Meet Fara Ashiru, the woman behind Okra.
Editorial Pick
She was the Co-founder and CTO of Okra.
Okra built one of Nigeria's leading open banking API platforms, enabling individuals to securely connect their bank accounts with third party applications. The company raised over $16.5 million before shutting down in May 2025.
What I admire most is their vision. They recognized early that developers needed reliable infrastructure to build the next generation of financial products, and they built the APIs to make that possible.
If you're interested in startups, fintech, and the people shaping Africa's tech ecosystem, she's definitely worth following.
Today, she's the Head of Engineering at Kernel.