As a student, Mallick Bolakale ran a tech gadget business that relied on purchasing products from international eCommerce platforms. However, making payments was a constant challenge.
To navigate this, he often relied on middlemen. Once, his transaction was flagged because the payment was made from an IP address different from his own, leading to a loss of funds.
Years later, as part of Paystack’s financial crimes compliance team, he would encounter these same issues but on a larger scale as foreign businesses trying to receive payments from Nigerian customers were often required to create local entities.