Nigerian fintech executive Felix Ike has earned a place among the world’s leading technology and data executives, becoming the only representative of an African company on TIME magazine’s inaugural Executives of the Year: Tech and Data list.
Ike, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Moniepoint, was named on the 50-person list unveiled on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, by the American news magazine, which recognises senior technology and data leaders whose decisions influence how major organisations adopt and deploy technology.
In its recognition of Ike, TIME noted that he “has helped to establish the business as one of Africa’s leading financial platforms.”
The Moniepoint CTO features alongside executives from some of the world’s biggest technology companies, including Netflix, CrowdStrike, Dell, Duolingo, AT&T, OpenAI, Anthropic, Shopify and Reddit.
Moniepoint, the Nigerian fintech he co-founded with Tosin Eniolorunda in 2015, is also the only African company represented on the list.
The latest recognition marks another international milestone for the Lagos-founded fintech, following its inclusion in TIME’s 2025 list of the 100 Most Influential Companies.
The consecutive-year recognition underscores the company’s growing global profile, with the latest honour spotlighting Ike’s individual contribution to its technological development and expansion.
A first-class Computer Science graduate of the University of Lagos, Ike has overseen the design and development of the technology infrastructure underpinning Moniepoint’s financial services for millions of businesses and individuals across Africa.
Since its founding, Moniepoint has evolved from a back-end payments provider for banks into a comprehensive business banking platform, attaining unicorn status in 2024.
The company says its payment infrastructure now powers approximately eight out of every 10 in-person digital payment transactions in Nigeria, reflecting the scale of the technology platform Ike has helped build and lead.
Through the recognition, Ike joins a select group of global technology executives whose work is shaping the deployment of digital infrastructure and data-driven services across industries, while bringing African fintech innovation into the spotlight.
TIME’s Executive Editor and Chief Strategy Officer, Dan Macsai, said the new franchise is intended to spotlight the executives responsible for how companies adopt emerging technology, secure their systems and put their data to productive use, describing Executives of the Year as a new platform through which the magazine will convene such leaders, with plans to extend the recognition into further fields in the year ahead.
Reacting to the recognition, Felix Ike said he was deeply grateful for the honour, and saw it as a marker of what African-built technology is now capable of.
“This is a deeply significant honour, and one I do not take lightly. But beyond what it means personally, it says something bigger. For a long time, recognition of this kind went to a handful of markets.
“This shows that Nigerian engineering, built for Nigerian and Africa, can stand on the same stage as Silicon Valley and Wall Street. That shift matters as much as the recognition itself.”
He added that the company remained committed to building systems that serve, with integrity and resilience, the millions of businesses and individuals who place their trust in it daily.
Moniepoint Founder and Group Chief Executive Officer, Tosin Eniolorunda, described Ike’s recognition as a proud moment for the company and Nigeria.
“When we started Moniepoint, our ambition was never small, but recognition like this still humbles us,” Eniolorunda said. “Felix has contributed significantly to building infrastructure that now carries the weight of millions of livelihoods, and to see that acknowledged on a global stage is a proud moment, not just for our company, but for what Nigerian technology can now claim to be,” he said.
He described the TIME recognition as a fitting acknowledgement of that legacy, and one that reflects well not only on Moniepoint, but on Nigeria and the wider African technology community.
The recognition adds to a growing roll of distinctions for Moniepoint, which has featured for three consecutive years on the Financial Times’ list of Africa’s Fastest-Growing Companies and on CNBC’s World’s Top Fintech Companies list.
The company presently serves over ten million businesses and individuals across Nigeria and beyond.