Linda Olumide on building people strategy in fintech: From survival to scale

In Nigeria, more than 40% of startups funded between 2021 and 2023 had already shut down by mid-2024, according to industry data. Linda Olumide, an internationally certified HR leader, notes that while funding gaps, regulation, and flawed business models play a role, people issues consistently feature.

From weak leadership and shallow talent pools to high attrition. This is a sector that contributes almost 20% of Nigeria’s GDP through ICT, yet too often lacks the people foundations to sustain growth.

This pattern is not unique to Nigeria. When fintech layoffs dominated global headlines throughout 2024, from Klarna to Revolut to dozens of smaller startups, industry observers noted a troubling pattern.

Companies that had raised hundreds of millions were cutting staff not due to product failures or market rejection, but because they had never built sustainable people practices to match their ambitious growth targets.

For Nigerian founders, this global lesson hits particularly hard. Currency volatility, competition from international remote jobs paying in hard currency, and inflation all add complexity to reward strategies. Traditional salary-based retention is no longer enough.

Understanding these challenges, effective people strategy starts with recognising how talent needs evolve. Early-stage Nigerian fintechs rely on versatile generalists, developers who double as customer support, or operations staff handling compliance basics.

By the time a company scales, those roles must give way to specialists: cybersecurity experts, regulatory officers, and professional managers who can design scalable systems. Without this shift, startups stall just as growth takes off.

A robust people strategy therefore goes beyond hiring, it integrates workforce planning, leadership development, reward design, and culture-building into the business model itself.

Linda Olumide on leadership and retention challenges

Yet leadership development remains a persistent weak spot. Many Nigerian startups elevate founders or first hires into leadership roles without coaching or structured support. This creates a dangerous pattern where technical experts are thrust into people management without the skills to succeed.

Job satisfaction and growth opportunities are key predictors of turnover intention. Organisations that invest in flexible work arrangements and work-life balance consistently see improved retention rates. Even modest people-centric policies deliver measurable returns.

Given these leadership challenges, retention has now become more critical than recruitment. Inflation makes salary adjustments difficult, but employees are not leaving only for money.

Clear career pathways, fair reward frameworks, and strong development opportunities are what keep top performers from leaving. This is especially important as the government’s 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) programme raises expectations for training and career growth across the sector.

These retention pressures reflect broader global competition. In the UK, fintech hiring is expected to grow by 32% in 2025 according to Morgan McKinley and Vacancysoft research, with compliance, fraud, and cybersecurity roles among the fastest-growing.

Nigerian fintech entities are competing in the same global market for scarce skills. Without strong people systems, they risk being outbid or out-attracted by international firms.

Beyond recruitment and retention lies an even more fundamental challenge: culture remains the most overlooked factor. The informal energy of a five-person team rarely scales to 50 or 500 without deliberate design.

Fintech platforms must define values, behaviours, and communication norms early. In Nigeria’s context, where technical precision, customer empathy, and regulatory compliance must coexist, culture by accident quickly becomes culture in conflict. Where culture is weak, collaboration suffers, innovation slows, and compliance failures multiply.

Building on these cultural foundations, smart investors increasingly recognise these realities. Due diligence now goes beyond revenue and user growth to evaluate talent pipeline strength through metrics such as internal promotion rates and systematic people practices. These are stronger predictors of whether a company can handle scale and downturns.

Capital and technology may start the journey. People strategy decides whether fintechs scale or stumble. For Nigerian founders and investors, building robust people systems is not just good practice, it is a survival strategy in a market where talent scarcity can quickly become competitive disadvantage.

Linda Olumide is an internationally certified HR leader focused on people strategy and workforce transformation in the telecom sector.

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