End of an Era: Okra shuts down after pioneering open banking in Nigeria
- editor4422
- Jul 4
- 2 min read
By Nhlanhla Muthe
Nigerian fintech Okra, once at the forefront of Africa’s open banking revolution, has officially shut down after raising over $16 million and launching the now-defunct cloud platform Nebula.
The company’s quiet closure comes amid growing pressure from macroeconomic headwinds and rising competition from global tech giants.
Founded in 2019 by Fara Ashiru Jituboh and David Peterside, Okra built secure APIs that allowed fintechs to connect with bank data, powering integrations across Nigeria’s financial system. At its peak, Okra worked with major clients such as Renmoney, Bamboo, and AIICO Insurance, helping to lay the foundation for API-driven finance in the region.
Confirming the shutdown, co-founder and former CEO/CTO Jituboh said the company decided to wind down operations in May. “It was an incredible journey. We built impactful technology, worked with some of the biggest brands across the continent, and helped pioneer open banking in Africa,” she said.
Jituboh has since joined UK startup Kernel as Head of Engineering, closing a chapter that began with her return to Nigeria from stints at Canva, BMW Group, and JP Morgan.
Okra’s attempt to pivot from open finance to cloud services came in 2024 with the launch of Nebula, a naira-denominated alternative to AWS. At the time, Jituboh declared: “There’s a cloud built here, for us, and it’s just as good, if not better.” But competing against Amazon and Microsoft proved too costly. AWS’s move to price services in local currency undercut Nebula by 20%, rendering Okra’s pivot unsustainable.
With Peterside exiting in 2022 and no successor named after Jituboh’s May departure, Okra quietly faded without a formal announcement. The startup’s website remains unchanged, in a sad, silent farewell from one of Africa’s most watched fintech innovators.
