Ascenix Consulting Limited - Our client, a leading and foremost switching company in Nigeria licensed by the CBN and renowned for delivering seamless, secure and scal-able electronic payments and digital commerce solutions is recruiting to fill the position below:
Job Description
- The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is responsible for the overall strategic, commercial, operational, and regulatory leadership of the company.
- The CEO ensures secure, compliant, highly available, and scalable switching and processing services while delivering sustainable growth, profitability, and stakeholder confidence.
Responsibilities
Strategy, Business Growth & Market Leadership:
- Define and execute the company’s long-term strategy aligned with CBN regulations and Nigeria’s payments ecosystem.
- Drive revenue growth across switching, processing, APIs, digital payment rails, and value-added services.
- Lead partnerships with banks, fintechs, merchants, telcos, and payment ecosystem participants.
- Oversee product strategy, pricing, and go-to-market execution.
Regulatory & Stakeholder Management:
- Act as primary liaison with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and industry stakeholders.
- Ensure full compliance with licensing requirements, regulatory returns, audits, and governance standards.
- Maintain strong relationships with regulators, auditors, and industry bodies.
Technology, Operations & Resilience:
- Ensure high availability, scalability, and security of all switching and processing platforms.
- Oversee technology architecture, infrastructure, vendor management, and platform modernization.
- Ensure robust business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities.
Financial Management & Performance:
- Lead budgeting, financial planning, profitability, and cost optimization.
- Ensure strong cash flow management and financial discipline.
- Present accurate and timely performance reports to the Board.
Governance, Risk & Controls:
- Implement effective enterprise risk management and internal controls.
- Ensure timely closure of audit findings and regulatory observations.
- Oversee fraud management, cybersecurity, and operational risk.
People Leadership & Culture:
- Build and lead a high-performing executive and management team.
- Drive performance management, succession planning, and talent development.
- Promote a culture of integrity, accountability, and operational excellence.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Platform Reliability & Operations:
- Platform uptime ≥ 99.95%
- Transaction success rate ≥ agreed threshold
- Mean Time to Restore (MTTR) within agreed SLA
- Zero capacity-related outages during peak periods.
Regulatory & Compliance:
- 100% on-time regulatory filings
- Zero material regulatory breaches
- Timely closure of audit findings.
Security & Risk:
- Fraud losses within approved thresholds
- Zero material cybersecurity incidents
- Successful disaster recovery tests conducted bi-annually.
Commercial & Financial Performance:
- Year-on-year revenue growth
- Achievement of EBITDA and profitability targets
- Customer retention and expansion targets met.
People & Culture:
- High performer retention rate
- Leadership succession coverage for critical roles
- 100% completion of compliance and ethics training.
Required Qualifications and Experience
- Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Finance, Business, or related field. Master’s Degree or MBA is an advantage.
- 12 – 18+ years experience in payments, switching, processing, banking technology, or fintech.
- At least 5 – 8+ years in senior executive leadership.
- Expertise: Strong knowledge of CBN regulations and Nigeria’s payments ecosystem.