Paystack: How Two Young Nigerians Raised 200 Million Dollars Amidst EndSARS Protests
In 2015, Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, created Paystack, a digital payments service, to solve the challenge of online payment transactions in Nigeria. Ezra Olubi, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of the company, for all his achievements, interestingly fits perfectly into the image of an “irresponsible”, young person that society has created.
Sporting locs, painted nails, tattoos and the likes, a young Ezra, a computer science graduate from Babcock University, would have too easily fallen into the hands of members of the SARS unit, to be harassed and extorted. It is very likely that he has had some experience with them.
The youths of Nigeria have embarked on a series of nationwide protests, demanding an end to police brutality and the dissolution of the Special Anti Robbery Squad, a unit of the Nigerian Police Force.
SARS, whose illegal activities include the harassment, extortion, kidnap and sometimes extrajudicial killings of young Nigerians, are experts at profiling. Criminal profiling is an investigative strategy used by law enforcement agencies to identify likely suspects.
In Nigeria, the starter pack of a “criminal”, or an “irresponsible person”, is dreadlocks, jewellery, phones, cars and gadgets – especially an iPhone. Any young Nigerian that ticks one (sometimes none) of these boxes usually falls victim to SARS bandits. Too many disheartening stories fill End Sars, of trauma suffered by Nigerians, as a result of unchecked SARS brutality and criminality. And this is why they protest, #EndSARS.
The #EndSARS protest, borne out of the frustration of Nigerian youths with their situation, has been gaining strides. Starting online, these protests have become huge gatherings of young Nigerians, all across states in the country, demanding a dissolution of SARS, as just the beginning of their requests. It has also gained international attention, with pictures, videos, stories and hashtags flooding social media.
Today, Paystack, founded by two young men who might have been victims of SARS harassment at some point, announced that it had been acquired for over 200 million US Dollars, by US-based payments giant, Stripe. A commendable feat. At today’s exchange rate of 380 naira to a dollar, that is a whopping 76 billion naira! At least.
If the society keeps holding on to superstitious and archaic standards of morality, it will stifle and kill off its budding, brilliant young generation, who have within them, the power to evoke massive change.
If members of the Police force, and the society at large, continue to believe that a young 25-year-old Nigerian cannot legally own a multimillion naira car, or possess gadgets without being labelled a criminal, then they do not expect great things from the young generation.
Young Nigerians are fighting for their freedom to express themselves, live their fullest lives, and exercise their skills without apprehension of death or bodily harm because of how they are dressed, or how they look, from members of the police force. Men of the NPF need to be reoriented on who indeed a criminal is, and how these criminals carry out their acts in today’s technologically advanced society, without jeopardizing innocent lives.
A young person, moving around with his laptop, is most likely just working hard to escape poverty legally and build a better life for himself.
The Paystack acquisition becomes more significant in the midst of these protests, as it signifies what the Nigerian youth can achieve, and is an example of why society should not be too quick to tag the “lazy Nigerian youth”, complete with tattoos and dreadlocks, a criminal. #EndSARS.
