Femi Iromini: How Young Africans Are Rewriting Rules of Wealth

The CEO and co-founder of Rank, Femi Iromini, says young Africans are rewriting the rules of wealth creation by harnessing technology, community and collective capital to overcome traditional barriers to financial opportunities and asset ownership. He spoke with Kayode Tokede

Why collective wealth-building in Africa despite the challenges?

Africans have always built informal support systems when formal structures were weak. Technology now allows those traditional systems to scale efficiently. With Africa’s population projected to reach 2.5 billion by 2050, the demand for accessible financial services and investment will skyrocket. The goal is not to wait for perfect macroeconomic conditions, but to build resilient systems that work within real-world environments today.

*As a Fintech company, what are the major setbacks facing the sector’s ecosystem and how are key major stakeholders collaborating in creating solutions? *

While significant progress has been made on the issue of financial inclusion, there is still some work to be done on financial empowerment. It is certainly easier to send and receive money these days but that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to financial services. For example, The Nigeria Exchange was recently recognised as the best performing Exchange in the world, yet everyday citizens remain largely locked out. The barriers are two-fold: limited access to financial education and restrictive regulatory frameworks. Stakeholders, regulators, and fintechs must collaborate to streamline compliance, expand access to capital markets, and build safer entry points for retail investors.

*What are the ways young Africans are using their digital native status to access, organise and coordinate around financial opportunities at an unprecedented scale? *

Young Africans leverage social networks, messaging platforms, and digital communities to pool resources, share market intelligence, and execute collective opportunities. By taking these informal digital behaviors and hosting them within a structured financial platform like Rank, youth can convert online coordination into pooled capital, lowering individual entry thresholds for high-value investments.

*Why does the future of wealth creation lie in pooling capital and coordinating digitally to shatter traditional barriers and access high-yield opportunities? *

Individually, small retail investors face prohibitive entry costs and zero pricing power. Digitally pooling capital allows retail users to act with institutional force. By aggregating funds, groups can access high-yield instruments, bulk-asset acquisitions, and primary market opportunities that were historically reserved for high-net-worth individuals and institutional funds.

*Why does the most educated and digitally connected generation in Africa’s history still faces the weakest, least reliable pathways to building real wealth? *

Modern African youth face a severe structural mismatch: severe macroeconomic headwinds, currency devaluations, high unemployment, and legacy financial systems designed for a bygone era. Traditional financial institutions still evaluate credit and investment readiness using outdated metrics, completely ignoring the digital economy, freelance earnings, and informal cash flows that drive today’s workforce.

*What are the major challenges to collective wealth-building in Africa, and how is Rank helping to spread wealth across the continent, particularly in Nigeria? *

The challenge is rarely a lack of ambition. Africans have used social financial infrastructure such as Ajo, Esusu and cooperatives for generations to pool resources and create financial leverage. However, these systems have largely focused on saving and preserving money, with limited upside for savers in terms of access to capital, wealth-creating assets and investment opportunities. At the same time, traditional pathways to wealth, including stable employment and affordable asset ownership, have become increasingly difficult for many young Africans to access. Capital is a fundamental building block of wealth creation, yet it remains out of reach for too many people. At Rank, we are building on Africa’s existing social infrastructure to help individuals and communities move beyond saving towards accessing capital and creating wealth together. By combining technology, community and access to capital, we enable people to pursue opportunities that may be difficult to reach individually. Over the last 12 months, Rank has paid out more than $100 million to users across various communities, demonstrating the potential to turn social capital into economic leverage at scale.

*What are the existing risks in collective wealth-building in Africa, and how does Rank mitigate those risks? *

Historically, informal communal structures relied purely on social trust, which carried risks of default, lack of liquidity, and absence of regulatory oversight. We mitigate these risks by combining trusted cultural traditions with modern, institutional-grade financial infrastructure. By layering cutting-edge technology and digital-first security over traditional collective models, we solve structural trust issues, enforce accountability, and protect user capital. This gives young Africans the collective leverage needed to safely outpace inflation and build long-term equity.

*How does Rank stand out from its peers, and what are its unique selling points? *

Rank is a money app that empowers individuals and communities to save, spend and grow together. What sets us apart is our focus on three things: access to capital, personalisation, and an integrated online and offline customer experience. Our foundational belief is that human connection is the ultimate leverage. While many fintech platforms focus primarily on transactional, single-user experiences, Rank uses existing social infrastructure to transform trust and collective financial behaviour into economic opportunity. We are also developing personalised and progressive wealth products that can support users at different stages of their financial journeys from everyday money management and access to capital to saving, investing and long-term wealth creation.

What are Rank’s success stories, and what mechanisms support the more than $100 million paid out to users over the last 12 months?

It is important to clarify that the more than $100 million paid out to users is not a traditional loan book that Rank is seeking to recover. The figure represents payouts made through structured products that help users access zero-interest capital for entrepreneurial and personal goals. Money Circles: Users access zero-interest capital by joining a circle and committing to monthly contributions. When their allocated payout slot arrives, they receive the agreed lump sum and continue making their regular contributions. They pay only a fixed service fee determined by their payout position. Rank guarantees the full payout even if another member defaults, providing a secure alternative to paper-based group savings, traditional debt and predatory loan apps. Access is subject to Rank’s KYC and eligibility checks. Tribe: Designed for existing networks of trust, Tribe allows users to create private groups with family, friends or colleagues to pursue shared financial goals or operate rotating cash payouts. Users can also migrate informal savings groups previously coordinated through platforms such as WhatsApp. Contributions and payouts are recorded transparently in real time, with no service fees. Rank Perks: This product integrates financial wellness into the workplace. Employers can give staff access to salary-backed, zero-interest capital and company-wide savings circles, with contributions or repayments automatically deducted from salaries using verified payroll data. These products are supported by dynamic underwriting models that assess defined behavioural and financial indicators, helping users access capital responsibly and sustainably.

*What is the synergy between Rank Microfinance Bank, Rank Capital and the Rank App in helping users move from basic banking to wealth creation? *

The three entities form an end-to-end financial ecosystem. Rank Microfinance Bank provides the foundation through regulatory compliance, secure deposits and essential banking services. The Rank App delivers the digital experience, allowing users to manage transactions, savings and community-based financial activities conveniently. Rank Capital complements this with a more relationship-led, offline experience and access to wealth and investment products. Together, they create a personalised and progressive financial journey, enabling customers to move from everyday banking and access to capital towards investment, asset ownership and long-term wealth creation.

What inspired Rank’s transition from Moni to a collective wealth-building platform?

Moni demonstrated that community trust could power financial services, achieving a 99% repayment rate across 11,000 loan units while disbursing more than $5 million. This showed that social accountability could transform how financial services are delivered. The evolution into Rank was not a pivot; it was an expansion of our asset classes and capabilities as a group. We recognised an opportunity to build beyond credit by bringing together banking, savings, community finance, investment and wealth creation within a broader ecosystem. The foundation remains the same: using the power of community to create greater financial opportunities. Rank expands the range of products and pathways through which we can deliver that vision.

*Where do you see Rank in the next five to 10years? *

Rank will become one of the foundational financial institutions defining the next generation of wealth creation across Africa. As financial inclusion improves, the next frontier is enabling Africans to move beyond simply owning bank accounts towards accessing capital, investments and productive assets. Over the next decade, we plan to deepen our footprint in Nigeria, expand carefully into key African markets, and establish Rank as a leader in wealth management in Africa. Our ambition is to prove that combining technology, personalisation and the power of the human community can make long-term wealth creation accessible to more people