When Damilola Robert talks about African innovation, his words carry the weight of both conviction and clarity. As Head of Growth and Marketing at Bitnob, Robert isn’t just promoting a fintech product but leading a movement that places African developers at the centre of the continent’s financial transformation.

“Africans need to solve African problems. Nobody understands the context better than we do,” Robert tells me in an interview. “We’ve been living in Africa all our lives. We see the gaps, especially in payments. That’s what drives us to build solutions that work for us.”

That philosophy is the heartbeat of the Bitnob Developer Community, a fast-growing initiative that’s training thousands of young Africans to build products using Bitnob’s Bitcoin-powered payment infrastructure.

The mission is simple: empower African developers to build the next generation of payment systems in Africa and accelerate financial inclusion.

Bitnob’s developer programme was born out of this recognition; while the technology for seamless payments already exists, the builders to localise and scale it across Africa were missing.

“We’ve seen how Bitcoin can solve major challenges in Africa, cross-border payments, remittances, and high transaction costs. But we didn’t have enough people building on that rail,” Robert explains. “So our role is to make it easy for builders to build.”

The company’s approach is both technical and human. Bitnob provides a plug-and-play API, an infrastructure that allows developers to integrate global payment systems into their products, and then goes a step further by equipping them with knowledge.

So far, the results have been remarkable. Over 10,000 developers across Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, and several other countries have been trained through bootcamps, hackathons, and workshops. 

“We’ve held sessions in Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, the Benin Republic, Senegal, Lagos, Calabar, Abuja, and Akwa Ibom,” Robert says. “We’re building a continental community of builders.”

Each event ends not just with new skills, but with new collaborations. “Developers leave our sessions educated, enlightened, and equipped,” he adds. “They gain access to collaboration and exposure to new technologies. And for us, that’s how ecosystems grow.”

Real stories, real impact

“In Uganda, we trained 125 young engineers. During the hackathon, a team of five ladies built a payout solution that lets students from other African countries studying in Uganda receive payments from their parents using Bitcoin,” he recalls. “Before that, most of them carried cash or relied on costly intermediaries. It sounds simple, but they solved a massive problem in their community.”

Another standout project came from a young Nigerian who built a WhatsApp bot that handles currency conversions using the Bitnob API. “You can literally message the bot, ‘convert $5 to Naira,’ and it executes that instantly. That’s innovation with real-world utility,” Robert says.

Then there’s the developer in Uganda who created a Shopify plugin powered by Bitnob’s API. “It lets merchants accept Bitcoin payments and make payouts directly on Shopify,” he explains. “It’s already live, and people can just plug it in. That’s the kind of impact we want to see.”

At its core, Bitnob’s strategy is about connecting the dots between developer education and financial inclusion.

For Robert, the connection is clear. “A small business owner in Nigeria can now expand to Kenya or Rwanda because she has payments on lockdown,” he says. “She can receive money from customers and pay vendors in those countries through Bitnob. We’ve helped her expand her market beyond her geography.”

It’s not just merchants. Bitnob’s APIs are being used by schools, online learning platforms, and importers to facilitate cross-border transactions. 

Bitnob’s long-term vision: Impact over hype

In an industry that often prioritises short-term marketing gains, Bitnob is taking the opposite path, betting on long-term, community-driven growth.

“Having direct interaction and connecting with people is better than textbook marketing,” Robert says. “When we meet developers in person, there’s excitement. There’s trust. And that emotional connection is what builds real loyalty.”

For him, the project isn’t just a marketing strategy. It’s a social mission. “The crypto industry in Africa is still young,” he says. “If you want to build anything sustainable, you have to think long term. We’re not chasing trends. We’re nurturing a generation.”

Robert’s passion for this mission is deeply personal. “Africa is filled with talent, but talent without access remains idle,” he says. 

“We’re building global tools and giving Africans access to use them to solve problems in their universities, churches, or communities. That’s why this is personal for me.” When asked why developer education is so central to Africa’s Bitcoin adoption, Robert doesn’t hesitate.

“Your level of exposure determines the level of problem you can solve,” he says. “Africans are brilliant, but the education gap is wide. We need to expose more developers to global tools and teach them how to use technology to resolve African problems.”

Free tools, big opportunities

Unlike many global API platforms, Bitnob’s developer tools are completely free. “There’s no onboarding fee; it’s zero cost,” Robert says. “Some platforms charge up to $10,000 to integrate, but we made ours simple and accessible to everyone.”

Bitnob’s API also offers developers access to the Lightning Network, making it one of the first African fintechs to enable instant Bitcoin transfers. “You can send Bitcoin over Lightning and receive it in seconds, as fast as sending an SMS,” he says proudly.

This unlocks powerful use cases, from virtual card services to crypto swaps and cross-border remittances. 

“Businesses can expand their product suite, which translates to higher revenue. That’s the real impact of access,” Robert notes.

So how does Bitnob know it’s succeeding? For Robert, the numbers tell their own story.

“We see growth every month, in developers joining, businesses integrating, and transaction volumes increasing,” he says. “When we see a startup in Kenya sending payments to Ghana using our API, that’s success. When developers build payment products powered by Bitnob, that’s impact.”

His long-term vision is bold but clear. “In the near future, when someone says, ‘I want to send money to Kenya,’ there should be 20 different products that can do that, and all of them powered by Bitnob. That’s when we’ll know we’ve achieved our mission.”

As part of its broader plan, Bitnob is doubling down on expansion. “Next month, we’re hosting a developer support camp in Kenya,” Robert says. “We’re also working on university developer clubs and an online learning platform to train more people across the continent.”

And for developers interested in joining. Robert’s advice is straightforward. “Start by checking out our documentation. Run experiments. Build something. When you think of crypto infrastructure in Africa, think Bitnob.”