Okra Co-Founder Fara Ashiru Jituboh Exits as Startup Shuts Down

Key Takeaways

Okra’s shutdown reflects broader pressures on Africa’s fintech infrastructure startups, especially those in open finance. Despite high early promise, the model struggled with monetisation and growing infrastructure costs. Like many Nigerian startups, Okra faced rising operational expenses as naira depreciation increased the cost of cloud services. Its attempt to localise infrastructure with Nebula was innovative but may have come too late. The company’s early adoption of APIs and partnerships with major financial platforms, such as Bamboo and Branch, demonstrated market demand. However, the economics of B2B fintech in a volatile macro environment proved challenging. Okra’s story highlights a key lesson: building core infrastructure is capital-intensive, and African startups are not immune to the same scale and margin pressures that impact infrastructure companies globally. As founders increasingly explore naira-priced alternatives and self-hosting models, Okra’s experience could shape the next generation of fintech enablers.