Country Manager - Nigeria

Country Manager - Nigeria

About Us

NALA is building Payments for the Next Billion. Faster, smarter, and fairer transfers for everyone. Since 2022, we've grown our business 120x, grown the team from 9 to 150+, raised $50M+ from top-tier investors, and were named to the Forbes Fintech 50 in 2025 & 2026.

We operate two core products:

• NALA, our consumer app, makes cross-border payments cheaper, faster and more reliable for the global diaspora - sending money from the UK, US and EU to Africa and Asia.
• Rafiki, our B2B payments infrastructure, is powering global payments for global giants like MoneyGram & Western Union.

Our team includes alumni from Wise, Stripe, Monzo, Revolut, and CashApp - operators who've scaled world-class products. We act with urgency, think deeply, and put our customers first, always.

At NALA, this isn't just a job. It's ownership, impact, and the chance to change global payments forever. Join us in building Payments for the Next Billion.

Your Mission

Nigeria is one of the largest and most complex remittance markets in the world - and one of the most important for NALA. As Country Manager, you'll own NALA's market position in Nigeria end-to-end: building the intelligence, relationships and execution capacity that turns a high-potential market into a high-performing one.

Your Responsibilities in this Role

• Own Nigeria's market depth. Maintain a sharp, current view of customers, competitors, providers and regulatory developments - and be the person NALA turns to when we need to understand what's happening on the ground and what it means for our roadmap.
• Diagnose and drive performance. Monitor route-level volume, revenue, COGS and reliability; investigate material changes; and turn local context into clear, actionable recommendations for the regional team.
• Execute the Nigeria roadmap. Translate regional priorities into concrete actions, coordinate follow-through with product, compliance and operations, and track milestones, owners and blockers - escalating risks early rather than late.
• Build and manage partner relationships. Own day-to-day relationships with local banks, mobile money operators, payment aggregators and other providers; drive improvements in pricing, service levels and operational performance.
• Lead commercial negotiations. Prepare thoroughly - understanding partner economics, performance data and market alternatives - and lead agreed local negotiations, bringing in senior leadership for strategic trade-offs or significant escalations.
• Support regulatory and external engagement. Work alongside Compliance and Legal on licensing, regulatory relationships and any external stakeholder engagement required to protect and grow NALA's position in Nigeria.
• Surface risks and opportunities early. Be the eyes and ears on the ground: spot regulatory shifts, provider changes and competitive moves before they become problems, and bring a point of view on what NALA should do next.

Must-have requirements

• Proven track record operating in Nigeria's financial services, fintech or payments ecosystem - you understand how money actually moves in and out of the country, and why it sometimes doesn't.
• Experience owning commercial relationships with banks, fintechs, mobile money operators or payment providers - including leading negotiations and driving improvements in pricing or service terms.
• Strong analytical instincts: able to dig into route-level performance data, identify what's driving a change and turn findings into practical next steps.
• Excellent stakeholder management - you close loops reliably, keep the right people informed and escalate material blockers at the right time, not after the fact.
• Comfortable operating in a fast-moving, high-ambiguity environment where priorities shift and strong judgment matters more than a rigid process.
• Deep knowledge of Nigeria's regulatory and licensing landscape for cross-border payments, including the CBN framework and relevant compliance requirements.

Nice to have requirements

• Existing relationships with Nigerian banks, fintechs, or CBN-regulated payment service providers.
• Experience working within or alongside a remittance corridor - whether consumer or B2B - with direct exposure to diaspora payment flows.
• Familiarity with NALA's competitive landscape in Nigeria: Chipper Cash, LemFi, Grey, Flutterwave or comparable players.
• Experience coordinating cross-functional workstreams across distributed, international teams.
• Understanding of FX dynamics and naira liquidity constraints and how they affect cross-border payment reliability.

Success in the role looks like

3-Month Metrics

• You have a current, well-structured view of Nigeria's competitive landscape, key providers and regulatory environment - and have shared it as a briefing that the regional team relies on.
• You've met the key partners and providers in-market and have a clear picture of where NALA's relationships are strong and where they need work.
• You've taken ownership of at least one active roadmap workstream and are driving it forward with clear milestones and accountability.
• You understand NALA's Nigeria route performance - volumes, costs, reliability - and can explain the story behind the numbers.

6-Month Metrics

• You've improved at least one partner relationship in a measurable way: better pricing, improved SLAs, faster issue resolution or stronger operational terms.
• Your market intelligence is shaping product and commercial decisions - regional leadership treats your input as a trusted source of Nigeria context.
• You're running Nigeria's commercial and partner relationships day-to-day with minimal escalation, and escalating the right things when it matters.
• NALA's execution velocity in Nigeria has improved: fewer blockers sitting unresolved, faster follow-through on agreed priorities.

Interview Process

• [30 mins] Interview with the Talent Team - In this stage we want to get to know you a bit more and follow up on your experience and motivations.
• [60 mins] Problem-Solving Interview - This will be a real world exercise you’ll do with Adesola, P&L Lead for West Africa.
• [60 mins] Bar Raiser Interview - a final conversation focused on your track record, ambition and fit.

⭐ Benefits

• 35 Days Off including your local bank holidays: Take the time to decompress. Working at a startup is hard!
• Birthday Leave: Celebrate your special day with a bonus day off that month.
• Enhanced Parental Leave: 16 weeks of full pay for the primary caregiver and 4 weeks for the secondary caregiver (after a 6-month probationary period).
• Learning Budget: $1000 annually for learning and development.