Remita Payment Services Limited has challenged Nigeria’s next generation of engineers to move beyond academic qualifications and embrace engineering as a discipline centred on solving meaningful problems, creating value, and continuously learning in an ever-changing world.
The call came from Mujib Ishola, Executive Director of Technology at Remita, during the 2026 Technology and Engineering Students’ Association Conference held on Wednesday, July 22, at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. Ishola led a fireside chat titled “Beyond the Degree: How Engineers Are Redefining Success Across Industries” and served as a judge during the conference’s innovation hackathon.
Speaking candidly about his own leadership journey, Ishola urged students to treat growth as ongoing rather than something they eventually arrive at. He stressed that leadership is a continuous learning experience, noting that no handbook prepares anyone for every challenge because technology, business, and the world are constantly changing.
Brandspur Brand News gathered that Ishola drew on Remita’s experience building some of Nigeria’s most widely used payment infrastructure to illustrate how innovation often calls for difficult decisions, especially when organisations must back ambitious ideas without knowing how they will turn out.
“Some of the most important decisions are the ones where the outcome isn’t guaranteed. Sometimes you have to commit resources, bring different stakeholders together, and believe in what the solution can become. That’s how meaningful innovation happens,” Ishola said.
He explained that building technology at scale takes more than technical skill, requiring collaboration across industries, institutions, and regulators to produce solutions that can serve millions of people well. Competition, he argued, should not be seen as a threat but as something that sharpens creativity and forces better problem-solving.
Turning to Nigeria’s payment ecosystem, Ishola noted that people are not looking for payments but for solutions to everyday problems. Payments simply enable those solutions. Understanding the real problem behind a product, he said, is what gives innovators’ work lasting relevance.
Ishola also emphasised that speed cannot come at the expense of trust, which he described as the ground every technology business stands on. As digital services weave further into daily life, security and data protection must be treated as core responsibilities rather than afterthoughts.
“When decisions affect security and data, there is very little room for compromise. Trust is the foundation of every technology business, and protecting it must always come first,” he said.
Beyond the fireside conversation, Ishola judged the conference’s innovation hackathon, where students worked through practical technology solutions to real-world problems. The experience, he said, was a reminder of why young innovators need room to experiment, collaborate, and turn ideas into working products.
Closing the session, he told students to stay confident in what they already know while remaining open to what they still have to learn. The knowledge they seek already exists in someone else’s experience, he noted, urging them never to stop learning.
Remita’s presence at the OAU TESA Conference reflects a wider belief within the company: growing Nigeria’s digital economy takes more than building good technology. It requires deliberate investment in the people who will design, build, and lead the next generation of solutions. Through mentorship, knowledge exchange, and practical innovation, the company continues to back an environment where engineering talent can grow and technology can serve the country’s long-term developmentT
