Segun Adeyemo’s relationship with technology started early, thanks to his school’s computer lab, pay-by-the-hour cybercafes, and a growing curiosity about how people interact with digital tools.
By 2020, that curiosity had brought him into the banking scene, where he helped drive growth for GoMoney at Sterling Bank and scaled Kuda into a mass-market digital bank. Today, Adeyemo runs Sava Global, a venture studio helping Africans scale.
In this edition of After Hours, Adeyemo shares how he went from digital communications to scaling digital banking products and now building travel and ecosystem solutions for Africans.
Early interactions with technology
My earliest memory of technology takes me back to primary school. Every Thursday, we had computer lessons, and I remember walking into the lab and seeing those big, chunky desktop computers with the old Windows background. It felt unreal.
The first time I learnt to switch on a computer, open Coral Draw, and draw something, I was fascinated. I was only five, but I would sneak back into the computer room with my friends just to doodle. That curiosity followed me home. I played with my dad’s gadgets, especially his organiser, which was like a mix of a calculator and scheduler. Later came video games, phones, cameras, and any device I could get my hands on.
Growing up, my environment also contributed. As a teenager, I had Walkmans and MP3 players. I also spent time in cybercafes buying browsing time by the hour, or trying to join early chat rooms so I didn’t feel left out. Those early exposures shaped my curiosity about how things worked and deepened my interest in digital opportunities before they fully took off in Nigeria.
The first tech tool I could say I owned for work was a laptop I used at GoMoney. It wasn’t even functioning perfectly, but it was mine, and it got the job done. Personally, I would say my phone is the one tech tool I can’t do without.
Scaling digital bank engines
I officially started working in 2012, about 13 years ago. My career began at an international travel company in Nigeria, right when social media was just becoming a thing. I was managing their digital communications, which was like a crash course in a new landscape.
From there, I moved into the fashion industry, focusing on digital strategy for luxury brands and modelling agencies across major hubs like Paris, Italy, the United Kingdom, and New York. I also worked with clients in Cape Town. I spent a total of about four years in this space, including time dedicated to my own agency on the side.
My journey then took a significant turn into real estate, and then into agency management, where I spent some time at Ringer (Pulse). I also did a short contract with First Bank, focusing on the manual onboarding of about 3,000 customers monthly onto their USSD code and mobile banking app, a crucial effort in that early era of digital banking.
My journey at Sterling Bank was perhaps the most interesting and defining. I joined around the start of 2020, right during the peak of the COVID pandemic. Initially, they even rescinded my offer, which was a frantic moment as I had already resigned from my previous job. Fortunately, the issue was resolved, and I came on board solely to manage their digital banking product, GoMoney.
GoMoney had been struggling to find product-market fit for a while. It was a high-stakes environment, but I performed well, and we managed to hit product-market fit, seeing strong growth in transaction volume and user sign-ups. It was a great experience that prepared me for what came next.
The most impactful chapter was at Kuda Bank. I was responsible for scaling Kuda. While it’s not widely known because the CEO at the time preferred a low-key approach, I was able to scale Kuda from roughly 2 million customers to about 5 million. My prior experiences at GoMoney and First Bank, combined with a sufficient marketing budget at Kuda, were key.
I knew my work was done when I started seeing Kuda adopted by everyday Nigerians in unexpected places. I was at a filling station on Ikorodu Road in Lagos, and the attendant I wanted to tip said he used Kuda Bank. Later, my plumber, who was referred to my house, also used Kuda. That’s when I realised, “My work here is done.” Kuda Bank had scaled and become a well-known brand. So I resigned to establish Sava Global.
Building Sava Global
When I started Sava, my mission was simple: help African startups scale.
Before GoMoney and Kuda, Nigeria didn’t really have strong case studies for digital banking success. Rubies Bank existed, but its impact was limited. Most founders underestimated the power of marketing, the psychology of users, and what it truly takes to scale in Africa.
Sava started as a growth marketing agency. We worked with brands like FoodCourt, helping them expand to at least three branches, then Payday, Kadana, LG, and several others as well. We helped them scale, optimise, and understand the African consumer.
But as we grew, we encountered a major challenge: the African tech ecosystem wasn’t fully ready. Many founders had strong ideas but lacked the audacity to scale aggressively. Scaling requires conviction, resources, and a deep understanding of the market. Giants like Kuda and Moniepoint scaled because they possess information and boldness that others don’t.
This made us rethink our approach. While we can help others grow, we also decided to build our own products. That’s how Sava transitioned into a venture studio.
One of our products is Travla, a solution designed to make it easier for young Africans to travel across the continent and beyond. The goal isn’t luxury travel; it’s cultural exposure, evolution, and opportunity.
Travel changed my life. The challenges I faced navigating travel alongside those of my business partner inspired Trav. We’re still building, still refining, and we have more products in the pipeline that are currently in stealth.
Interestingly, I never studied marketing. I studied Banking and Finance and graduated with a 2:1, top of my class, even though no one graduated with a first-class that year. My real foundation came from having a natural eye for creative arts, psychology, branding, and observation. I’ve always been very aware of human behaviour.
Technology in my everyday life and work
Technology runs 90% of my operations: research, writing, creation, analysis, building products, and even internal automation. Without tech, Sava Global cannot function.
In my personal life, tech has made things easier. Research that would take three months now takes three days or less. But it has also created a sort of “Black Mirror” economy where everything requires a subscription, everything costs money, and you’re always one forgotten auto-renewal away from being debited silently.
I navigate this by consolidating tools. Some are nice-to-haves, others are essential. I prioritise paid tools only when necessary and make the most of free versions.
Before I adopt any new tool or platform, I study it. I want to understand its limitations, privacy policies, and how it works. If it aligns with my needs, I adopt it, usually during a free trial. If it doesn’t, I drop it.
And the app I can’t live without? ChatGPT. Not because it’s trendy, but because I’m training it. I stress-test it daily to understand how it thinks, what patterns it follows, and how fast it evolves.
AI is growing rapidly, almost too fast. At this point, it can influence how we think, even what we choose to do, if we’re not mentally grounded. So I use it constantly to keep up with its pace and understand its limitations.
In fact, I recently used an AI tool in a very creative and unusual way to solve a problem that had been troubling me for a month. It was a non-straightforward situation that required intense pattern recognition. Humans struggle to spot complex patterns, but the AI tool analysed the data and provided a solution immediately.
If I could create any tech product to make my life easier, it would definitely be a teleporting machine. Getting on a plane, applying for visas, I’d bypass all of that and just teleport anywhere in the world.
Tech has also made it easier to communicate with anyone, anywhere in the world. From reminders about people’s special dates to digital workspaces and video meetings, communication is almost seamless now.
But it also means we sometimes lose the richness of physical interaction. I’m big on both. I want the convenience of digital communication, but I also value face-to-face connection.
The future of tech
Looking ahead five to ten years, I see a future that is going to be very chaotic if people aren’t prepared.
Technology will become “conscious,” not in the human sense, but in its ability to grow and disrupt at an overwhelming rate. I anticipate we will see advancements like: VR glasses replacing the need to physically hold phones, rapid cures for lifelong illnesses in the medical field, and the final acceptance of merging and coexisting with technology, much like we coexist with nature. It will just be a natural part of our environment.
The future of tech is about preparing, adapting, and finding a balance with the physical world around us.
