Abioye Oyetunji: From ‘money exchange agent’ to breaking barriers, creating jobs in Africa

In Africa, graduates are often seen working jobs outside of their qualifications. People fear the philosophy of focusing and becoming experts in single fields, therefore arming themselves with as many skills as they can to combat the system and become successful.

The story is no different for 28-year-old Abioye Oyetunji, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for FXKudi, a Nigerian who braved the odds to achieve a feat very few people dream of at such an early age. He forms part of individuals who began something sustainable whiles still in school and furthered it to become a success business.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of FXKudi Abioye Oyetunji, inspired by the love for technology at an early age and the urge to solve problems in societies, studied computer science during his diploma and continue to study IT.

During his days at the University in Ghana, Accra Institute of Technology, and being a foreign student, Abioye Oyetunji saw the struggles his colleague foreign students faced in sending and receiving money from their home countries, as well as the hassle of changing other currencies into Ghana cedi to pay for their fees and upkeep.

Upon understanding the difficult ends and breadth of the system, Abioye decided to become a money exchange agent where he instead did the transaction and currency exchange for other students on campus.

Realizing the space was a possible business, he tried his hands on electronic wallet with biometric as his final year project. This did not succeed as expected as he fell short in understanding the length and breadth of the field. Additionally, he was not ready for such huge cross boarder business at the time. Abioye stepped back as he prepared himself by studying intensively around the space. In 2020, Abioye decided he had prepared enough and was ready for the business thus launching his baby FXKudi with Adetunji Afeez and Kevin Kodjo to kick-start.

His vision is to give Africans access to a borderless money transfer, giving payment freedom and power to businesses across the continent. The company seeks to connect African countries through payment and digitise the informal cross-border money transfer in Africa.

According to him, payment across countries has become a huge obstacle to intra-Africa trade. Africa is the second largest continent in the world, spending by Africa’s consumers and businesses is estimated at over $4 trillion annually, with a growth in the middle and upper class population. These factors combined will inevitably lead to an increase in demand for goods and services throughout the continent – making Africa a commercially fertile ground. Thus, FXKudi is solving the problem of informal cross-border money transfer by providing solutions that will allow countries within Africa to collaborate and pose a better commercial strategy with international movement of goods and services around the world. FXKudi is expected to expand to ten African countries, providing access to affordable, reliable and zero-fee money transfer by 2025.

Responding to how unique FXKudi is compared to other cross border payment platforms, Abioye explained how flexible, available and instant the system works. FXKudi plans to ensure affordability, availability, instant money transfer on the continent. FXKudi is making remittance free without recourse to location.

FXKudi currently covers 310 locations in West Africa through the network of merchants scattered across Africa. FXKudi money transfer allow you to send and receive money into your bank account or mobile money wallet across Africa.

“People don’t have to wait so long to get the money their loved ones sent to them, and money transfer does not have to be so difficult. People need money for different reasons and sometimes it could be so urgent. This is why we made FXKudi deliver your transfer within minutes to your receiver.” he said.

With the commencement of the Africa Free Trade Area, FXKudi will play a large role to allow Africans and businesses easily and safely transfer money to aid the growth of the various economies.