By The Metro 
Paratus, founded by Kanayo Frank Kemuwa, was built to give people more structured ways to manage financial obligations through technology-driven solutions. What began as a mix of micro-lending and digital asset-related services has grown into a broader ecosystem shaped by customer demand, compliance and product development.
Paratus Banca, the lending arm of the business, operates within Nigeria’s regulatory framework and has served more than 2,500 retail clients across micro-lending, salary-based lending, gadget asset finance, and student travel finance and remittance. A large share of those customers have returned for additional services.
One of the clearest shifts came from requests for international school-fee payments. In response, Paratus Banca built relationships with licensed money transfer businesses in Europe and the United Kingdom to support structured remittances.
“These requests showed us that technology, operations, customer demand and cross-border systems have to work together,” Kanayo said. “You cannot treat any of those pieces in isolation.”
As the customer base grew, another pattern emerged. More clients wanted to use digital assets to settle obligations, access related credit and convert digital assets into fiat, while still expecting transparency, security and regulatory awareness. That demand led Kemuwa to create Paratus Digi as a separate technology-focused structure for the digital asset side of the business, keeping it distinct from traditional lending.
The opening of applications for Cohort 2 of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Regulatory Sandbox gave the company a defined environment in which to test the model. The Paratus Digi app is now in internal testing with the quality assurance team, which is reviewing functionality, performance, user experience and operational workflows before later stages of development.
“Strong products need structured technical validation before wider deployment,” Kanayo said. “Compliance should sit beside the build from the beginning, not after the product is already finished.”
During this phase he temporarily stepped away from paid employment to pursue a Master of Research in the United Kingdom, in line with his visa conditions. His strategic, product and advisory role in the Paratus ecosystem has remained active. His background spans compliance, regulatory technology, digital banking systems, governance and emerging technologies.
“Building useful technology is only part of the work,” he said. “You also need the controls, governance and regulatory understanding that make growth sustainable.”
For Kanayo, Paratus Digi is the next stage of a journey that began with everyday credit needs and moved into cross-border payments and digital assets. The aim, he said, is to keep technical infrastructure and regulatory awareness in the same process as the business develops solutions for an evolving digital economy.