Moniepoint, the Nigerian fintech that grew from point-of-sale terminals into a bank for millions of small businesses, is changing how it builds products. In a statement to Techpoint Africa, the company said it is restructuring its engineering and product functions, and that some existing roles will become redundant while new ones are created.
What changes
The company is moving to what it calls a platform-group model: small teams, each focused on one product area and each owning that product from development through deployment and day-to-day operations. Moniepoint says the aim is more autonomy and clearer responsibility for what each team builds.
"The new structure requires fewer roles in some areas, while creating new ones, including platform architects," the company said. Those architects will design and oversee the systems each platform group builds on. Moniepoint did not disclose how many roles are affected.
- Affected employees will be considered for open positions elsewhere in the company where possible.
- Where no suitable role exists, a redundancy consultation process will begin.
- Moniepoint describes the change as part of a regular strategic review, meant to speed up product development and improve reliability as it grows into new markets.
The context
The move comes two months after Moniepoint shut down Monieworld, its remittance product for the UK-Nigeria corridor, about 18 months after launch. Techpoint suggests the restructuring may reflect lessons from that launch and from Moniepoint's push into new markets; the company did not confirm that link.
Platform teams are a common answer when a fintech's product list outgrows the structure it started with. The test for Moniepoint will be whether fewer, more focused teams can keep a service that small businesses depend on every day running smoothly while they ship new products faster.
