OpenFinance

Big news out of the African fintech world: Okra, the Nigerian startup that helped lay the groundwork for open banking on the continent, has officially shut down.
The confirmation came from co-founder and former CEO Fara Ashiru, who announced the company’s closure in May 2025. After five years of pushing boundaries and building new financial pathways, Okra has closed its doors.
Founded in 2019, Okra started with a simple mission — make it easier to connect fintech apps to Nigerian banks. That mission came straight from Fara’s own experience. With a résumé that includes stints at Canva, BMW, and JP Morgan, she returned to Nigeria to solve a major problem: fragmented bank data and a lack of easy API access.
The solution? A powerful, secure API that let users sync their bank accounts with third-party apps. It was game-changing.
Within months, Okra was everywhere. Usage of its API jumped by 175% in early 2020. Big-name partnerships followed, and the company raised over $16.5 million in funding. Okra didn’t just build software — it set the standard for safe, real-time financial data sharing in Africa.
But in May, the team made the tough call to wind things down.
In her farewell statement, Fara said, “It was an incredible journey; we built impactful technology, worked with some of the biggest brands across the continent, and helped pioneer open banking in Africa.” She thanked everyone — the team, the customers, the investors — who believed in their vision.
Now, she’s moving on to her next adventure, stepping into the role of Head of Engineering at Kernel, a UK-based startup, as of June 2025.
Okra’s exit signals a larger shift happening in Africa’s fintech ecosystem. Regulations are tightening. Investors are becoming more cautious. But the groundwork has been laid.
And this is where Zest steps in.
While startups like Okra have opened the door to what’s possible, Zest is helping investors walk through it — with smarter access to Africa’s digital financial evolution. Zest works with retail and institutional investors seeking strong, passive income strategies by backing solid ventures in fintech, real estate, crypto, and beyond.
So, as the chapter on Okra closes, the story of African innovation is far from over. With players like Zest helping to fund and scale the next generation of financial infrastructure, the momentum continues.

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