Derek Chukwuemeka

Product Manager with 5+ years of experience building and scaling payment infrastructure products across fintech and digital financial services. Experienced in both offline and online acquiring, payment routing, EFT processing, collections, cross-border payments solutions, web3 onchain marketplace, and merchant payment solutions across multiple African markets. Proven track record of leading end-to-end product delivery, optimizing payment performance, coordinating cross-functional teams, and launching scalable payment solutions that improve transaction reliability and customer experience

Product Manager - Payment Product at PalmPay Limited (2023-04 – Present)

• Implemented dynamic payment routing strategies, resulting in a 35% improvement in POS channel stability and enhanced success rate.
• Owned the end-to-end product roadmap for POS acquiring and payment processing platforms, managing payment flows and aligning cross-functional teams on a shared vision for payment processing workflows.
• Strengthened C2B and EFT payment flows, optimizing digital collections and improving success rates for businesses and end-users.
• Built and scaled lending products (B2C) across Nigeria and Tanzania, enabling seamless Flexi Loan disbursement and repayment through direct debit integrations, improving repayment efficiency.
• Expanded product portfolio to include bill payments, telco services, and value-added offerings, driving user stickiness and higher transaction volumes.
• Launched and localized digital payment solutions across 5 markets (Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Uganda)
• Maintained strategic relationships with vendors, banks, and fintech partners, translating business objectives into actionable product initiatives.
• Streamlined dispute resolution and settlement processes to achieve an improved reduction in resolution times.
• Provided technical product leadership, offering solution design inputs and guiding engineering teams to deliver scalable and user-centric platforms.
• Coordinated technical onboarding and integration initiatives with multiple banking partners, payment gateways, and fintech providers, ensuring solutions addressed user pain points.
• Managed the lifecycle of agents' business application products from ideation to launch, ensuring seamless user experience and measurable business value delivery.
• Collaborated cross-functionally with engineering, business teams, and external partners to achieve revenue targets and remove blockers across product initiatives.

Product operation specialist - (POS and Card Payment) at PalmPay Limited (2022-09 – 2023-03)

• Ensured the availability, stability, and reliability of POS and card payment systems across banks, switching partners, and payment processors.
• Monitored and supported live production environments, achieving 99.2% uptime across payment channels through proactive system monitoring and incident management.
• Investigated and resolved transaction failures, authorization issues, and system downtimes by analyzing application logs and transaction data.
• Collaborated with switching partners and service providers to promptly resolve escalations, settlement discrepancies, and channel disruptions.
• Proactively tracked transaction flows and system performance to identify anomalies, prevent service outages, and improve overall payment success rates.
• Partnered with Product and Engineering teams to recommend operational and system improvements that enhanced customer experience and reduced recurring payment issues.

POS Support specialist at UBA PLC (2021-07 – 2022-08)

• Oversaw registration, onboarding of merchants at a high level, and profilling of merchants to accepts international card acceptance for POS merchants with Nigeria Central Switch, card scheme processors, and PTSPS
• Provided second-level technical support for subsidiaries across Anglophone and Francophone countries, resolving POS-related issues
• Managed onboarding processes for new PTSP partners, ensuring compliance with SLAs and agreement
• Collaborated with FEP switch, PTSPs, and processors to optimize network uptime and transaction efficiency
• Effective management of bank records for merchants, terminal inventory

Masters in Information Management – Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna (2026-03)

Bachelor in Computer Science – Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna (2022-02 – 2025-08)

National Diploma in Marine Engineering – Maritime Academy of Nigeria, Oron, Akwa Ibom (2014-10 – 2018-10)