Nigeria's Banking Apps Have a WhatsApp Problem. ChatPay Thinks That's the Opportunity.

 

A look inside the startup betting that conversational banking, not another app, is what finally closes Nigeria's payment friction gap.

Nigeria's fintech sector is crowded with apps promising to fix banking friction, yet the same complaints persist: crashed transfers, forgotten PINs, POS queues, and downtime messages that have become a running joke. ChatPay's founders think the industry has been solving the wrong problem, building better apps instead of asking why banking needs a separate app at all.

Their answer lives inside WhatsApp, the platform more than 50 million Nigerians already open every single day. The company has just opened its Founding 2,500 program, its first public early-access cohort.

ChatPay, operated by CP Technology Limited and headquartered on Ikorodu Road in Maryland, Lagos, is built to close that gap: send money, buy airtime, pay bills and manage a business account, without leaving a WhatsApp chat. The company is currently in a controlled rollout, working with licensed banking partners as it moves toward full public launch.

What makes ChatPay's story unusual in Nigeria's crowded fintech scene is not just the product, but who built it: three young Nigerians, two of them only 20 and building the company since they were 19, who found each other around a shared frustration rather than a shared employer or investor.

The three young Nigerians behind ChatPay

Adeoluwasubomi Odebunmi — Product Lead & Co-Founder

A recent Software Engineering graduate of Babcock University, Ogun State, Adeoluwasubomi has built a portfolio spanning e-commerce platforms, real estate management systems, school administration systems, and AI-driven medical diagnostic tools, and has authored a technical paper on the application of natural language processing in medical diagnosis support. It was while still in school that she identified a persistent gap in how payments worked in Nigeria — an observation that would shape the direction of her career and lead her to partner with co-founders to launch ChatPay, where she now leads product development.

"I saw the gap while I was still in school — how much friction there was just to move money. I didn't want to just study the problem. I wanted to help fix it".

— Adeoluwasubomi Odebunmi, Product Lead & Co-Founder, ChatPay

Aseoluwa Siyanbola — Growth Lead & Co-Founder

A young Nigerian currently studying in the United States, Aseoluwa's path into conversational banking began after witnessing his parents' and loved ones' frustrations with maintaining Nigerian bank accounts while living abroad. Dissatisfied with frequent OTP failures and unreliable banking app experiences, he began researching open banking as a potential solution, a journey that eventually led him to Adeoluwasubomi, with whom he found a shared vision and a partner to build with. The two have been building ChatPay together since they were 19, and Aseoluwa now leads Growth.

"We're not three people who met at a big company and decided to start something together. We each ran into the same wall on our own, and found each other while looking for a way through it".

— Aseoluwa Siyanbola, Growth Lead & Co-Founder, ChatPay

Abraham William — Tech Lead & Co-Founder

The most experienced member of the founding team, Abraham is a multidisciplinary software engineer who has designed and delivered technology solutions across fintech, artificial intelligence, blockchain, enterprise software and conversational platforms. As ChatPay's Tech Lead, he leads the company's technology strategy, system architecture and engineering, with responsibility for building the secure and scalable infrastructure powering the platform.

"Technology should not make people feel left behind. We are building ChatPay so that anyone, regardless of their technical knowledge, can access financial services through something as familiar and simple as a conversation".

— Abraham William, Tech Lead & Co-Founder, ChatPay

The company is careful not to overstate where it is today. Money-movement features are arriving in phases as regulatory and banking-partner certifications are completed, and the team speaks about its long-term ambition — a future where conversational banking reaches tens of millions of people across Africa — as a multi-year vision rather than a near-term promise.

For now, the public can join two things: a general waitlist for early access as the platform expands, and “Founding 2,500,” a community of up to 2,500 early participants who take on a closer role — testing features, offering feedback, and earning recognition as the product develops. Those interested can do so at www.chatpayhq.com.

About ChatPay

ChatPay is a conversational banking platform operated by CP Technology Limited, headquartered at 374 Ikorodu Road, Maryland, Lagos, Nigeria, and founded by Adeoluwasubomi Odebunmi, Aseoluwa Siyanbola and Abraham William. Once fully live, it will allow individuals and businesses to send money, pay bills, buy airtime and manage payments directly inside WhatsApp, without a separate app. The company is currently in a controlled rollout in partnership with licensed banking providers. For more information, visit www.chatpayhq.com or contact hello@chatpayhq.com.