Fara Ashiru Jituboh, co-founder and former CEO/CTO of Nigerian fintech startup Okra, has joined UK-based Revenue Operations (RevOps) startup Kernel as Head of Engineering. Her move comes after a period of quiet upheaval at Okra, which officially shut down in May 2025 following a bold but costly pivot into cloud infrastructure.
Jituboh’s departure from Okra, which she founded with David Peterside in 2019, marks the close of a key chapter in the evolution of African fintech. Known for its early success in pioneering open banking APIs in Nigeria, Okra connected users’ bank accounts to financial apps in real time — a foundational step for data-driven fintech on the continent. Backed by investors like TLcom Capital and Susa Ventures, the company raised over $15 million and at its peak, boasted integrations with major financial players such as Access Bank, AIICO Insurance, Bamboo, and Renmoney.
Okra wasn’t just another startup; it was a statement. At a time when African financial systems were still largely walled gardens, Okra offered a bridge — one built with reliable APIs, developer-first tools, and high uptime. Under Jituboh’s leadership, the startup served over 400 businesses and facilitated services like identity verification, payment initiation, and real-time account data syncing.
But Okra’s journey also reflected the challenges facing Africa’s startup ecosystem. As Nigeria’s economy worsened, exchange rate volatility began to eat into operational margins. Cloud infrastructure, billed in dollars, became one of the company’s biggest expenses — second only to salaries.
In response, Okra launched Nebula in October 2024, a naira-denominated cloud platform aimed at reducing dependence on hyperscalers like AWS and Azure. The move echoed a wider trend among Nigerian tech firms pushing back against dollar-priced infrastructure. Despite its ambition and technical strength — Nebula leveraged Tier 3 and 4 data centers — Okra faced an uphill climb. Scaling cloud services in a volatile macroeconomic environment proved more capital-intensive than anticipated, and without consumer traction or regulatory tailwinds, the company couldn’t sustain the transition.
Jituboh confirmed in May 2025 that Okra had wound down operations. “We built impactful technology, worked with some of the biggest brands across the continent, and helped pioneer open banking in Africa,” she said.
Her new role at Kernel signals a return to technical leadership in a growing market. Kernel, a RevOps startup based in the UK, develops tools that streamline revenue operations for scaling businesses. With over a decade of experience spanning Canva, BMW, JP Morgan, and now Kernel, Jituboh brings rare insight into scaling systems across both developed and emerging markets.
While the quiet closure of Okra is a sobering reminder of how fragile success can be in Africa’s tech scene, Jituboh’s journey also underscores a powerful truth: African founders are now exporting talent globally. From building API rails in Lagos to engineering revenue solutions in London, her story mirrors the continent’s ambition — bold, resilient, and global in reach.
