Moniepoint Is Investing ₦3 Billion to Fix the Talent Problem It Once Complained About
Not long ago, Moniepoint was at the centre of a heated national conversation about the quality of Nigerian graduates.
The fintech giant, in the course of its rapid growth, had been candid about the difficulty of finding job-ready tech talent locally, comments that sparked debate across LinkedIn timelines, Twitter threads, and university common rooms. Critics pushed back. Educators took offence. Job seekers felt the sting.
Now, Moniepoint has put ₦3 billion on the table and in doing so, shifted from critic to builder.
On Monday, May 25, 2026, the company formally announced the establishment of three Innovation Hubs across Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), and Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria. With ₦1 billion committed to each institution over the next three years, the initiative is being described as one of the most significant private-sector investments in Nigerian higher education in recent memory.
The announcement was made at OAU’s Oduduwa Hall, where Moniepoint’s co-founder and Group CEO, Tosin Eniolorunda, signed Memoranda of Understanding with the leadership of all three universities.
More Than a Building
The hubs are not just infrastructure plays. Each facility is designed to serve as a permanent, hands-on training centre where students across all faculties, not just engineering or computer science, can develop skills in software engineering, artificial intelligence, data science, robotics, product development, design, and entrepreneurship.
Critically, Moniepoint says its internal teams will be actively involved. The company’s engineers, product managers, and business leaders are expected to contribute to curriculum development, run mentorship sessions, create internship pathways, and connect students to live projects. The goal is industry exposure while students are still in school, not after they graduate and face the skills gap that has been the subject of so much debate.
“What we are building will not just be physical infrastructure,” Eniolorunda said at the launch. “We are creating environments where students can build practical skills, collaborate, and prepare properly for the future.”
A Strategic Geography
The choice of institutions was deliberate. OAU anchors the South-West. UNN represents the South-East. ABU covers the North. The message is clear: Moniepoint wants talent to be developed across Nigeria’s regions, not just in Lagos.
Eniolorunda, an OAU alumnus himself, made no secret of the personal stakes. In a post shared on his Instagram following the event, he wrote about a moment as a student when he promised himself he would come back and give meaningfully to the school. “Monday felt emotional,” he wrote, “because in many ways, it represented the continuation of that promise.”
OAU has already moved quickly its Vice-Chancellor confirmed that land has been approved for the physical hub, making Moniepoint the first private organisation to establish an independent hub on the campus.
Building on What Came Before
This is not Moniepoint’s first act of investment in Nigerian education. The Tosin Eniolorunda STEM Foundation had earlier established a CAD/CAM laboratory at OAU’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, valued at over ₦100 million. Separately, Moniepoint’s co-founder and CTO Felix Ike has been running the HatchDev Programme at the University of Lagos in partnership with NITHub, currently training around 500 young developers annually.
The Innovation Hubs represent a significant scaling of that commitment both in financial size and geographic reach.What It Means
The timing is not lost on anyone. A company that was at the centre of Nigeria’s talent quality debate is now writing ₦3 billion cheques to directly address the problem it highlighted. Whether that reads as accountability or as savvy ecosystem-building depends on your vantage point. Either way, the outcome if executed well is the same: more Nigerians entering the workforce with practical, industry-tested skills.
The hubs are also a signal to other private sector players. The question being asked quietly in ecosystem circles is: if Moniepoint can do it, who is next?
Eniolorunda was clear that these three universities are just the beginning. More institutions, he said, are on the horizon.
Nigeria’s talent problem will not be solved by one company or three campuses. But ₦3 billion, anchored in the right institutions, with the right industry involvement, is a serious start.
