“I saw 11 chairs line up at the front of the room and thought we were about to play dancing chairs,” Obi Uchenna David, now Associate Vice President of Engineering, recalled. “When the announcements started, it didn’t feel like ‘I made it.’ It felt like responsibility catching up to effort.”
That moment captures the heart of what happened at Cowrywise in January 2026.
At our annual company retreat, Cowrywise promoted 11 team members to the role of Associate Vice President, the first time this leadership level has existed in the company’s history. It wasn’t ceremonial. It wasn’t a reward cycle. And it wasn’t an experiment.
It was a deliberate decision to place real responsibility, ownership, and long-term stewardship into the hands of people who have already been carrying the business with us.
We call them Cathedral Builders.
Why “Cathedral Builders”?
There’s a difference between laying bricks and building cathedrals.
One focuses on the task at hand. The other focuses on what will stand long after they are gone.
As Cowrywise has grown, from a small team building a simple savings product into a multi-product wealth management platform serving millions, the nature of leadership required has changed. Speed and execution alone are no longer enough. At this stage, the work is about institution-building.
Cathedrals are not built by founders alone. They are built by people who think in systems, who care about continuity, and who understand that what they are shaping must outlast them.
That is the mindset behind these promotions.
What Made These 11 Leaders Different
This decision was not about tenure. It was not about optics. And it was not about rewarding effort in isolation.
Across Investment Management, Engineering, Product, Finance, Risk, Legal & Compliance, Customer Experience, People & Culture, and Design, these 11 leaders had already crossed an invisible threshold long before their titles changed.
They had:
- Taken ownership of outcomes, not just tasks
- Built systems that scale, not shortcuts that collapse later
- Led teams through ambiguity, growth, and change
- Solved problems before they were asked
- Quietly raised standards through consistency, not noise
Many of them were surprised by the announcement. Some described shock. Others described quiet validation. But a common theme ran through their reactions: this promotion did not feel like an arrival; it felt like responsibility catching up to effort.
That readiness, not recognition, is what defined this moment.
Addressing the Sceptic in the Room
Promoting 11 people at once is a bold move. It naturally raises questions, especially in the Nigerian tech ecosystem.
Is this title inflation?
Can you really have 11 Associate Vice Presidents and maintain accountability?
What does this mean for people who weren’t promoted?
The reality is simple: this is not about spreading titles. It is about spreading capability.
These are not ceremonial roles. Each Associate Vice President owns a critical function, with clear mandates, defined deliverables, and teams that depend on their judgment. Accountability has not been diluted; it has been distributed closer to the work.
Why Promote 11 People at Once?
Because at a certain stage of growth, leadership concentration becomes a risk.
Founders can set a vision. But institutions endure when decision-making, judgment, and responsibility are shared. Promoting one or two people creates hierarchy. Promoting 11 at once creates a leadership layer.
This move ensures that:
- Cowrywise can run, grow, and evolve beyond its founders
- Critical decisions are made closer to customers and systems
- Culture and standards are reinforced across functions, not only from the top
- Leadership becomes a shared responsibility, not a bottleneck
In practical terms, Cowrywise is building depth, not just scale.
What Comes Next
Cowrywise’s mission has always been long-term: helping Africans build wealth with clarity, discipline, and trust. The same thinking applies internally.
Cathedrals take time. They require patience, standards, and people who care as much about foundations as they do about finishes.
By promoting 11 Associate Vice Presidents at once, Cowrywise is making a statement, not just about where we are today, but about what we are intentionally building.
This is not the end of a journey. It is the beginning of Cowrywise’s next era. Cathedrals take generations to build. And now, we have 11 more people thinking in generations.
