By Odunola Salako
University tuition payments should not require physical bank visits. Yet in 2025, they still do in most of Africa.
When I joined The Open University as Product Manager for Web Operations and Marketing Automation, I expected a different challenge from my fintech years. I found familiar problems wearing academic clothing.
Educational institutions face the same payment infrastructure challenges that Nigerian banks faced a decade ago. Fragmented systems. Manual reconciliation. Limited payment options. Poor user experience that creates enrollment friction.
The Open University serves students who cannot access traditional higher education. Working parents. Rural learners. Career changers. These are exactly the populations that fintech has learned to serve, yet education technology lags years behind financial technology in payment sophistication.
I am applying lessons from Xpress Payment Solutions and Accelerex to educational payments. The same principles apply: reduce friction, increase trust, build for users who are not digitally native.
The complexity is different. Educational payments involve instalment plans, financial aid, international transfers, and refund policies. The stakeholder matrix includes students, parents, financial aid offices, international offices, and regulatory bodies. But the core product challenge remains: move money simply and reliably.
I see an enormous opportunity in this intersection. Education is the next frontier for financial inclusion. Not just student loans, but the entire payment ecosystem that enables access to learning.
The global EdTech market is projected to reach $400 billion by 2026. Much of this growth will come from emerging markets where mobile money has already penetrated, but educational payment infrastructure remains primitive. The companies that solve this will unlock massive social and economic value.
My current work involves building automated payment workflows that integrate with student information systems. The goal is invisible infrastructure: payments that happen so smoothly that students focus on learning rather than transaction logistics.
This requires the same stakeholder management skills I developed in Nigerian fintech. Academic administrators think differently from bank executives, but they share similar risk aversion and change resistance. The product manager’s job is to translate between technical capabilities and institutional constraints.
I am also exploring how data science can improve educational payment experiences. Predictive models that identify students at risk of dropping out due to financial stress. Personalised payment plans based on income patterns. Early warning systems for failed payments before they disrupt enrollment.
These applications require careful ethical consideration. Financial data in educational contexts is sensitive. The power dynamics between institutions and students are different from those between banks and customers. Product managers must build trust through transparency and user control.
The transition from fintech to EdTech has clarified my product philosophy. Technology should reduce the distance between people and opportunity. Whether that opportunity is financial services or educational credentials, the product manager’s role is to remove friction from the journey.
Nigeria’s fintech boom proved that emerging markets leapfrog when infrastructure gets built right. I believe education is next. The payment rails I helped build for financial inclusion are now ready to support educational inclusion.
The students we serve at The Open University are building the future. Our job is to ensure payment logistics never stand between them and their degrees.
