Africa’s fintech boom has unlocked cross-border payments, digital banking, and new financial infrastructure. But behind this growth is one major challenge: regulation.
For companies expanding across the continent, regulatory compliance is not just a legal checkbox; it’s a strategic function that can determine how quickly and effectively they scale.
Enyioma Madubuike, Chief Legal Officer at Kora, a cross-border fintech company, has spent the last few years building compliance systems from scratch and navigating regulatory frameworks across multiple African markets. His experience offers a grounded look into what it really takes to operate in one of the world’s most fragmented regulatory environments.
The foundation
Long before he was navigating regulatory complexities, Enyioma was helping people set up their first Yahoo Mail accounts and typing out documents in small business centres in the ancient city of Ibadan, where he grew up and got his primary, secondary and university education.
Despite an early tech exposure, he followed a traditional path. Growing up in a lower-middle-income household, the career menu was limited: medicine, law, engineering, or accountancy. Law, for him, was less a calling and more a practical choice.
“It was one of those courses that was open to me,” he says. “I didn’t like science, I didn’t like numbers much, so law felt like the natural option.”
Enyioma headed to the University of Ibadan for his law degree and, after his mandatory one-year stint at the Nigerian Law School, landed a role at one of Nigeria’s foremost law firms, where he cut his teeth. It was during this three-year stint that his initial dreams of becoming a courtroom advocate collided with the realities of the profession. In its place, he discovered a new interest. Banking deals, cross-border agreements, and structured finance transactions that offered a different kind of intellectual challenge, one that felt more aligned with his strengths.
Eventually, the desire for more ownership led him away from the stability of a firm and into independent consulting. Around the same time, Nigeria’s early fintech wave was beginning to take shape. Companies like Interswitch were already established business models, while companies like Paystack were gaining traction. It was during this period when he consulted for various startups that he met the team at Kora.
Around the same time, Nigeria’s early fintech wave was beginning to take shape. Companies like Interswitch were already active, and Paystack was gaining traction. Recognising the shift, his law firm created a dedicated team focused on technology and fintech clients, and Enyioma joined it.
Victoria Fakiya – Senior Writer
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“Kora was one of the companies in my portfolio,” he explains. “After a while, they needed someone to come in and build out the legal program from scratch. I joined them, and over time, I built out not just the legal operations, but the compliance program as well.”
“It was during COVID. There was uncertainty, products were pivoting, and some didn’t work,” he says. “But over time, things stabilised. The company found product-market fit, and we grew from there.”
Over time, that role expanded into overseeing both legal and compliance functions, leading a growing team of about 15 people.
Navigating the 54 Africas
One of the biggest misconceptions about scaling in Africa is treating the continent as a single market.
“Africa is a continent of over 50 markets,” Enyioma explains. “You don’t enter Ghana assuming it works like Nigeria, or approach Kenya the same way you would Ghana.”
Even where regulations appear similar, their interpretation often differs. This is shaped by local economic priorities, institutional maturity, and regulators’ views of their role in the financial system. For fintechs, this means expansion is less about replication and more about localisation. Each new market demands a fresh regulatory strategy.
One particular radioactive area for almost all African regulators is foreign exchange (FX).
“All regulators in Africa are very touchy about FX,” Enyioma notes. “It’s a core part of macroeconomic policy. Understanding the products you intend to offer and managing the expectations of the regulator is key.”
Regulatory compliance in fintech is not simply about following rules; it is about balancing two competing forces. On the one hand, businesses need to grow, pursue profitability, and create economic value for their shareholders. On the other hand, there is a crucial need to uphold the integrity of the financial system and protect consumers. This balancing act involves interpreting not just the written regulations but also the intent behind them, necessitating a constant negotiation between structure and speed to ensure the business can still pursue its market expansion objectives
“You’re balancing regulation without breaking it, while still allowing the business to achieve its objectives.”
Interestingly, he notes that a legal background, while helpful, isn’t mandatory for leading compliance functions. What matters more is the ability to interpret regulations within a business context.
To navigate this complexity, Enyioma emphasises three key strategies: deep market understanding, product awareness, and local intelligence.
Balancing scale with compliance
Scaling a fintech business across multiple markets inevitably introduces tension between growth and regulation. “That’s where risk comes in,” Enyioma explains. Companies must constantly evaluate their risk appetite, deciding how far they’re willing to go in pursuit of expansion while remaining compliant.
To manage this, Enyioma highlights a common industry practice he calls the partnership play. This involves a business partnering with a local processor rather than pursuing the expensive, time-consuming direct licensing process. As he states, “A company might decide to let a local processor help process flows first to see if the market is good enough. If the revenue works, then you approach the regulator for a license. It’s a balance of meeting goals while staying within the regulatory framework.”
The complexity of regulatory compliance varies across the continent. Larger economies like Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and Ghana have more structured and demanding frameworks due to their deeper exposure to fintech. In contrast, smaller markets are often still developing their regulatory systems, sometimes requiring companies to work alongside regulators to shape emerging frameworks.
Looking ahead, Enyioma suggests an improvement to the current landscape. “If I could change one thing in regulation,” he adds, “it would be licensing and passporting.” He explains that licensing passporting is an effort that will enable cross-border regulatory recognition, a model worth expanding across the continent.
Behind the role
Despite the complexity of his work, Enyioma’s day-to-day tech stack is relatively simple: Gmail, Google Workspace, Slack, and WhatsApp for communication, alongside specialised tools for fraud monitoring, transaction tracking, and document signing.
More recently, AI tools like Gemini have begun to reshape how work gets done, something he sees as an evolving conversation within the industry.
If he weren’t a legal expert, you might find him with a single backpack, exploring different cultures across the globe. Alternatively, he envisions something quieter, a farm, plenty of land, and the freedom to build something from the ground up. Until then, he remains at the forefront of Africa’s digital economy.
According to him, as Africa’s fintech sector matures, regulatory navigation will only become more critical. The companies that succeed won’t just be those with the best products, but those that understand how to operate within, around, and alongside regulatory systems.
