Tope Dare, an Executive Director with Inlaks, was on November 4, 2022, at an Awards dinner in Lagos, declared the ‘Fintech Salesman of the year 2022,’ by the organisers of the Nigerian Fintech Awards.
According to the organisers, the Fintech Salesman of the Year gong goes to an outstanding sales professional that has influenced the financial service industry in many ways by promoting the deployment of ATMs by Nigerian banks to address the major issues of cash management and automation with outstanding innovations.
Sales are one of the most important functions in the fintech industry.
Dare is the Executive Director, Sales, and Strategy (Infrastructure Business Division) at Inlaks, an information and communication technology, and infrastructure solutions provider in Nigeria with a presence in the West and East African regions.
The Nigerian Fintech Awards Director, Mr. Sola Fanawopo said the sales manager’s role in Fintech requires hard and soft skills such as customer relations management as well as personal and interpersonal communications skills.
These skills also include cross-functional collaboration, an entrepreneurial mindset, and proactive and vast industry knowledge.
“These are the required skills a salesman needs so that he can have a full grasp of the Fintech industry and develop experiences with B2B and B2C sales,” Fanawopo explained.
He added that Fintech Salesman of the Year was among the new categories introduced to the awards in 2022.
“The members of the jury were impressed with the achievements of Mr. Dare in the ATM market landscape and that was the reason he clinched the award.
“The award is in recognition of his hard work and efforts that have led to the growth and promotion of the ATM industry in the country and across Africa since 2002 when he was an ATM Technical Manager in a commercial bank in Nigeria.”
Academically in the domain of Fintech, Dare has a certificate in Fintech Programme at Said Business School, University of Oxford.
At INSEAD, he obtained a certificate in Leading Digital Transformation & Innovation and pursued his passion for data analytics with a Certificate in Business Analytics: Decision Making Using Data at Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
Dare is responsible for the sales of more than two third of the 22,500 ATMs to all the banks in Nigeria in his 12 years of Fintech sales career. He has also been promoting the sale of Hyosung ATMs and branch digital transformation initiatives in new African markets within the sub-Sahara.
Speaking to journalists after the award, Dare said, “I want to express my sincere appreciation to the Nigerian Fintech community for recognizing me with the 2022 Fintech Salesman of the Year Award.
“I am deeply grateful to my current and future Nigerian bank customers who have put their trust in me to acquire, deploy and maintain over 11,500 Hyosung ATMs since 2013 that have grown the ATM brand to becoming the market leader in Nigeria with 51% market share.”
He added that with the support of his trusted business partners, OEM (Hyosung TNS) and the Inlaks team, the industry would experience better digital transformation.
“I look forward to more continued and new successes in bank branch digital transformation with Fintech innovative solutions in 2023 and years ahead,” he said.
