MON JULY 20 2026-theGBJournal| For decades, African commerce has been constrained by familiar obstacles: fragmented payment systems, cumbersome cross-border settlements, unreliable procurement networks and inefficient commodity markets.
Most entrepreneurs have chosen to solve one piece of that puzzle.
A young Nigerian entrepreneur, Koiza Oyanna, is attempting something far more ambitious.
Rather than building another fintech or another commodities company, Oyanna is quietly assembling Clearer Group—a diversified African enterprise spanning financial technology, energy, commodities trading, mining, strategic procurement and cross-border commerce.
The ambition is simple but bold: create an integrated business that enables companies to source products, finance transactions, move money, insure cargo, procure equipment and settle payments through a single ecosystem.
It is a model that reflects the evolution of the world’s leading trading houses, where finance and physical commerce reinforce one another.
More Than a Fintech
Although ClearerPay is the Group’s flagship technology platform, it represents only one component of a much broader strategy.
The platform provides the financial rails—cross-border payments, foreign exchange settlement, trade finance, remittances and embedded financial services—that support businesses operating across multiple African markets.
Beyond financial technology, the Group has built businesses around the movement of physical goods.
Its trading operations cover crude oil, refined petroleum products, solid minerals and other commodities, while its procurement division provides strategic sourcing solutions for governments, manufacturers, industrial companies and corporate clients executing projects across Africa.
Rather than viewing finance and trade as separate industries, Clearer Group combines both within a single commercial ecosystem.
Positioned in Strategic Industries
The Group has also secured regulatory approvals that position it in sectors central to Nigeria’s economic transformation.
It holds a petroleum products distribution licence issued by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), formerly the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), enabling participation in Nigeria’s petroleum products value chain.
It also holds a mineral exploration licence, giving it exposure to Nigeria’s rapidly expanding solid minerals sector as the country seeks to diversify beyond oil.
Together, these licences complement the Group’s ambitions in commodities trading and strategic procurement, creating multiple revenue streams across industries that are becoming increasingly interconnected.
Building Africa’s Commercial Backbone
Oyanna’s journey to building Clearer Group began long before launching the business.
With more than twelve years of experience across Africa and Europe, he managed funds-transfer operations at Sterling Bank.
The experience exposed a recurring problem.
African businesses were not struggling simply because payments were slow.
They were losing opportunities because finance, procurement, logistics and trade operated in silos.
Clearer Group was conceived to bridge those gaps.
At the centre sits ClearerPay, whose platform already processes more than $200 million annually across trade and remittance corridors.
The business generates revenue through transaction pricing, premium subscriptions, white-label partnerships and embedded financial services, including cargo insurance.
Preparing for the Next Phase of Growth
Having demonstrated commercial traction, Clearer Group is now preparing to scale.
The company is seeking to raise $3 million at an implied valuation of approximately $15 million, offering investors 20 per cent equity to accelerate the next phase of its expansion.
The largest allocation—$1 million—will be invested in technology and infrastructure, strengthening the Group’s core payments engine, API architecture, merchant dashboard, KYC and anti-money laundering capabilities, cybersecurity and overall platform resilience.
The investment reflects an unusual characteristic of the business: despite processing more than $200 million in annual transaction volume, much of its growth has been achieved without a fully developed proprietary technology stack.
The capital raise is intended to build the infrastructure needed to support significantly larger transaction volumes.
Additional funding will support the rollout of multi-currency accounts, merchant onboarding capabilities and over-the-counter settlement workflows, broadening the platform’s product offering.
The Group also plans to invest in marketing and corridor activation by expanding diaspora customer acquisition, strengthening referral and agent networks, and providing merchant onboarding incentives in priority trade corridors across Africa.
Part of the proceeds will reinforce compliance and regulatory capabilities through enhanced anti-money laundering programmes, sanctions screening systems and licence maintenance across multiple jurisdictions.
Further investment will strengthen customer support and settlement operations while providing additional working capital and trading-book liquidity to support settlement float and short-term financing requirements for expanding trade activities.
A Business Built for Scale
The financial projections reflect that ambition. Revenue is forecast to increase from $2.13 million in 2026 to $15.45 million by 2030, as ecosystem-linked settlement volumes increasingly translate into direct platform revenue.
Gross margins are projected to improve from 26 per cent to 38 per cent, driven by investment in proprietary technology that replaces third-party infrastructure and improves operating efficiency.
Marketing expenditure is expected to increase from $450,000 to $1.4 million, while declining from 21 per cent to 9 per cent of revenue, reflecting greater customer acquisition efficiency as the business scales.
The Group expects EBITDA to turn positive in 2029, reaching an 18 per cent margin by 2030.
Its valuation combines discounted cash flow analysis with market-based comparable multiples, allowing for multiple long-term outcomes, including strategic acquisition, secondary investment or an eventual public listing.
Building an African Trading Champion
The significance of Clearer Group lies not simply in its financial projections but in its strategy.
Instead of building a single-product company, it is assembling businesses that reinforce one another.
Payments support procurement.
Procurement supports commodities trading.
Commodity flows create financial transactions.
Financial technology enables settlement.
Mining and petroleum create opportunities for regional trade, logistics and trade finance.
Each business strengthens the others.
As the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) reshapes regional commerce, companies capable of integrating finance with the movement of goods, energy and strategic resources could become some of the continent’s most influential enterprises.
That is the opportunity Koiza Oyanna is pursuing.
Without fanfare, he is building more than a fintech company or a commodities trader.
He is building Clearer Group—a Nigerian enterprise with the ambition to become one of Africa’s integrated trade, energy and financial infrastructure companies.
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