24 participants trained, 19 prospective fintech founders onboarded as initiative brings digital-finance infrastructure closer to emerging entrepreneurs
An initiative aimed at strengthening financial technology awareness and expanding opportunities for emerging fintech entrepreneurs has taken place in Bandu, Ado-Odo/Ota, Ogun State, with 24 participants trained and 19 prospective fintech founders onboarded onto Qevrion, a fintech infrastructure platform by WHOGOPAY Africa.
The programme, held on September 19, 2026, focused on financial inclusion, digital financial services and opportunities available to entrepreneurs seeking to build solutions within Nigeria’s rapidly developing fintech ecosystem.
The training provided participants with practical exposure to digital financial infrastructure and demonstrated how emerging entrepreneurs can use technology to develop solutions to real-world financial challenges.
Of the 24 participants who attended the training, 19 prospective fintech founders were subsequently onboarded onto Qevrion, giving them access to the platform’s infrastructure and an opportunity to explore how financial technology can be applied to new products and business models.
The programme comes against the backdrop of Nigeria’s continuing efforts to deepen financial inclusion.
Although access to formal financial services has improved in recent years, significant gaps remain, particularly among rural communities, low-income households, informal businesses and other underserved groups.
For communities outside Nigeria’s major technology centres, financial inclusion is not simply a question of whether a bank or fintech company exists. It also involves affordability, digital literacy, connectivity, trust and the availability of financial products that respond to local economic realities.
The Bandu training sought to address part of this challenge by bringing financial technology knowledge and infrastructure closer to potential users and entrepreneurs.
Rather than positioning underserved communities solely as consumers of financial technology, the initiative also introduced participants to the possibility of becoming builders of fintech solutions.
That approach is particularly relevant as Nigeria’s digital economy continues to expand. Qevrion, by WHOGOPAY Africa, is positioned as financial infrastructure for businesses and fintech builders.
Its publicly stated services include digital financial capabilities such as virtual accounts, virtual cards, payment links and QR payments, among other financial service offerings.
For emerging fintech founders, infrastructure of this nature can provide building blocks for developing financial products without requiring every component of the underlying financial technology stack to be developed independently.
This can potentially reduce barriers for entrepreneurs at the early stages of product development and allow them to focus more heavily on identifying and solving specific problems within their target markets.
The onboarding of 19 prospective founders during the Bandu programme therefore represents more than a training statistic. It provides a practical indication of the effort to connect emerging entrepreneurs with the infrastructure required to experiment with and develop fintech ideas.
The initiative also reflects the relationship between infrastructure and customer-focused innovation through Softawallet, founded by Sunday Kantan, also known as Enoch Kantan, who is also a co-founder of Qevrion.
Softawallet’s focus on digital payment solutions provides a complementary layer to Qevrion’s infrastructure proposition.
While Qevrion can provide underlying financial technology infrastructure, Softawallet can leverage that infrastructure to develop customer-facing solutions designed around specific market needs.
In simple terms: Qevrion provides the infrastructure, Softawallet leverages the infrastructure to build solutions.
Entrepreneurs bring new ideas and applications and communities become the ultimate beneficiaries of useful financial innovation.
This relationship illustrates how infrastructure companies and fintech application developers can work together to address gaps in financial access.
The significance of taking fintech training to Ado-Odo/Ota extends beyond the immediate participants. Nigeria’s rural and semi-urban communities contain millions of traders, artisans, farmers, young entrepreneurs and micro-business owners whose economic activities increasingly intersect with digital finance.
Yet the benefits of fintech innovation do not automatically reach these groups. They require deliberate efforts involving education, appropriate technology, consumer protection, affordable services and trusted local networks.
This is why initiatives that combine financial education with access to technology and entrepreneurship can be important.
The goal is not simply to introduce people to another digital platform. It is to help participants understand how financial technology works and how they can use available infrastructure responsibly to create value.
The 19 prospective founders onboarded during the programme now represent a potential pipeline of emerging fintech innovators.
Their long-term impact will depend on what they build, the problems they solve and their ability to develop sustainable and compliant businesses.
Potential areas of innovation include payments, merchant services, financial management, agriculture, education, healthcare, transportation, savings and other sectors where financial services intersect with everyday economic activity.
By lowering some of the technical barriers associated with building fintech products, infrastructure platforms can give entrepreneurs more room to focus on customer problems and product innovation.
Sustainable financial inclusion requires responsible innovation, regulatory compliance, cybersecurity, consumer protection, digital literacy and reliable service delivery.
The immediate results from the Bandu programme are measurable: 24 people trained and 19 prospective fintech founders onboarded.
However, the longer-term impact should ultimately be measured by what participants do with the knowledge and infrastructure available to them.
If these emerging founders go on to create products that improve how small businesses receive payments, help underserved consumers participate in the formal economy or address other financial challenges, the effect could extend beyond the original training programme.
For Qevrion, the initiative demonstrates the importance of connecting fintech infrastructure with the entrepreneurs who can put it to practical use.
For Softawallet, it reinforces the company’s opportunity to leverage financial infrastructure to develop customer-focused solutions.
And for communities such as Bandu and the wider Ado-Odo/Ota area, it represents an opportunity to participate more actively in Nigeria’s digital financial economy.
The broader message is clear: financial inclusion should not only be about bringing people into the financial system; it should also be about empowering more people to participate in building the technology that shapes that system.
The September 19 initiative in Bandu may have begun with 24 participants and 19 prospective founders, but its ultimate significance will be determined by what those individuals build next.
For Qevrion and Softawallet, that is the larger ambition — to contribute to an ecosystem where financial technology is not concentrated only in Nigeria’s established technology centres, but increasingly reaches the entrepreneurs and communities that can use it to create new economic opportunities.
The next phase is to build, collaborate and scale. Qevrion and Softawallet are calling on young entrepreneurs, developers, financial institutions, community organisations, investors, government stakeholders and other technology innovators to join the effort to develop practical financial solutions for Nigerians who remain underserved by traditional systems.
The invitation is particularly open to aspiring fintech founders with ideas capable of improving payments, merchant services, savings, financial education, agriculture, commerce and other areas of everyday economic life.
If you have an idea that can make financial services more accessible, affordable and useful, the time to build is now.
Qevrion provides the infrastructure. Softawallet provides an avenue for customer-focused innovation. Entrepreneurs provide the ideas, energy and local understanding needed to turn technology into meaningful solutions.
The objective is not simply to create more fintech products. It is to create more opportunities for Nigerians to participate in the digital economy — as users, entrepreneurs, innovators and builders.
The Bandu training is therefore not the conclusion of the initiative. It is a starting point. The next 19 founders can build what the next community needs. And the next community may be waiting for someone to build for them.
Qevrion and Softawallet invite the next generation of fintech innovators to join the movement, build responsibly and help take financial inclusion from the idea of access to the reality of opportunity.
For a better society
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