Look, when most people think about Nigerian tech success stories, they focus on the CEO – the face of the company, the one giving all the interviews. But let me tell you something about Ezra Olubi that most people don’t realize: this is the technical mastermind who actually built the infrastructure that made Paystack work. While his co-founder Shola Akinlade had the vision, Ezra wrote the code that turned that vision into Africa’s biggest fintech exit.
I’m going to walk you through the real story of how a programmer from Ibadan went from winning “Programmer of the Year” awards in university to co-founding a company that Stripe bought for $200 million, becoming the first Nigerian startup accepted into Y Combinator, and redefining what’s possible in African tech. This isn’t your typical tech bro story – it’s way more interesting than that.
The Ibadan Boy Who Fell in Love with Code
Ezra Olubi was born on November 12, 1986, in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. Now, if you know anything about Ibadan, you know it’s not exactly Nigeria’s tech hub. This isn’t Lagos with its startup scene or Abuja with its government tech contracts. This is a traditional Yoruba city known more for its history than its innovation ecosystem.
But here’s what shaped Ezra early: he discovered programming at a young age and became absolutely obsessed with it. We’re talking about a kid who taught himself QBASIC, then Visual BASIC, mastering programming languages before most of his peers even knew what code was.
He attended Iganmode Grammar School, completing his secondary education in 2002. Even then, classmates remember him as the guy who was always tinkering with computers, always trying to build something, always asking “what if we could automate this?”
That early passion for programming? It wasn’t just a hobby. It was preparation for building something that would eventually process billions of naira in transactions.
The Babcock Years: Where Legends Are Made
In 2006, Ezra enrolled at Babcock University in Ilishan Remo, Ogun State, to study Computer Science. This is where the Ezra Olubi biography really starts getting interesting, because Babcock is where he met Shola Akinlade – though they weren’t particularly close at the time.
But here’s what matters about those Babcock years: Ezra wasn’t just another computer science student coasting through classes. He was nominated for and won multiple awards including “Young Programmer of the Year” and “Programmer of the Year” – not once, but multiple times.
Think about what that means. In a competitive computer science program, this guy was consistently recognized as the best programmer in his class. That’s not luck. That’s obsession, talent, and relentless dedication to craft.
He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science in 2010, and by then, he’d already started building real products for real companies. While other graduates were sending out CVs hoping for entry-level positions, Ezra already had actual software development experience and a reputation.
One of his university lecturers later said: “Ezra was a vibrant and self-determined young man who gave his everything for programming… Ezra imparted knowledge, inspired and mentored other young programmers and his success is there for all to see.”
That’s not just a teacher being nice. That’s recognition that this student was exceptional.
The Journey Before Paystack: Building the Foundation
Most people don’t know this, but Ezra’s path to Paystack wasn’t straight. He didn’t graduate and immediately co-found a unicorn. He spent nearly a decade building expertise, learning different systems, and understanding how payments and e-commerce actually work.
The Career Timeline:
2006: IT Administration at Business Management Consultants
While still in university, Ezra worked as an IT Administrator from June to October 2006. First taste of corporate tech work.
2006-2007: Web Developer at North Ocean Logistics & Solutions Ltd
Developed e-commerce websites and web applications. This is where he first started understanding online commerce systems.
2007-2010: VP Product Development at Softcom Ltd
This is huge. At Softcom, Ezra developed reloadNG.com and softpurse.com (which later became wishstop.com, launched August 1, 2008). He was building payment and commerce platforms years before Paystack.
2010-2012: Head of Solutions at SoftcomImagio Ltd
Actively worked on eyowo.com, another payment solution. Notice the pattern? Ezra kept gravitating toward payment systems and financial technology.
2012-2013: Chief Technology Officer at Jobberman Nigeria
Jobberman was (and still is) one of Nigeria’s biggest job platforms. Being CTO of an established tech company at 26? That’s not typical.
2014-2015: CTO at Delivery Science
Another CTO role, more experience scaling tech infrastructure.
2012-Present: Director of Magic at Alexander Haring Ltd
Even while building other companies, Ezra maintained a consultancy offering technical advice to businesses, coordinating requirements gathering, building and supervising teams for custom software projects.
See what happened here? By the time Shola approached him about Paystack in 2015, Ezra had nearly a decade of experience specifically in payments, e-commerce, and financial technology. He’d already built payment systems. He’d already been CTO of multiple companies. He knew exactly what worked and what didn’t.
That’s why Shola didn’t approach just any programmer. He approached THE programmer who’d already proven he could build payment infrastructure.
The Paystack Origin Story: When Vision Met Technical Excellence
In October 2015, Shola Akinlade had an idea. He’d figured out he could charge a card from his computer and thought it was cool. But he knew he couldn’t build it alone. He needed someone with serious technical chops, someone who understood payment systems, someone he could trust.
He remembered Ezra from Babcock. They hadn’t been particularly close as students, but Shola knew Ezra’s reputation. He knew about the awards, the experience, the track record. So Shola reached out with a proposition: help me build a payment system for African businesses.
Ezra looked at what Shola was building and recognized something others might have missed: this wasn’t just another payment gateway. This was solving a real problem. Nigerian businesses were struggling to accept payments online. Existing solutions were clunky, expensive, and unreliable.
As Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder, Ezra took Shola’s vision and built the actual infrastructure. While Shola handled business development and strategy, Ezra was in the code, architecting the systems, ensuring security, building the API that developers would actually want to use.
The division was clear: Shola was CEO handling business strategy, Ezra was CTO handling everything technical. And that partnership? It turned out to be one of the most successful founder combinations in African tech history.
The Y Combinator Breakthrough: Nigeria’s First
In 2016, Paystack achieved something no Nigerian startup had done before: they were accepted into Y Combinator’s prestigious startup accelerator program in Silicon Valley.
Let that sink in for a moment. Y Combinator had funded Airbnb, Dropbox, Reddit, and dozens of billion-dollar companies. And now, for the first time, they were funding a Nigerian startup.
Paystack received $120,000 in seed funding from Y Combinator. But more valuable than the money was the validation, the network, and the mentorship. Suddenly, this Lagos-based payment company was in the same cohort as startups from around the world, with access to the same resources and networks.
Ezra and Shola spent months in San Francisco, absorbing everything they could learn. For Ezra particularly, it was eye-opening. He saw what scale looked like, what world-class engineering teams were building, and what was possible.
When they returned to Lagos, they brought that Silicon Valley mindset but applied it to African problems. That combination – Valley ambition with local understanding – became Paystack’s superpower.
Building Africa’s Payment Infrastructure: The Technical Achievement
What most people don’t appreciate about Paystack is the sheer technical complexity of what Ezra and his team built. This wasn’t just a simple payment form. This was enterprise-grade financial infrastructure that had to:
Handle multiple payment channels: Cards, bank transfers, USSD, mobile money, QR codes
Work across African countries: Different currencies, regulations, banking systems
Ensure bank-level security: PCI-DSS compliance, encryption, fraud detection
Scale massively: From dozens to thousands of transactions per second
Maintain 99.9% uptime: Because downtime means merchants lose money
Provide developer-friendly APIs: So businesses could integrate easily
As CTO, Ezra was responsible for all of this. He built and led the engineering team that made Paystack not just functional, but actually better than international alternatives for African businesses.
By October 2018, the numbers told the story: over 25,000 merchants, 2.9 million payments processed, $27.5 million paid out to businesses. And this was all running on infrastructure Ezra and his team had built from scratch.
The $200 Million Exit: Stripe Comes Calling
On October 15, 2020, the announcement that shocked Nigeria’s tech ecosystem dropped: Stripe was acquiring Paystack for over $200 million.
Read that number again. Two hundred million dollars. For a Nigerian startup. This was the largest startup exit in Nigerian history – and it still is as of 2025.
Stripe, valued at over $95 billion at the time, saw in Paystack exactly what they needed: a proven payment infrastructure for Africa, a team that understood the continent, and technical excellence that met their standards.
Think about what that means for Ezra specifically. Stripe is known for having some of the highest engineering standards in Silicon Valley. They don’t acquire companies with mediocre tech. The fact that they bought Paystack validates everything Ezra built technically.
After the acquisition, Ezra didn’t just cash out and disappear. He continued as CTO, now with Stripe’s resources, network, and backing to scale Paystack across Africa. Paystack expanded from Nigeria to Ghana, South Africa, and beyond.
The acquisition made Ezra and Shola extremely wealthy, though exact figures aren’t public. Estimates place Ezra’s net worth in the millions of dollars, with some sources suggesting he made tens of millions from the Stripe deal.
The National Honor: Recognition from the Presidency
On October 11, 2022, President Muhammadu Buhari conferred national honors on several Nigerians for their contributions to the country. Both Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi received the Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) award.
This is one of Nigeria’s highest civilian honors, given to individuals who have made significant contributions to the nation, particularly in technology and business.
But here’s where the story gets interesting and very public: Ezra showed up to receive his award wearing lipstick and makeup. A video of President Buhari staring at Ezra during the ceremony went viral on social media, sparking massive conversations about gender expression, LGBTQ+ advocacy, and what it means to be yourself in Nigeria’s conservative society.
Ezra has publicly stated he is heterosexual but challenges traditional gender norms through his fashion choices. He regularly wears lipstick, nail polish, and makeup, using his platform and visibility to advocate for personal freedom and LGBTQ+ rights in Nigeria.
This wasn’t accidental. This was Ezra using one of Nigeria’s most formal, traditional ceremonies to make a statement: you can be excellent, successful, and nationally honored while being unapologetically yourself.
The internet exploded. Some praised his courage. Others criticized him. But everyone was talking about it – and that’s exactly the point of advocacy.
Beyond Paystack: The Other Ventures
While Paystack remains his primary focus, Ezra Olubi hasn’t put all his energy into one basket:
Alexander Haring Ltd (2012-Present):
As “Director of Magic” (yes, that’s his actual title), Ezra continues providing technical consulting to businesses. He advises on technical strategy, coordinates requirements gathering, builds teams for custom software projects, and helps companies solve complex technical challenges.
Brass (Investor/Advisor):
Brass is a Nigerian digital bank delivering premium banking services for small and medium-sized businesses. Ezra has been involved as an investor and likely technical advisor, applying lessons from Paystack to another fintech venture.
Mentorship and Advocacy:
Ezra actively mentors young programmers and entrepreneurs, passing on knowledge the same way senior developers helped him early in his career.
The Personal Side: Life Beyond Code
Despite his public profile, Ezra keeps much of his personal life private. He’s single as of available information, with no publicly confirmed spouse or children.
What we do know about Ezra’s personal life comes from what he chooses to share publicly:
Social Media Presence:
Ezra is active on social media, particularly Twitter (now X) and LinkedIn, where he shares insights about tech, entrepreneurship, and occasionally, his views on social issues.
Fashion and Self-Expression:
His choice to wear makeup and lipstick isn’t just fashion – it’s political. In a country where LGBTQ+ people face discrimination and where rigid gender norms are enforced, Ezra’s visibility matters.
In April 2021, he shared photos of what he wore to a friend’s wedding on Twitter with the caption: “My friend invited me to her wedding party and all I heard was ‘Ezra get dressed!'” The photos showed him in full makeup and bold fashion choices.
LGBTQ+ Advocacy:
While Ezra identifies as heterosexual, he’s become an unlikely advocate for LGBTQ+ rights in Nigeria simply by refusing to conform to traditional masculine presentation. His platform and success give him protection that allows him to push boundaries others can’t.
The Technical Philosophy: How Ezra Builds
Based on interviews and his body of work, here’s what defines Ezra’s approach to building technology:
User-First Design:
Paystack’s API is famously developer-friendly. That’s intentional. Ezra believes technology should be intuitive and well-documented.
Solve Real Problems:
Don’t build tech for tech’s sake. Identify actual pain points and solve them completely.
African Solutions for African Challenges:
International solutions don’t always work in African contexts. Paystack works because it was built specifically for African payment challenges.
Build for Scale:
Don’t build for today’s 100 merchants. Build infrastructure that can handle 100,000 merchants.
Quality Over Speed:
While Silicon Valley often prioritizes “move fast and break things,” financial infrastructure can’t break. Ezra prioritizes reliability and security.
The Legacy Question: What Has Ezra Actually Achieved?
At 38 years old (turning 39 in November 2025), Ezra has already built a legacy that most tech entrepreneurs dream about:
Firsts and Achievements:
- Co-founded first Nigerian startup accepted into Y Combinator
- Led technical team behind Nigeria’s largest startup exit ($200 million)
- Built payment infrastructure processing billions of naira annually
- Received national honor (OON) from Nigerian president
- Became one of Nigeria’s most visible tech leaders
Impact on African Tech: Paystack didn’t just succeed – it changed what was possible. It proved that:
- African startups can build world-class technology
- International investors will pay premium prices for African companies
- Nigerian engineers can compete globally
- African markets deserve African-built solutions
Influence on Next Generation: Dozens of Paystack alumni have gone on to found their own startups, work at top tech companies, and become technical leaders. Ezra’s approach to building teams and mentoring developers has influenced an entire generation of Nigerian engineers.
The Bottom Line: Understanding Ezra’s True Contribution
Here’s what the Ezra Olubi biography really teaches us: technical excellence matters just as much as business vision. While Shola gets (and deserves) credit for Paystack’s vision and business success, Ezra deserves equal credit for turning that vision into reality.
You can have the best idea in the world, but if you can’t build it properly, it fails. Ezra is why Paystack didn’t fail. He’s why it scaled. He’s why it worked reliably enough that Stripe decided it was worth $200 million.
Beyond the code and the companies, Ezra represents something important for Nigeria: you can be brilliant, successful, wealthy, and nationally honored while being exactly who you are. His visibility as someone who challenges gender norms while achieving extraordinary professional success matters in a conservative society.
At 38, Ezra Olubi has already changed African tech. The question now is: what does he build next?
