By Juliet Umeh

Babatunde Esanju, a seasoned software engineer, open-source innovator, and tech entrepreneur, reflects on his journey and vision for technology in this interview.

Having worked across LegalTech, FinTech, and AgriTech, Esanju is driven by a single mission, to use technology that simplifies and improves everyday life. From automating court processes to digitising insurance and enabling instant cross-border payments, his work focuses on trust, accessibility, and inclusion.

He believes innovation must serve people, not just progress, envisioning a world where digital systems make opportunities universally accessible and fair, where technology becomes an enduring bridge between potential and possibility.

You’ve worked across multiple sectors, from LegalTech to FinTech and AgriTech. What ties all your projects together?

What unites all my work is the desire to build systems that simplify ordinary people’s lives. Whether it was a LegalTech platform automating case management or a FinTech API enabling instant cross-border transfers, my motivation has never been “technology for technology’s sake.”

It’s about translation: turning complex systems into experiences people can trust and use without understanding the code underneath.

I see technology as a bridge between opportunity and accessibility. In every sector I’ve touched, I try to identify what’s broken, isolate the friction points, and build digital pathways that make people’s lives more predictable. The names of the industries change, but the goal remains constant: building technology that outlives me and keeps creating value long after I’ve moved on.

You’ve helped modernise several industries. Which transformation do you consider most impactful and why?

Digitising insurance and cross-border payments had the greatest ripple effects.

When we launched one of Nigeria’s first insurance e-commerce shops in 2019, we collapsed weeks of paperwork into minutes of digital experience. It forced an entire sector, once allergic to innovation, to rethink what was possible.

Later, with Wyrr, a remittance platform, we proved that moving money across borders could be instant, affordable, and compliant. We didn’t just reduce costs; we restored trust for people who had spent years doubting financial systems.

Those experiences taught me that meaningful innovation happens when technology meets empathy. If you can feel a user’s frustration deeply enough, you’ll build something that changes behavior, not just processes.

Many of your innovations focus on financial inclusion. What inspired that mission?

I saw intelligent, hard working people struggle while growing up, not because they lacked talent, but because nobody built systems with them in mind.

Financial inclusion became personal when I saw small traders, artisans, and farmers locked out of formal finance simply because they didn’t fit the traditional template. I remember a skilled tailor in Lagos who couldn’t get a business loan because she had no formal credit history, despite running a profitable business for years. Meanwhile, her daily savings sat idle under her mattress because banks required minimum balances she couldn’t maintain.

Inclusion, for me, is infrastructure. It’s when a market woman in Osun can access micro-credit from her phone as easily as a banker in London logs into an app.

That vision fuels everything I build. Whether it’s PayBridge.SDK connecting payment gateways worldwide or GenCapita letting Africans invest in global securities, my mission is to make access the default, not the privilege.

What are the biggest challenges facing Nigerian startups trying to scale globally?

Scaling globally requires more than ambition; it requires trustworthy systems. The biggest challenge is infrastructure consistency: compliance documentation, predictable APIs, clear data models, and reliable uptime. International investors and partners look for maturity in process, not just promise.

We must design for credibility from day one, clear audit trails, data protection policies, and transparent governance. Another challenge is cultural: we often build for survival, not for scale.

When you begin to think like a systems builder rather than an app creator, global scaling becomes inevitable. The world trusts processes, not improvisations.

How did your experience at LSETF shape your understanding of how technology empowers small businesses?

LSETF was an eye-opener. We digitised funding applications, training modules, and performance tracking for thousands of SMEs across Lagos.

Suddenly, a process that took weeks became accessible in days, and business owners could track loan progress in real time.

It proved to me that technology’s greatest gift is visibility. When you can see data, you can make fairer decisions. Many businesses weren’t failing because they were inefficient; they were failing because nobody could measure their potential. By creating transparency, we built confidence among entrepreneurs, lenders, and policymakers.

That experience shaped my philosophy: technology must first make people visible before it can make them profitable.

You’ve worked on both public- and private-sector platforms. How do you view collaboration between the two?

Public and private partnerships are the foundation of scalable innovation. Governments have legitimacy and reach; startups bring agility and creativity.

I’ve seen this in projects involving digital identity and remittance compliance frameworks. When public infrastructure supports startup innovation through open APIs, sandbox policies, and co-designed data standards, transformation becomes sustainable.

The moment the government sees innovation as collaboration rather than disruption, nations leap forward.

You led the development of one of Nigeria’s first insurance e-commerce shops. How did that redefine the industry’s digital mindset?

In 2019, we changed the conversation from “insurance as paperwork” to “insurance as experience.”

Before that project, buying a policy required several forms, middlemen, and long waiting times. We replaced that with instant quotes, digital KYC, automated policy issuance, and email certificates, all verified in real time.

The shift wasn’t only technical; it was psychological. Customers began to trust that insurance could be fast and reliable. The project sparked a wave of digital adoption among traditional insurers, proving that the future of insurance was data-driven, customer-centric, and paperless.

With Wyrr and GenCapita, how do you see the future of cross-border payments and investment evolving in Africa?

The future of African finance lies in interoperability. Today, we still think of remittance as “country to country.” Tomorrow, it will be “wallet to wallet,” powered by APIs that speak the same language across borders.

Wyrr demonstrated that low-cost, instant remittance is not a dream; it’s a design choice. GenCapita extends that same logic to investment, giving Africans access to global markets with the same ease as buying airtime.

When I look ahead, I see a continent where financial borders dissolve through code, where technology is the new visa. The next decade will belong to startups that build those bridges responsibly.

The term ‘financial inclusion’ is often used broadly. What does true inclusion mean to you?

True inclusion is when technology adapts to people, not the other way around. It’s when a farmer can access insurance using voice prompts in Yoruba or Hausa, and when a caregiver in Liverpool can send money home without hidden fees or complex apps. It’s when a street vendor in Accra can receive digital payments without needing a smartphone, or when a student in a rural village can apply for scholarships through USSD codes on a basic phone.

It’s not about adding people to systems; it’s about redesigning systems around people’s literacy levels, device access, and cultural habits.

When innovation understands context, it becomes inclusion. I want a world where no one is too rural, too informal, or too disconnected to matter in the digital economy.

You’ve built solutions that balance innovation and compliance. How can Nigerian startups navigate regulation without stifling growth?

Compliance is not a burden; it’s the foundation of global trust. Startups that see regulation as a partnership rather than a punishment will scale faster. The key is to embed compliance into architecture, audit logs, encryption layers, traceable user activity, and data-sharing standards.

I often say: design for scrutiny. If your system can pass an audit any day of the week, you’re ready for international partnerships. Regulators aren’t the enemy of innovation; they are the guardians of public trust. Once they trust your system, growth accelerates.

Many African startups face infrastructure and trust deficits. What strategies have helped you overcome those barriers?

My strategy is simple: build transparency into technology. Users don’t just use platforms; they place faith in them. I make sure our systems are auditable, our APIs consistent, and our downtime communicated openly.

Technically, I rely on distributed architectures, cloud backup systems, smart data storage, and redundancy, so performance isn’t hostage to a single server.

Culturally, I prioritise empathy. If people see honesty in how you handle challenges, they forgive the imperfections. Trust isn’t a feature; it’s the outcome of consistent reliability.

How do you measure impact beyond profitability?

For me, impact means behavioral change. Profit is important; it sustains the mission, but the true test is whether technology reshapes how people live, work, or relate to each other.

If an artisan begins to save digitally because your product makes it intuitive, if hospitals start scheduling smarter because your system makes care transparent, that’s success.

I track metrics like adoption rates, hours saved, and social outcomes achieved. Revenue is the fuel; impact is the journey.

You’ve also built platforms in the United Kingdom. What lessons can African founders draw from that market?

Working in the UK taught me the power of structure. Every successful project I’ve seen here thrives on documentation, testing, accessibility, and compliance. These aren’t afterthoughts; they’re culture.

African founders can borrow that discipline while keeping our creative edge. We are naturally innovative, but structure is what turns ideas into institutions.

When we blend African resilience with global standards, we stop being consumers of technology and start exporting it.

What’s the next wave of technology shaping Africa’s economy?

The next wave is context-aware AI. Not the generic models trained elsewhere, but systems that understand African nuance, languages, spending habits, and informal economies.

Combine that with open banking and blockchain, and we can formalise millions of unbanked citizens overnight.

AI should not replace humans; it should amplify human intelligence within local realities. Africa’s tech evolution will not be about limitation; it will be about contextualisation.

Our data, our culture, our rhythm, that’s the competitive edge.

Looking ahead, what role do you see yourself playing in driving sustainable innovation across borders?

My role is to keep building bridges that don’t break. Through platforms like PayBridge, CareSyntra, and Hustle9ja, I’m showing that African-built systems can meet and exceed global standards.

But beyond code, my focus is mentorship, guiding young builders to think globally from day one. I believe sustainability means continuity: systems that keep solving problems long after their creators have moved on. That’s the legacy I’m working toward: technology that outlives me and keeps empowering people across continents.