2002: Building Infrastructure in Difficult Conditions
When Mitchell Elegbe co-founded Interswitch in Lagos in 2002, Nigeria's payment infrastructure was essentially non-existent. Banks operated in silos — a customer at one bank could not use an ATM owned by a different bank. Card payments were rare. The internet was nascent.
Elegbe, who had been working in technology at Accenture, saw the problem clearly: Nigerian banks were building expensive, duplicated infrastructure because there was no shared network. The inefficiency was enormous.
His solution was to build the shared infrastructure — a payment switch that would connect all Nigerian banks, allowing transactions to flow between institutions seamlessly.
This is not a glamorous product idea. A payment switch is invisible plumbing. It is not the kind of idea that gets featured in consumer tech magazines. It is exactly the kind of idea that, if it works, generates enormous and durable value.
The Challenges of 2002
Building payment infrastructure in Nigeria in 2002 was not like building a startup in 2024 with cloud computing, open-source libraries, and venture capital.
Challenges Interswitch faced:
- No venture capital market in Nigeria
- Power infrastructure was unreliable (as it remains)
- Internet connectivity was expensive and slow
- Nigerian banks had to be convinced to connect to a network they didn't control
- Regulatory framework for payment processors didn't exist and had to be negotiated
Elegbe has described the early years as requiring constant negotiation — with banks who were skeptical, with regulators who were unfamiliar with the concept, and with infrastructure providers who were expensive and unreliable.
The company was funded initially by its founding investors rather than external venture capital — there was no ecosystem for that in Nigeria in 2002.
The First Products: Verve and Quickteller
Interswitch's first major consumer-facing product was Verve — a payment card network branded entirely in Nigeria. While Visa and Mastercard had global reach, they had limited penetration in Nigeria and were oriented toward existing bank customers with the documentation and income those banks required.
Verve targeted the Nigerian market specifically, with a card that worked on Interswitch's growing ATM network and was designed for Nigerian banking realities.
Quickteller, launched later, became Nigeria's first significant online payment platform — allowing Nigerians to pay bills, buy airtime, and make other transactions online before most were aware that this was possible.
Building the ATM Network
Perhaps Interswitch's most visible infrastructure achievement in its first decade was the ATM network. When interoperability didn't exist, Nigerians could only use ATMs belonging to their specific bank.
Interswitch's switch made it possible for bank customers to use any connected ATM regardless of their bank. The number of usable ATMs, from a customer's perspective, multiplied dramatically.
This seems minor in retrospect. At the time, it was a significant quality-of-life improvement for millions of Nigerians and a foundational piece of financial infrastructure.
The Growth to Unicorn Status
Interswitch grew steadily over its first decade, expanding its product range and deepening its infrastructure. Unlike the venture-backed African tech companies of the 2010s, Interswitch's growth was organic, funded by its own revenue.
In 2010, Helios Investment Partners — a private equity firm focused on Africa — made a significant investment in Interswitch that valued the company at around $400 million.
In 2019, Visa invested in Interswitch at a valuation that made the company worth approximately $1 billion — making it one of Africa's first unicorns. The Visa investment brought global credibility and potential for expanded global product integration.
The IPO That Almost Happened
Interswitch had been preparing for an IPO for several years — planning to list on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange simultaneously. This would have been the largest IPO by an African tech company.
The IPO was repeatedly postponed, most recently due to economic conditions and market volatility. As of early 2026, the company remains private, though the IPO ambition appears to remain on the long-term agenda.
Mitchell Elegbe's Legacy
Elegbe built Interswitch largely outside the spotlight of international tech media, which has historically been more interested in Silicon Valley or the newer generation of African tech companies. But the infrastructure he built is foundational.
Without the Interswitch switch, there is no interoperable ATM network in Nigeria. Without Quickteller, online bill payment launches years later. Without Verve, card penetration among Nigerians not served by Visa and Mastercard is lower.
Paystack, Flutterwave, and the generation of fintech companies that followed built on infrastructure that Interswitch helped create. In this sense, Elegbe's work — done mostly quietly, before it was fashionable to be an African tech founder — enabled much of what came after.
Lessons From Interswitch
1. Infrastructure plays require patience. Interswitch was founded in 2002 and reached unicorn status in 2019. That's 17 years. Infrastructure businesses are not built in 3-year sprint cycles.
2. You can build African champions without Silicon Valley. Interswitch was not YC-backed. It did not have American co-founders. It was built by Nigerians, for the Nigerian market, funded with Nigerian and African capital. The company it became demonstrates what's possible without the Silicon Valley template.
3. The mundane problems are worth solving. Payment switches are not exciting. They are essential. The less exciting a genuine infrastructure problem is, the less competition you'll face building the solution to it.
