TIME magazine has named Moniepoint co-founder, Mr. Felix Ike, as the only African company executive on its inaugural Executives of the Year: Tech and Data list.
Moniepoint Founder Mr. Tosin Eniolorunda, on Thursday, in a statement described the recognition as a proud moment for the company and Nigeria.
Eniolorunda, who is also the Group Chief Executive Officer, said that Ike, the Chief Technology Officer, had played a significant role in building infrastructure supporting millions of livelihoods.
“Recognition like this still humbles us. Felix has contributed significantly to building infrastructure that now carries the weight of millions of livelihoods,” he said.
According to him, the recognition reflects the growing global profile of Nigerian technology and the wider African technology ecosystem.
He said that Moniepoint currently served more than 10 million businesses and individuals in Nigeria and other markets.
Eniolorunda said that the company had also featured on the Financial Times’ ranking of Africa’s Fastest-Growing Companies and CNBC’s World’s Top Fintech Companies list.
He said that the 50-person list recognised technology and data executives whose decisions influenced how major organisations deploy technology, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and data.
Ike was named alongside executives from global technology companies including Netflix, CrowdStrike, Dell, Duolingo, AT&T, OpenAI, Anthropic, Shopify and Reddit.
Eniolorunda said that Ike’s inclusion also made the Nigerian fintech the only African company represented on the list.
TIME, in recognising Ike, said that he had helped establish Moniepoint as one of Africa’s leading financial platforms.
The recognition came a year after Moniepoint was included in TIME’s 2025 list of the 100 Most Influential Companies.
Ike, a first-class computer science graduate of the University of Lagos, co-founded Moniepoint with Tosin Eniolorunda in 2015.
He had since overseen the development of the technology infrastructure supporting the company’s financial services for businesses and individuals.
Moniepoint started as a back-end payments infrastructure provider for banks before expanding into business banking and other financial services.
The company attained unicorn status in 2024 and said that it was currently processes about eight in 10 in-person digital payment transactions in Nigeria.
Reacting to the recognition, Ike said that the honour demonstrated the growing capacity of African-built technology to compete globally.
“This is a deeply significant honour, and one I do not take lightly. But beyond what it means personally, it says something bigger,” he said.
The co-founder said that Nigerian engineering, developed to solve local and African challenges, could compete alongside technology built in established global markets.
He said that Moniepoint would continue to build resilient systems for millions of businesses and individuals relying on its services.
