BLOG
backMeet the DreamMaker is a series that spotlights the people behind the work at Moniepoint. In each episode, we introduce you to a DreamMaker (as Moniepoint employees are known), sharing what they do, the impact they're making, and a few fun things you might not know about them.
Nifemi: Hiii, Abdulgafar. How are you doing?
Abdulgafar: Doing great, Nifemi, and you?
Nifemi: Great to have you with us today. How has the day been?
Abdulgafar: Been ok.
Nifemi: Glad to hear. Before we go into the conversation, I have some teasers for you. Would you rather have tea or coffee?
Abdulgafar: Coffee.
Nifemi: Would you rather travel the world or travel within your country?
Abdulgafar: The world, please. Having already travelled to at least 14 states in Nigeria, I think I have earned the expansion of my international touchpoints.
Nifemi: 14 states! That's so cool.
Nifemi: What's one thing you wouldn't mind spending money on even when you're trying to save money?
Abdulgafar: Suya. At this point, it has become a serious relationship, as I even now own a suya spot (with shawarma). Spending on suya now feels necessary and like a business objective 😅. So, am I really spending or supporting my economy?
Nifemi: Will you send me the location so I can join in the enjoyment?
Abdulgafar: 😂
Nifemi: Now, let's get right to it. Please introduce yourself to us.
Abdulgafar: Sure. Hi everyone, I'm Abdulgafar, and I currently lead the Aptpay Suite at TeamApt here in Moniepoint. My role revolves around helping build and manage payment solutions used by banks. Most days, I'm somewhere between strategy meetings, bank discussions, product planning, incident management, and trying not to completely forget what code looks like anymore. Basically, I work with amazing teams to help build payment systems for banks and keep them running smoothly, securely, and at scale.
Nifemi: Could you let us in on what Aptpay Suite is?
Abdulgafar: Before I explain what Aptpay Suite is, let us go back to the beginning. TeamApt was the former name of the company, and we were a fintech company that was licensed to switch transactions between different banks. As Moniepoint became a major POS player, we had a big headache: our reliability depended on other people's infrastructure. This meant that if they coughed too hard, everybody started printing "Transaction Failed." Why should we catch a cold from someone else's sneeze? Or, why should we lose our steeze when they sneeze? Lol.
That question led to one of the biggest shifts in our journey. Instead of routing card transactions through the traditional path only, we started connecting directly to the banks for processing.
But of course, banks were not exactly sitting around waiting for magic to happen; we had to build card processing components, essentially giving each bank its own processing engine. Then came 2022. Moniepoint got its banking license, and regulators said no: a bank that should connect through a switch to other banks cannot be a switch itself. So, TeamApt became a separate entity from the MFB side of the business.
Then 2023 happened, and that infrastructure we had built over time turned out to be one of Moniepoint's superpowers because we stayed up when many others struggled. That period really pushed Moniepoint into the spotlight. So, interestingly, what originally started as us trying to solve our own internal reliability problem became the first major offering to banks in what we now call the Aptpay Suite.
As things evolved, we also realised the Moniepoint Microfinance Bank itself should not be directly connected to various banks, so TeamApt introduced a central switch. Not to worry, Aptpay Suite's first child (christened ATS, Aptpay Transaction Switch, formerly DCIR, Direct Card Issuer Routing) continued doing what they were designed to do: everything now flows through a switch, as prescribed by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Then someone asked if we could do this for POS. Why stop there? So, we expanded into web payments too. But unlike POS, where your physical card naturally helps with knowing you are legit, online payments require additional ways to confirm your identity. That led to the birth of TACS (TeamApt Authentication Control Service), which handles customer authentication through their banks.
We also birthed Direct Debit within the family. In simple terms, we help banks securely tokenise their customers' cards or accounts, basically creating a safe, reusable permission key that allows future or recurring debits. The debits are done in line with the set-out rules, or, as we call it, a mandate agreed upon by the customer. These rules are when to debit, how much, who can stop it, etc., and are fully documented so that the account owner cannot deny them.
Even the POS is joining the party, as we extend the Direct Debit capability to it. Imagine inserting your card on a POS today, but instead of a one-time payment, the system is setting you up for future debits to, let's say, a Netflix or Ajo (thrift) subscription. In a way, the humble POS terminal is quietly evolving from a simple "pay now" device to a gateway for "pay now and pay again later."
At the heart of the Aptpay Suite is one major idea: giving banks control of their own success story. We have moved 16 banks from "please help us process transactions" to "this is our platform, our customer, our rules." And yes, more are getting ready to join in.
Nifemi: So, Aptpay Suite creates an all-inclusive opportunity for banks to not just process transactions, but to own their processing system, right?
Abdulgafar: Correct.
Nifemi: With what you've described, I can't imagine what your day is like, but indulge me.
Abdulgafar: Hmm… My day starts with our stand-up, primarily to know where we are on each bank:
- What's causing issues
- What we're fixing
- What we need to escalate
Big shout-out to Emmanuella and her team for helping us deliver, despite the back-and-forth, with style and composure 😂.
From there, it's usually a mix of:
- Meetings with different banks
- Internal strategy sessions
- Discussions around ongoing initiatives across both my team and other teams
- And, of course, quenching fires that site reliability engineers (SREs) have picked up
Special shout-out to Dapo, Ugo, and the SRE team, as most fires only get to me when their own water has run out, and they need backup.
Honestly, my day is heavily filled with calls and meetings… (looking at you, Oluwakemi, unless she is on leave, expect her call).
Somewhere in between all of that are a couple of deep dives with the engineers, Ketan and Khadija. Huge shout-out to them, too. Smart people, solid conversations, and somehow we keep building on despite the chaos and still manage to keep things moving.
The Direct Debit squad is not left out either. Shout-out to Yasir, Abiodun, and the team for constantly creating magic and making sure that side of the house keeps running smoothly too.
Nifemi: What's one tip that has helped you as a leader?
Abdulgafar: One tip that has really helped me as a leader is: know your craft, but never stop listening to people around you.
A leader doesn't always have to be the one with all the ideas, but you should understand the craft well enough to make the right decisions when people bring ideas, opinions, or different approaches to the table. That balance has helped me a lot.
This was actually advice given to me by Solomon some time ago, and it has genuinely stuck with me ever since. The more I grow, the more I realise how important it is to stay open to hearing people out. Sometimes the best ideas come from conversations you didn't expect.
Of course, being a leader gets even easier when you have an amazing team, as well as amazing supporting teams.
So, let me shout out to Aisha, Adefemi, and the Compliance team, ensuring that we are not doing what regulators do not like; Lateefat and the Information Security team; Tolu, Damilola, and the Operations team; Ravi and the Engineering team; Tolu and the Infrastructure team; Constance and Favour (the People team); Nora and the Legal team; and Oluwatoyin and the Finance team.
And, of course, the other leaders who rely on my bank infrastructure: Damilare, Kevin, Daniel, Tracy, Unwana, and the Moniepoint Card Payments team.
Nifemi: There's really no "I" in team! Shout-out to the TeamApt team.
Nifemi: Outside of work, what's Abdulgafar up to?
Abdulgafar: I'm watching movies, building stuff, exploring ideas. I find myself thinking about businesses, products, and how they can be structured better. It's not always fintech; sometimes it is animals.
I now believe I am crazy about animals. I've run a poultry business with about 500 egg-laying chickens at some point, raised broilers, turkeys, guinea fowl, and even snails. On the pet side, I've kept rabbits, cats, a tortoise, and a parrot as well.
Right now, I'm considering starting sheep farming soon. They just look calm and well-behaved, calmer than goats, definitely, and not as noisy as chickens. For those who might ask, "What about a dog?", I have decided to bring one to manage the sheep.
Nifemi: If you could swap roles with anyone for one day, who would it be?
Abdulgafar: Hmmm, I will go with Frank, not even for the role, but to get access to the level of product and strategic knowledge, backed with experience, that he has. There are sessions where someone mentions a small feature request, and he is already three-quarters ahead: operational risks, implications, impact, all of it. I just want one day of that mental dashboard.
Nifemi: This was such an enlightening conversation. Thank you so much, Abdulgafar.
Abdulgafar: Thanks, Nifemi. This was fun.
