Why this Franco-Beninese founder built his fintech in Nigeria, and not in France or the Benin Republic
In this edition of After Hours, we follow Achille Arouko and how his early encounters with computers in Benin Republic, formal training in France, and exposure to Nigeria’s tech ecosystem shaped his decision to build Bujeti in Lagos.
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Before he built financial infrastructure for African businesses, Achille Arouko was an eight-year-old boy sneaking out of school to spend an hour in a cybercafé. <br />
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That early curiosity, driven by a need to find answers, set him on a path from self-taught programming in the Benin Republic to engineering school in France, Silicon Valley networks, and eventually Y Combinator.<br />
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In this edition of After Hours, we trace how those formative encounters with technology shaped Arouko’s thinking and led him to Nigeria’s tech ecosystem.<br />
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First encounter with technology<br />
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I grew up in the Benin Republic, and the most “technological” thing I had access to as a child was our television. I spent my days watching TV, playing football, or just hanging out with friends. Computers weren’t really a part of my world until one particular day at school.<br />
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I was about eight years old at the time, and this man had walked into my classroom, pointed at me, and said I was in the wrong class. He took me somewhere else, which turned out to be the cyber class, and weeks later, we were given a test. I didn’t know what cyber even meant, so I did what any confused child would do: I made up what I wrote.<br />
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While the teacher was marking the papers, the older boy sitting next to me told me he’d show me what “cyber” really was. We walked out of school and went straight to a cybercafé. I think we paid about 300 CFA francs for one hour, and I spent the time watching him use a computer, playing Mario on Windows 5.<br />
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That changed everything.<br />
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After that day, I kept telling my mother I had problems only a computer could solve. She would give me money, and I’d go back to the cybercafé. Sometimes, I lied about homework just to spend more time there. I even tried to hack the café’s time counter so I could stay longer without having to pay again.<br />
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For the first time, any question that crossed my mind had a place to go. I didn’t need a book or someone who shared my curiosity. I could just type, search, a...
