Tosin Eniolorunda Said Nigerians Can’t Fill 500 Roles. One Week Later, the Seats Are Still Empty at MoniePoint.
Job Description
The Moniepoint CEO’s words stung. But buried inside the controversy is an open door. Will you walk through it?
On May 1st, at The Platform Nigeria event in Lagos, Tosin Eniolorunda, the CEO of MoniePoint, one of Africa’s most valuable fintech unicorns said something that lit the internet on fire. He revealed that his company has had over 500 job vacancies sitting unfilled since 2024, and then went further: the candidates who did apply, he said, did not meet global standards. He pointed out that their competition is a Chinese company (which we all know is Opay).
He pointed to brain drain, the educational system, social media, and what he called “yahoo-yahoo and hookup culture” as contributing factors. The backlash was immediate. Nigerians pushed back. Some called the comments tone-deaf. Others asked the harder question: is MoniePoint paying global salaries?
Is it investing in building the talent it claims it cannot find?
Both sides have a point. And that is exactly why this conversation matters.
“Nigerians are crushing it at Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Fintechs abroad. The raw potential exists.”
Let us be fair to Eniolorunda. In his clarification, he made it clear that the bottleneck is not general intelligence, it is a shortage of senior resident technical talent capable of operating at global scale inside Nigeria for a company competing with FinTechs that are global. He acknowledged that over 90% of Moniepoint’s 5000 staff are already Nigerian. He is not saying Nigerians cannot do the work. He is saying the pipeline of senior, battle-tested talent who stayed home is thin.
That is a fair observation, and it is partly the consequence of a decade of JAPA. When your best engineers leave for London, Toronto, and Amsterdam, the local pool shrinks. That is not a character flaw. It is economics. And it is a problem that companies like Moniepoint also have a responsibility to help solve, through structured training, competitive salaries, and transparent hiring processes. Critics who made those points were not wrong either.
But here is where most of the noise missed the real story.
Five hundred roles are open. Right now. At one of Nigeria’s highest-profile tech companies. Whether or not you agree with how Eniolorunda framed things, those seats are empty and they need to be filled. That is not a problem; that is an opportunity.
500 open seats. One company. And the CEO just told the whole country he cannot find people to fill them.
If you are a developer, a product manager, a data analyst, a risk specialist, a growth marketer or you are working your way toward any of those roles. This moment was not meant to discourage you. It was meant to challenge you. The question Eniolorunda’s comments raise for every Nigerian professional is simple: Are you building yourself to be the person that companies like Moniepoint cannot say no to?
Because here is what is true: Nigerian talent has always been exceptional. Our engineers built systems at scale for global banks. Our product thinkers have shaped products used by millions. Our data scientists model complex financial behaviour at companies that span continents. The talent is here. The question is whether it is meeting the moment and whether you are putting it on the table.
At MorrJobs, we believe this is exactly the time to move. Not to argue on Twitter but to apply. If the narrative is that Nigerians cannot fill these roles, the most powerful response is to prove otherwise, one application at a time.
We have pulled the live Moniepoint job listings so you can see exactly what roles are open, what they require, and where you might fit in. Browse, assess yourself honestly, sharpen what needs sharpening and then apply by clicking the “Apply Now” Button Above.
The door Eniolorunda accidentally opened is wider than he intended. Walk through it.
