“Can a young Nigerian National Bank scale into the preferred digital banking platform for people and businesses across Nigeria and its diaspora corridors?”
Optimus Bank is a Nigerian National Bank licensed by the CBN in 2021, headquartered in Lagos with distributed workforce across Nigeria, UK, Canada and the US. It operates a full-service consumer and SME banking model (savings, corporate, SME, USSD banking via *930#), and has launched an OptimusPay virtual account product for merchant collections. As a chartered Nigerian bank, it operates its own core rails rather than sitting on top of a BaaS provider.
Optimus Bank discloses Optimus Bank Limited (in-house) as its banking provider, according to the Embedded Finance Index 2026.
Optimus Bank does not disclose a bank charter of its own; its banking services are provided through Optimus Bank Limited (in-house).
Optimus Bank processes payments through OptimusPay (self-operated).
Optimus Bank's lending and capital products are provided by Optimus Bank (in-house).
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 3 layers in Optimus Bank's stack: Payments / PSP (OptimusPay (self-operated)); Banking / BaaS (Optimus Bank Limited (in-house)); Lending (Optimus Bank (in-house)).
Optimus Bank is founded in 2021 and headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria.
Optimus Bank has raised $146.4M in total (latest round: Debt Financing, 2026-03).
Get a read on where your own stack stands against Optimus Bank and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.