Country Manager - Nigeria

Country Manager - Nigeria👋 About Us NALA is building Payments for the Next Billion. Faster, smarter, and fairer transfers for everyone. Since 2022, we've grown our business 120x, grown the team from 9 to 150+, raised $50M+ from top-tier investors, and were named to the Forbes Fintech 50 in 2025 & 2026. We operate two core products: • NALA, our consumer app, makes cross-border payments cheaper, faster and more reliable for the global diaspora — sending money from the UK, US and EU to Africa and Asia. • Rafiki, our B2B payments infrastructure, is powering global payments for global giants like MoneyGram & Western Union. Our team includes alumni from Wise, Stripe, Monzo, Revolut, and CashApp — operators who've scaled world-class products. We act with urgency, think deeply, and put our customers first, always. At NALA, this isn't just a job. It's ownership, impact, and the chance to change global payments forever. Join us in building Payments for the Next Billion. 🙌 Your Mission Nigeria is one of the largest and most complex remittance markets in the world — and one of the most important for NALA. As Country Manager, you'll own NALA's market position in Nigeria end-to-end: building the intelligence, relationships and execution capacity that turns a high-potential market into a high-performing one. 🎯 Your Responsibilities in this Role • Own Nigeria's market depth. Maintain a sharp, current view of customers, competitors, providers and regulatory developments — and be the person NALA turns to when we need to understand what's happening on the ground and what it means for our roadmap. • Diagnose and drive performance. Monitor route-level volume, revenue, COGS and reliability; investigate material changes; and turn local context into clear, actionable recommendations for the regional team. • Execute the Nigeria roadmap. Translate regional priorities into concrete actions, coordinate follow-through with product, compliance and operations, and track milestones, owners and blockers — escalating risks early rather than late. • Build and manage partner relationships. Own day-to-day relationships with local banks, mobile money operators, payment aggregators and other providers; drive improvements in pricing, service levels and operational performance. • Lead commercial negotiations. Prepare thoroughly — understanding partner economics, performance data and market alternatives — and lead agreed local negotiations, bringing in senior leadership for strategic trade-offs or significant escalations. • Support regulatory and external engagement. Work alongside Compliance and Legal on licensing, regulatory relationships and any external stakeholder engagement required to protect and grow NALA's position in Nigeria. • Surface risks and opportunities early. Be the eyes and ears on the ground: spot regulatory shifts, provider changes and competitive moves before they become problems, and bring a point of view on what NALA should do next. 🔥 Must-have requirements • Proven track record operating in Nigeria's financial services, fintech or payments ecosystem — you understand how money actually moves in and out of the country, and why it sometimes doesn't. • Experience owning commercial relationships with banks, fintechs, mobile money operators or payment providers — including leading negotiations and driving improvements in pricing or service terms. • Strong analytical instincts: able to dig into route-level performance data, identify what's driving a change and turn findings into practical next steps. • Excellent stakeholder management — you close loops reliably, keep the right people informed and escalate material blockers at the right time, not after the fact. • Comfortable operating in a fast-moving, high-ambiguity environment where priorities shift and strong judgment matters more than a rigid process. • Deep knowledge of Nigeria's regulatory and licensing landscape for cross-border payments, including the CBN framework and relevant compliance requirements. 💪 Nice to have requirements • Existing relationships with Nigerian banks, fintechs, or CBN-regulated payment service providers. • Experience working within or alongside a remittance corridor — whether consumer or B2B — with direct exposure to diaspora payment flows. • Familiarity with NALA's competitive landscape in Nigeria: Chipper Cash, LemFi, Grey, Flutterwave or comparable players. • Experience coordinating cross-functional workstreams across distributed, international teams. • Understanding of FX dynamics and naira liquidity constraints and how they affect cross-border payment reliability. ✅ Success in the role looks like3-Month Metrics • You have a current, well-structured view of Nigeria's competitive landscape, key providers and regulatory environment — and have shared it as a briefing that the regional team relies on. • You've met the key partners and providers in-market and have a clear picture of where NALA's relationships are strong and where they need work. • You've taken ownership of at least one active roadmap workstream and are driving it forward with clear milestones and accountability. • You understand NALA's Nigeria route performance — volumes, costs, reliability — and can explain the story behind the numbers. 6-Month Metrics • You've improved at least one partner relationship in a measurable way: better pricing, improved SLAs, faster issue resolution or stronger operational terms. • Your market intelligence is shaping product and commercial decisions — regional leadership treats your input as a trusted source of Nigeria context. • You're running Nigeria's commercial and partner relationships day-to-day with minimal escalation, and escalating the right things when it matters. • NALA's execution velocity in Nigeria has improved: fewer blockers sitting unresolved, faster follow-through on agreed priorities. ➡️ Interview Process • [30 mins] Interview with the Talent Team - In this stage we want to get to know you a bit more and follow up on your experience and motivations. • [60 mins] Problem-Solving Interview - This will be a real world exercise you’ll do with Adesola, P&L Lead for West Africa. • [60 mins] Bar Raiser Interview - a final conversation focused on your track record, ambition and fit. ⭐️ Benefits • 35 Days Off including your local bank holidays: Take the time to decompress. Working at a startup is hard! • Birthday Leave: Celebrate your special day with a bonus day off that month. • Enhanced Parental Leave: 16 weeks of full pay for the primary caregiver and 4 weeks for the secondary caregiver (after a 6-month probationary period). • Learning Budget: $1000 annually for learning and development.