TO HOLD EVERYTHING IS TO BUILD NOTHING

ThisDay highlights a significant leadership transition at Paga Group, with the appointment of Opeyemi Oyinloye as Group COO and CEO of Paga Nigeria. The article frames this as a pivotal moment, marking "A New Era for Paga," and emphasizes that Oyinloye, while not a founder, brings a wealth of experience from his previous roles at Etisalat Nigeria.

The piece delves into the common founder's dilemma: the belief that only they can effectively run their company. This "founder arrogance," as the article terms it, often leads to building a business that is overly dependent on a single individual. The appointment of an external leader like Oyinloye, who has steadily grown his responsibilities within Paga, is presented as a potential counterpoint to this tendency.

Drawing on research from Wharton professor Matthew Bidwell, the article suggests that external hires, despite often commanding higher salaries, tend to underperform compared to internal candidates in their initial years. This perspective challenges the conventional wisdom that bringing in outside talent is always the optimal strategy for scaling a business, prompting a deeper consideration of internal development and succession planning within Nigerian tech companies.

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If Paga were making sausages, Opeyemi was responsible for choosing which sausages to make and ensuring that whatever sausages were being made were made really well.