t create it.
If there’s one thing Osisami would change about the African fintech landscape, it’s regulation. Today, expansion across the continent is fragmented. Each country operates independently, with its own licensing requirements and compliance frameworks. He envisions something closer to Europe’s passporting system, where a licence issued in one market can be recognised across others.
Such a system, he believes, would simplify expansion, reduce costs, and accelerate innovation across the continent.
For Osisami, the definition of a successful fintech is straightforward. A successful fintech is profitable, valuable, and trusted. Profitability ensures sustainability. Value ensures relevance. And trust ensures that customers choose to stay, not because they have to, but because they want to.
If he weren’t leading finance at Kora, Osisami knows exactly where he’d be.
“I’d probably be running an investment house.”
It’s a fitting alternative. After all, his career has been shaped by the same instinct in understanding how money moves, where value is created, and what it takes to sustain it.
