Africa’s tech industry has grown into a powerful force, valued at nearly $480 billion according to recent estimates. 

From fintech to digital banking and logistics, the continent has produced nine startups that have reached or crossed the $1 billion valuation mark, a milestone that once seemed impossible for African-founded companies.

While CEOs often receive the spotlight, the true strength of every company lies in its operations. Behind the scenes, Chief Operating Officers (COOs) and operational leaders are the ones ensuring that bold visions turn into working systems. 

They create the frameworks, oversee the teams, and maintain the structures that allow these fast-growing startups to scale efficiently, even in environments with regulatory hurdles, infrastructure challenges, and unpredictable markets.

Interestingly, not every African unicorn currently has a COO. Andela has none, 

Flutterwave’s COO resigned in 2024 without a replacement, and Chipper Cash laid off its COO amid restructuring. At MNT Halan, the operations head now doubles as head of account management. These shifts reveal how dynamic and sometimes unstable, the operational side of Africa’s unicorns can be.

Still, the continent’s growth owes much to the few who keep these billion-dollar engines running. Let’s meet the COOs steering Africa’s leading startups.

Pawel Swiatek – COO, Moniepoint (Nigeria)

When Pawel Swiatek joined Moniepoint Inc. in February 2023, he brought with him a mix of discipline, global experience, and a deep understanding of how to build systems that scale. 

As Chief Operating Officer, he oversees the company’s operations across Africa, Europe, and North America, focusing on efficiency, structure, and sustainable growth.

Under Swiatek’s leadership, Moniepoint closed a $110 million Series C funding round in October 2024, led by Development Partners International (DPI), with participation from Google’s Africa Investment Fund, QED Investors, and Verod Capital. This pushed Moniepoint’s valuation beyond $1 billion, officially making it a unicorn.

Before Moniepoint, Swiatek spent over a decade in global finance. He was a Managing Vice President at Capital One, leading innovation projects, and also served at Bridgewater Associates, where he advised the management committee and helped open its first office in Beijing.

A graduate of Harvard Business School, Swiatek now advises several startups and venture funds, offering his operational expertise to help them scale.

Babafemi Ogungbamila – EVP, Operations and Technology, Interswitch (Nigeria)

At Interswitch Group, Babafemi Ogungbamila has spent more than 20 years building what is now one of Africa’s most trusted financial technology infrastructures. Appointed Executive Vice President for Operations and Technology in October 2023, he leads both the company’s technical and operational direction.

Ogungbamila ensures that Interswitch’s systems run with the same reliability and efficiency as global cloud giants like AWS and Microsoft Azure. His focus is to make technology “invisible”, so seamless that millions of people use it daily without realizing it.

He previously served as Chief Information Officer (CIO) between 2013 and 2019, where he led the company’s migration to cloud-native microservices and introduced a data-driven architecture. These changes set the foundation for Interswitch’s long-term scalability.

In 2019, Interswitch joined the billion-dollar club after Visa invested $200 million, valuing the company at $1 billion.

Ogungbamila is a graduate of Obafemi Awolowo University and has also completed executive programs at Lagos Business School. His career shows how vital strong technical leadership is to the growth of Africa’s digital payment ecosystem.

Coura Sene – Regional Director, Wave (Senegal)

Though her title reads Regional Director, Coura Sene is effectively the operational brain of Wave Digital Finance. She has been with the company since 2018, helping transform it from a small digital payments startup into Francophone West Africa’s most successful fintech unicorn.

Sene’s role cuts across operations, product development, partnerships, licensing, and regulation, ensuring Wave delivers affordable and accessible mobile money services. Her leadership guided the company’s expansion beyond Senegal into Côte d’Ivoire and other regions.

In 2021, Wave raised $200 million in a Series A round that pushed its valuation above $1 billion, making it the first unicorn in Francophone Africa.

Before Wave, Sene held senior roles in Orange, Wizall, and InTouch SA, leading projects that connected technology and financial inclusion. She holds a degree from Polytech’Lille, University of Lille, and brings over two decades of experience managing large-scale IT and business operations.

Dieter Botha – Group CTO/COO, Tyme Group (South Africa)

Dieter Botha describes himself as the “operational heartbeat” of Tyme Group, the South African digital banking platform. Though officially the Group CTO and Operations Lead, his work mirrors that of a Chief Operating Officer, balancing technology and operations to ensure the company’s smooth performance.

Based in Singapore, Botha leads Tyme Group’s global technology strategy, managing scalable systems that support millions of users across Africa and Asia.

Under his guidance, Tyme Group reached a $1.5 billion valuation in December 2024 after securing $250 million in Series D funding.

Before joining Tyme, Botha worked at Oracle as a Global Client Advisor and spent over a decade at Standard Bank Group, where he held several senior roles, including Global Head of GTS IT. His technical and operational insight has been crucial in transforming Tyme into one of Africa’s most innovative digital finance companies.

Dotun Daniel Adekunle – COO/CTO, OPay (Nigeria)

Dotun Daniel Adekunle combines operations and technology leadership as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Technology Officer of OPay. Appointed in July 2024, he brings more than 18 years of experience in payments, fintech, and enterprise systems across Africa.

At OPay, Dotun oversees day-to-day operations, product development, and innovation strategies. His work ensures that OPay’s mission to expand financial inclusion is backed by a stable, secure, and user-friendly infrastructure.

His return to OPay marks a full-circle moment. Between 2018 and 2022, Dotun led the teams that built OPay’s payment backbone. Afterward, he joined Flutterwave as Senior Vice President for Offline Payments, where he pushed for the company’s expansion in physical transactions.

He holds degrees from Yaba College of Technology and an MBA from the University of Roehampton, alongside a postgraduate diploma in AI and Machine Learning from the Texas McCombs School of Business.

OPay became a unicorn in 2021, valued at $2 billion, and Dotun’s return has been key in strengthening the company’s second phase of growth and innovation.