MoMo Payment Service Bank’s appointment of former Flutterwave Chief Operating Officer Bode Abifarin as its managing director and chief executive officer is more than a routine leadership change. It highlights a growing movement of fintech experience into Africa’s banks and telecom-backed financial businesses.
Abifarin assumed the role on September 1, 2026, after more than two decades across financial services, consulting, digital payments, fintech and business transformation. She joined Flutterwave in 2018 after about 15 years at KPMG Nigeria and left the payments company in March 2024. Flutterwave described her as a key figure in its operational growth and expansion.
Her arrival at MoMo PSB comes as MTN Nigeria reshapes its fintech business and seeks to turn its large telecommunications customer base into a stronger financial-services platform.
The timing is significant because MoMo PSB has faced a difficult growth path. MTN Nigeria reported a 55.6% year-on-year decline in active MoMo wallets to 2.1 million in the first quarter of 2025, although the company said the decline reflected a deliberate focus on improving the quality of its customer base.
By the first half of 2026, active wallets had recovered to about five million. However, MTN’s fintech revenue still fell 7.2% to ₦77.2 billion during the period, according to reporting based on the company’s financial results. The decline was partly linked to disruption to its airtime-lending business, with second-quarter fintech revenue from the service falling sharply.
The pressure is also visible in MTN Nigeria’s accounts. The company recognised a combined ₦62.56 billion impairment on its investments in MoMo PSB and Y’ello Digital Financial Services in its 2025 financial statements. An independent Deloitte valuation was also reported to have placed the combined value of the businesses substantially below their carrying value.
That makes Abifarin’s background particularly relevant. She has experience operating inside a large African fintech, rather than simply advising one. At Flutterwave, she was involved in building operating structures and supporting expansion across markets, while her earlier KPMG career exposed her to strategy and transformation work across financial services.
The movement of fintech executives into established financial institutions is not limited to Nigeria.
In Kenya, Absa appointed Sitoyo Lopokoiyit, the former chief executive of M-PESA Africa, as its chief executive for personal and private banking, effective April 1, 2026. Before joining Absa, Lopokoiyit had been responsible for M-PESA across seven African markets, with more than 56 million active customers and over five million businesses.
Stanbic Bank Kenya also appointed Michael Mutiga as chief executive effective August 1, 2026. Mutiga previously served as Safaricom’s chief business development and strategy officer and has experience spanning banking, telecommunications and digital financial services.
These appointments do not by themselves establish that banks and telcos are systematically replacing fintechs as employers. But they show a clear exchange of expertise between the sectors, particularly around digital payments, customer acquisition, technology-led financial services and large-scale operations.
At the same time, fintech companies are under greater pressure to control costs. Flutterwave, for example, cut about half of its workforce in Kenya and South Africa in 2025 as part of a restructuring that the company described as a performance and strategy-led review. TechCabal reported that the cuts affected several departments and came after an earlier reduction in its global workforce.
The broader talent equation is also being shaped by pay and regulation. TechCabal reported in January 2026 that Kenyan banks had raised salaries for some technology, risk and compliance roles, with Equity Bank increasing entry-level permanent staff pay by about 20% in December 2025.
For MoMo PSB, the immediate challenge is therefore larger than appointing a new CEO. MTN has to convert its distribution advantage into sustained fintech usage and revenue while navigating competition, regulation and the economics of digital financial services.
Abifarin’s appointment puts someone with experience from both consulting and fintech operations at the centre of that effort.
The bigger development is the direction of talent. Fintechs helped build a generation of African executives experienced in digital payments and technology-driven financial services. Banks and telecom companies are now increasingly bringing that expertise back into their own businesses.
MoMo PSB’s new leadership is one example of a financial-services industry in which the boundaries between telecoms, banks and fintechs are becoming increasingly difficult to separate.
