VoguePay CEO Michael Femi, Talks The Future of Africa’s Fintech Industry

Michael Simeon Femi is the CEO of VoguePay, a secure payment platform in Nigeria. He has been named Payment Personality Leader of the year at African Prize for Leadership Awards. Under his leadership, VoguePay has won prestigious industry awards including “African online payment of the year” at the African Achievers Awards (2016), the “best fintech startup” at the Cashless Africa award (2017) among several others.

Q: Please tell us about yourself ?

I am an Entrepreneur with a vision and hunger to provide value to people and businesses using fintech solutions.

Q: How did you discover your vision? How did you also get started- business plan, capital sourcing, prior experience, mentorships, etc.?

I co-founded VoguePay together with 3 other co-founders – Leke Ojikutu, Geoffrey Weli Wosu, Quam Ojikutu. Voguepay started with the need to enable small businesses to receive payments online from their customers… to build a payment Bridge between Africa and the world. From our humble beginning, VoguePay grew to process payments globally for more than 100,000 merchants across Europe, North America, Asia, and Africa.

Q: Describe your company- name, services / products, other information you would like to provide.

VoguePay is an online payment processing company. Our services and products involve providing a means for SMEs to receive payments from anywhere in the world. We provide free plug-ins and free API integrations to businesses. Recently, the VoguePay team created a spinoff called VoguePayDigital (VPD). VPD is a digital bank and lifestyle solution. VPD was created with the millennials in mind. An app that enables ease of transfer and receipts of funds with lower charge rates than the conventional banks. VPD also connects its users to affordable services and provides an easy means for them to make payment for these services while keeping track of their expenses.

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Q: What does the term “financial inclusion” mean to you?

Financial inclusion refers to the ability to provide people with appropriate and affordable access to financial services regardless of their income threshold or educational level.

Q: What are some of the most effective ways in which your business is currently promoting financial inclusion in Africa?

At VoguePay, it is our aim to ensure that more people can dialogue and access financial services with ease. Data has also shown that a great percentage of the adult population in Nigeria and across Africa are unbanked. This is part of the problems VoguePay Digital (VPD) app aims to solve by providing a borderless and affordable financial solution that fits the needs of the people.

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