Fara Ashiru Jituboh, co-founder and former Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian fintech company Okra, has exited the company to take up a new role as Head of Engineering at Kernel, a UK-based revenue operations software firm. The move follows Okra’s recent decision to shut down its operations in May 2025.
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Founded in 2019, Okra was a pioneer in Africa’s open banking ecosystem, providing APIs that enabled seamless integration of consumer bank accounts with third-party applications. The company secured over $16 million in venture funding and was considered a market leader in the Nigerian fintech infrastructure space. At its peak, Okra’s technology supported hundreds of businesses and maintained near-perfect system uptime.
Despite early traction, Okra faced growing challenges in recent years. These included regulatory delays, intensifying competition, and macroeconomic pressures such as currency volatility and increasing operational costs. In 2024, the company attempted to pivot by launching Nebula, a cloud infrastructure product priced in local currency to support Nigerian startups. However, the initiative did not gain sufficient traction to sustain the business.
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By early May 2025, the company had quietly shut down, discontinuing its product suite and disconnecting API access to its clients. The closure was not officially announced but was later confirmed by industry observers and through updates on the professional profiles of its leadership.
Jituboh’s transition to Kernel represents a notable shift in focus as she moves from fintech infrastructure in emerging markets to enterprise software in a global context. Kernel, based in the United Kingdom, specializes in tools that optimize revenue operations and is reportedly expanding its engineering leadership as it scales.
The closure of Okra marks a significant moment in Nigeria’s fintech landscape, reflecting the complex dynamics of building financial infrastructure in developing economies. It also underscores the trend of African tech talent moving into leadership roles within international companies, contributing to the global technology ecosystem.
