Nigerian Digital-Only Bank, Lays Off 5% Of Its Workforce

There was a wave of layoffs that occurred in the past few months, sweeping across several companies in diverse sectors around the globe, due to inflation, and fear of possible recession among several other factors.

Kuda Bank, Nigeria’s First digital-only bank, has joined the list of companies that have laid off some of its workforce. The bank further revealed that only 5% of its 450-strong workforce was laid off, which is about 23 people.

The company held a town hall meeting in August to cut down seemingly redundant roles, sacked underperforming staff to save costs, and extending the runway were topics of conversation in light of current macroeconomic trends, according to sources.

However, the number of employees sacked is reported to be small, when compared to other layoffs that have taken place within Africa’s tech ecosystem over the past few months, especially among startups that have raised vast sums of venture capital within the last year or two; for instance, Swvl laid off 400; wave, approximately 300; 54gene, 95; and Vezeeta, 50.

However, these recent event speaks to varied efforts startups including unicorns and unicorns are making. It’s not entirely a surprise, in Kuda’s case, even though the company went on a hiring spree for designers in July. 

Meanwhile, the bank raised about $55 million in August last month, where it stated its plans to use the money to kickstart new services in Nigeria and also prepare for its launch into more African countries, like Ghana and Uganda in a Series B round that saw it valued at $500 million.

The company, having raised more than $90 million in total from investors such as Valar Ventures and Target Global, is also planning an expansion outside Africa to Pakistan.

It recently hired Pavel Khristolubov, an ex-Tinkoff executive, as its global chief operating officer and Elena Lavezzi, a former Revolut executive in Europe, as chief strategy officer to oversee efforts in this regard and also grow its over 4 million customer base.

Founded in 2017, Kuda calls itself “the bank of the free”, as it offers a no-fee virtual account and accompanying debit card.