OurPass as soon as promised to be a game-changer—a one-click checkout platform that might clean the trail for on-line commerce. However in three years, after three pivots, the startup has left a path of arrested employees, unpaid workers, stranded clients, and unanswered regulatory questions.
On the morning of Wednesday, June 19, 2024, OurPass’s management group gathered for what appeared like a routine administration assembly on the Nigerian fintech. As a substitute, it triggered a sequence of occasions that led to an arrest, months of unpaid salaries, and clients locked out of their deposits.
Halfway via the assembly, Samuel Eze, the CEO, requested if any worker had seen a round from the Central Financial institution of Nigeria (CBN) that had simply landed within the firm’s inbox, in keeping with inner emails reviewed by TechCabal.
After the assembly, Hencho Nwaegu, the previous head of finance, accessed the e-mail. It regarded official and contained an attachment requesting a password. Suspicious, he hesitated, however on the time, the corporate was awaiting its long-sought microfinance banking licence from the CBN, so the message didn’t appear misplaced.
Nwaegu ultimately opened it after the CEO had already interacted with the e-mail with out concern, in keeping with electronic mail correspondence seen by TechCabal. After he entered his login particulars, his cellphone buzzed with an alert displaying his account had been accessed from america. Unusually, Eze obtained the identical international login alerts.
The midnight transfers
Round 1 a.m. the following day, 5 unauthorised transfers rapidly swept via OurPass’s checking account at VFD Financial institution. 4 went via efficiently, totalling ₦25 million ($16,260).
“We confronted an inner safety incident that examined our governance,” an OurPass spokesperson instructed TechCabal. “It was contained with out influence to buyer deposits, and investigations with legislation enforcement are ongoing. We’ve since strengthened our entry controls and oversight mechanisms.”
Nonetheless, there was one thing unusual about these transfers. Three exceeded OurPass’s single-transaction cap of ₦5 million ($3,250).
By the following morning, debit alerts had reached Eze’s cellphone. He started asking questions. How, he needed to know, had Nwaegu logged into his electronic mail from america whereas bodily within the workplace? He instructed Nwaegu to vary his password. Nwaegu did.
However the first seeds of suspicion had already been planted.
The arrest
In line with Nwaegu, when he realised the breach the following morning, he despatched emails to VFD Financial institution and even booked a trip to the financial institution’s workplace. Desirous to conduct an inner investigation first, Eze requested him to cease contacting the financial institution with out approval. That delay is what Nwaegu blames for the cash by no means being recovered.
By late afternoon, Nwaegu and a colleague have been lastly despatched to the financial institution. There, employees confirmed his suspicion that his and Eze’s passwords had been compromised. One week later, by 9 p.m. on Wednesday, June 26, 2024, police arrived on the OurPass workplace to arrest Nwaegu.
E-mail conversations between Nwaegu and OurPass present that no warrant was offered. He was denied contact with household or authorized counsel for over 12 hours. On the Victoria Island police station, he was questioned by officers and his CEO.
“I feared for my life following the way of arrest and detention,” Nwaegu wrote in an electronic mail seen by TechCabal.
He was accused of adjusting the CEO’s password as a result of he was an administrator on the corporate’s electronic mail system. Nwaegu insisted he by no means knew he had admin entry. To his data, solely Eze and the top of operations held such entry.
When the top of operations heard of the arrest, she didn’t return to work the following day. On Thursday, June 27, 2024, OurPass formally suspended Nwaegu, citing “current allegations of fraud”. Nwaegu denied the allegations.
“I’m requesting the documented police report that displays a full investigation and verification by the Pressure Felony Investigation Division (FCID),” reads a mail despatched by Nwaegu and seen by TechCabal. “My understanding, based mostly on communication with the police, is that the preliminary investigation was inconclusive relating to my involvement and that the matter was dismissed after the grievance was withdrawn.”
Inside investigations
On October 24, 2024, over 4 months after the fraud occurred, OurPass despatched Nwaegu the outcomes of its inner investigation. The committee concluded he was responsible of fraudulent conduct as a result of his electronic mail was used within the unauthorised transactions, negligence of obligation as a result of he did not safe his password, and coverage violation for refusing at hand over duties after his suspension.
OurPass didn’t touch upon the results of its inner investigation.
A disciplinary listening to was scheduled for October 28. However Nwaegu pushed again, formally requesting intervention by the Nigerian Public Complaints Fee. He alleged a battle of curiosity, since Eze—whose account had additionally been compromised—had led the inquiry.
He demanded forensic logs, admin-assignment data, and a authorized foundation for withholding his pay. He additionally claimed misuse of police authority and private endangerment. OurPass didn’t reply.
New yr, new issues
The June 2024 breach wouldn’t be the final signal of hassle at OurPass. By the top of the yr, clients started reporting they may now not entry their deposits. In a single case, a former advertising and marketing worker shared screenshots of OurPass’s Instagram direct messages stuffed with a number of complaints of shoppers being unable to withdraw their deposits.
In a single case, PharmaLife, a Lagos-based pharmacy, is owed as a lot as ₦71 million ($46,200), in keeping with screenshots seen by TechCabal.
In one other trade spanning from February to June 2025 between Eze and a buyer, seen by TechCabal, the CEO repeatedly blamed “technical points” for blocking the withdrawal of ₦23 million ($14,960) for over six months. The conversations present ₦2.3 million ($1,500) in failed transactions not reversed and ₦21 million ($13,600) trapped within the account.
Between February and April 2025, Eze repeatedly promised the shopper that her complaints can be resolved inside hours, days, or weeks. By June, the shopper’s tone had shifted from pleading to confrontational after shedding religion in Eze’s repeated guarantees, accusing the corporate of fraud, and threatening to report back to authorized authorities.
She nonetheless can not entry her deposits.
“This yr, we went via a vital transition: migrating our core banking system to fulfill regulatory requirements and strengthen infrastructure,” an OurPass spokesperson instructed TechCabal. “That migration is now virtually full, and the non permanent liquidity challenges it triggered are being actively managed with all involved stakeholders.”
The migration and pivots
When OurPass launched in 2021 to simplify on-line procuring with one-click checkout, buyers purchased in. The corporate raised $1 million, with Tekedia Capital main the spherical, quickly after launch. By June 2022, after its unique mannequin proved unprofitable, OurPass pivoted to a “world financial institution for companies,” providing good banking, fee, and administration instruments to small- and medium-scale companies (SMEs).
But, the pivots didn’t cease there. After buying a microfinance financial institution license in August 2024 and failing to realize traction from enterprise banking, the startup pivoted once more. This time, it introduced it was trying a transfer into private banking, concentrating on on a regular basis clients. There was just one downside. It must compete towards deep-pocketed OPay, PalmPay, Moniepoint, Kuda, and Nigerian business banks after failing to ascertain itself as a enterprise financial institution.
Former workers instructed TechCabal Eze blamed a core banking migration—ensuing from the transition from enterprise to non-public banking—for vital monetary losses and a money crunch on the firm. That money crunch meant that OurPass couldn’t honour buyer withdrawals past small tickets of lower than ₦200,000 ($130).
Nonetheless, the drawn-out core banking migration, which remains to be unfinished, suggests OurPass’s issues run deeper than know-how. Freezing buyer accounts for months with out a credible rationalization factors to solvency issues and breaches each banking laws and shopper safety legal guidelines. Beneath Nigerian banking legislation, deposit-taking establishments fall underneath the oversight of the Central Financial institution of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance coverage Company (NDIC), making extended account freezes a regulatory purple flag.
The layoffs and resignations
Earlier than the top of 2024, a spherical of layoffs left OurPass with few employees. Along with his startup getting ready to collapse, Eze started recruiting new workers himself on LinkedIn and lured them with gives of aggressive salaries and the promise of constructing one thing new, in keeping with former workers.
By January 2025, he had assembled a brand new group. Nonetheless, when the brand new hires arrived at OurPass’ workplace in Victoria Island, Lagos, they have been anticipating to hitch a fintech firm with a recent imaginative and prescient. What they met, as an alternative, have been unclear roles and budgets held along with shoelaces. Three former workers who spoke to TechCabal on the situation of anonymity mentioned they discovered an organization with little construction and a CEO described by employees as having massive concepts however combating execution.
The group’s first activity was to revitalise the corporate’s picture.
By March 2025, OurPass made a submit on its Instagram account that learn, “Hello guysss! We’re completely happy to announce that we’re again and higher!” The corporate’s final submit earlier than then was on August 21, 2024. Social media remark sections and buyer assist channels have been stuffed with messages from companies and people unable to withdraw their deposits.
Former workers say these complaints went unanswered for months earlier than the March 2025 submit.
A number of workers mentioned plans for occasions and campaigns have been permitted however not applied. As the corporate labored to restore its public picture, the group deliberate an app launch occasion and pupil ambassador packages, submitted budgets, and secured approvals, however the cash by no means got here.
“We drew plans for advertising and marketing campaigns for the launch of the private banking app, however we by no means obtained approval for these funds,” one former worker instructed TechCabal.
Former workers additionally describe a cycle the place OurPass hires groups, delays salaries, pushes grand plans, then watches employees drift away unpaid. “OurPass’ story is of a founder who repeatedly employed individuals, made them work, then owed them till they left,” mentioned one former worker who spoke on the situation of anonymity.
As February 2025 ended, nonetheless owing salaries, the corporate instructed employees to open new OurPass accounts to obtain their salaries, solely to run into technical points and additional delays.
The corporate’s human sources officer repeated apologies weekly, blaming fee failures on the continued core banking migration. By March, the workplace closed, and workers have been requested to do business from home. Most had misplaced religion within the firm’s capability to pay them in any respect. Many merely stopped displaying up.
In a March assembly, CEO Eze instructed the heads of departments that the corporate had two choices: shut down or have employees proceed working with out pay for 3 months whereas he tried to boost new funds. He supplied a $10,000 bonus to division heads who stayed till the corporate stabilised. However for many, this was little consolation after months of unpaid wages.
Now, OurPass says it’s placing its troubles behind it and has gone on a hiring spree in current months. “We’re strengthening our management group with skilled operators to information OurPass into its subsequent chapter,” a spokesperson instructed TechCabal.
Among the many hires are a chief monetary officer with greater than 20 years in fintech finance operations, a chief working officer with 25 years’ expertise, a chief threat officer with 20 years in fraud investigation and coverage, and an engineering head with 15 years’ expertise, the corporate’s spokesperson mentioned.
“OurPass is now higher positioned to do massive issues,” the corporate’s spokesperson mentioned. “OurPass will turn out to be the infrastructure financial institution and credit score spine of Africa’s actual economic system, because it scales additional throughout the FMCG worth chain, by providing blockchain-powered lending, regulated digital banking, and real-time visibility from producer to last-mile retail.”
Nonetheless, as of August 2025, the corporate stays in limbo. Clients are nonetheless ready for his or her deposits. Former employees are nonetheless ready for salaries.
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