Njoku Emmanuel is one of the brightest young minds in the African crypto space. Apart from the remarkable fact that he is one of the most sought-after blockchain engineers in the world, the 19-year-old is a founder and CEO of LazerPay, a crypto payment gateway startup launched in October 2021 to massive reception and acclaim.
A phenomenal feat by any measure, but particularly outstanding considering his background. Seeing a teenager push barriers and build something iconic at a tender age is not easy to come by, especially here in Africa. But Njoku says the age tag is not a restriction.
Njoku started computer programming in 2015, at 13. But his journey into the blockchain world started in 2019 when he attended a hackathon project held in Lagos. And, since then he has worked with local and international blockchain companies like Kwivar, Instadapp, Avarta, Project Xend Hydro ,Finance, Nestcoin, MakerDAO and others.
According to the young lad, among other qualities, decentralization and immutability were some of the reasons he fell in love with blockchain technology.
Lazerpay
Lazerpay, touted as the ‘African Stripe’ is a crypto payment gateway startup Njoku co-founded with Abdulfatai Suleiman and Prosper Ubi in October 2021.
It is believed to be a necessary innovation that can accelerate crypto adoption in Africa. Lazerpay is not only solving payments for businesses but also provides them with easy access to decentralised finance (DeFi) features such as lending and staking.
Traditional currencies like the naira and cedis weren’t built to solve cross-border payments, Njoku believes crypto is the only solution to that.
“With Lazerpay, the complexity of setting up a structure to accept crypto payments is handled entirely by us. As a business owner, you only need to set up your business on Lazerpay and choose to integrate or collect payments through your branded payment links.
I believe that if we can create more use cases and utilities for crypto it’ll make a difference in Africa.”
He also disclosed that he has other investments outside Lazerpay. He has invested in startups like Klas, Quabbly, and a few others.
There is a talk of unhealthy competition among influential crypto figures in Africa, which in the opinion of many, has made African crypto projects struggle to compete on the global stage. Njoku Emmanuel believes competition drives innovation but it should be in a healthy way.
“I believe competition is what drives innovation. The market is huge… How do we achieve mass adoption in Africa if only Lazerpay is on the market?”
