Fara Ashiru Jituboh

**Fara Ashiru Jituboh: Co-founder of Okra and Tech Entrepreneur** Fara Ashiru Jituboh is a Nigerian tech innovator and entrepreneur widely recognized for her significant contributions to the African financial technology sector, particularly as the co-founder and former CEO/CTO of Okra, a pioneering open banking platform. Her career is characterized by a blend of international corporate experience and the resilience required to build complex technological infrastructure in emerging economies. **Early Career and International Experience** Before her entrepreneurial ventures, Ashiru Jituboh developed her strategic and technical expertise working with multinational corporations across different continents. Her professional background includes roles at global firms such as **JP Morgan** and **BMW**, where she sharpened her strategic thinking and gained exposure to global banking operations. A later role at **Canva** further deepened her product design skills, which proved crucial for building user-friendly fintech infrastructure. She also co-founded **Shixels Studios**, where she served as the CTO. In this role, she led the design and development of core technology for major clients, including **Airtel**, **AXA Mansard**, **RenMoney**, **MTech**, **Sanofi Pharmaceuticals**, and **Nestoil**. Ashiru Jituboh is noted for her broad technical proficiency, with expertise in over 20 programming languages. **Pioneering Open Banking with Okra** Ashiru Jituboh co-founded **Okra**, a Nigerian fintech startup that set out to reshape Africa's financial landscape by building cloud infrastructure to connect financial systems. Okra’s core product was a secure API platform that enabled data sharing between banks, fintech companies, and consumers, streamlining services like payments, lending, and savings across the continent. Under her leadership, Okra achieved significant traction quickly, securing partnerships with major institutions such as **AIICO Insurance** and **Renmoney**. The platform reported a 175% growth in 2020. The company’s success attracted significant investor confidence in African fintech, raising approximately **$16.5 million in funding**. **Major Achievements and Notable Ventures** A notable initiative during her tenure at Okra was the launch of **Nebula** in October 2024. Nebula was a naira-denominated cloud platform designed to serve as a homegrown alternative to international cloud providers like AWS and Azure, positioning the startup as an infrastructure player alongside local rivals. Okra’s journey as a pioneering open banking platform marked a key era in Nigerian fintech, although its operations eventually ceased in 2025. **Current Status** Following her departure from Okra, Fara Ashiru Jituboh transitioned back to a global engineering role. Her current status involves joining **Kernel**, a UK-based Revenue Operations (RevOps) startup, where she serves as the **Head of Engineering**.