In the architecture of African finance, the distinction between building tools and laying rails is often blurred until a company decides to own the transaction itself. TeamApt’s journey from reconciling bank ledgers to powering payment switching engines illustrates this strategic pivot.
The Infrastructure Pivot
Founded in 2015 as a software solution provider for banks, TeamApt’s early goal was to bridge the gap between front-end applications and complex back-end systems. When Dennis Ajalie joined as a senior business development officer in 2018, the company operated with what he described as “two and a half products,” mostly focused on helping banks reconcile the messy reality of manual tracking.
The company launched Profectus in 2016 to automate transaction matching and account balance verification. Ajalie noted, “It was the first product that we launched… It was not just successful in Nigeria—banks like Zenith, FCMB, and Sterling used it. It was also used in Ghana.” Commercial banks utilized Moneytor by 2018 to power mobile products, including Sterling Bank’s OnePay and Unity Bank’s Unifi app. Ajalie recalled, “Almost all the banks were on the acquiring side. We worked on mobile apps as well.”
Founder Tosin Eniolorunda’s vision was rooted in the permanence of banking. “Money and happiness are fundamental to human existence. At the centre of money and happiness is the banks because that’s where people save their money. We believed that if we could build technology solutions that implement these properly, we would have won because it is not going to change till Jesus comes,” Eniolorunda said in this 2018 feature.
Regulatory Headwinds and Growth
The year Ajalie joined, the fintech sector in Nigeria was still taking shape. Startups raised a record $103.4 million, but regulation remained uncertain. A draft policy from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) proposed new licensing requirements that signalled tighter oversight and higher capital thresholds. According to global advisory firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the sector had no dedicated regulatory framework and was still evolving.
Nigeria’s fintech sector has since scaled rapidly, raising $520 million in equity funding in 2024 alone. The Central Bank has emerged as the de facto regulator of the ecosystem. Moniepoint Group, which Eniolorunda now leads, is one of the largest SME-focused fintechs in Nigeria and recently raised $200 million. Ajalie, who is also a software developer, now leads TeamApt as its chief executive officer, operating it as a subsidiary within the Moniepoint group.
Owning the Rails
Instead of just building tools for banks, TeamApt wanted to sit within the transaction flow itself and built its payment switching engine, AptPay. These early products gave TeamApt visibility into how money actually moves across Nigeria’s banking system—how transactions pass through switches, how banks match incoming payments to customers, and how failures, reversals, and delays are resolved behind the scenes. The engine was ready in 2018, marking a shift from visibility to control.
This evolution transforms what began as a bank-focused software company into something far more strategic: an infrastructure business that sits directly inside the flow of money. As digital payment runs on invisible switches, gateways, and processors, TeamApt’s position ensures it is no longer just a vendor but a critical component of the financial ecosystem.