Tayo Oviosu is the founder and CEO of Paga, a mobile payments company focused on digitizing cash in emerging markets. He was born on September 10, 1977.
Paga’s first market is Nigeria. He is a graduate of Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California and also has a master’s degree in Business Administration from the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University. He formerly worked as a Manager Corporate Development at Cisco Systems in San Jose, California, and as a vice president at Travant Capital Partners in Lagos, Nigeria, before founding Paga in 2009, where he is currently the Group Chief Executive Officer.  Tayo Oviosu is passionate about assisting entrepreneurs in bringing their ideas to life and building scalable enterprises. Kairos Angels was founded as a result of this passion.
After graduating from USC, Oviosu began his work as a Semiconductor Chip Design Engineer at Biomorphic VLSI and subsequently as a Software Engineer at Event 411, both in Los Angeles, California. He eventually worked as a Senior Consultant with Deloitte Consulting in the CRM and Technology division. Following business school, he joined Cisco Systems in San Jose, California, where he was responsible for strategy, acquisitions, and private equity investments in a few segments, as well as helping to lead Cisco’s investment expansion in Africa. He oversaw investments and acquisitions such as the $130 million acquisition of Reactivity and the investment in Guardium.
When asked what he does to maintain his status as a pioneer of African financial technology (Fintech), he said:
“Well, it’s absolutely interesting when people say things like that to me because I didn’t set out thinking I want to become a pioneer. But the fact that my progress has inspired a lot of people is a good thing. And my hope is that those who are coming after me, in terms of starting companies in Africa, can have it easier because of the success that we’ve experienced. That said, I do have in my head now the idea that I am some sort of role model and that I have to think about my actions and how I operate our business at Paga because we are at a very interesting place in the world right now where there’s more and more interest on the African continent. And it’s only good examples that people know and can relate to that will continue to drive that interest.”
