A year of transformation, innovation, and unprecedented achievement
As I complete my third year at Sabi, 2025 stands out as the most transformative year for our engineering organization. We did not just improve systems; we fundamentally reimagined our entire infrastructure, saving the business $2M over the next 5 years, achieving 99.95% system uptime, and building platforms that will power Sabi's growth for years to come.
This was not just about technology. It was about people, culture, and commitment. With over 1800 extra hours invested, collaboration across all departments, and relentless focus on excellence, we have set a new standard for what engineering can achieve.
We also made strategic decisions: streamlining from 120+ to under 60 focused engineering staff after two years of intense development. This leaner structure enabled better collaboration, reduced operational costs, and laser-focused execution on our core products; Trace and Katsu; while continuously improving our sub-products.
Before diving into 2025, a quick look back: In 2024, we built the Platform-as-a-Service that powers Sabi's multi-tenant ecosystem.
Products Delivered: Katsu MFB (banking), Trace (commodity exchange), SabiMarket (marketplace), KatsuPay (payments), KatsuCloud (low-code PaaS), Loft (logistics); all serving real customers across multiple countries.
💡 The platform was thriving, but infrastructure costs and complexity were becoming unsustainable...
Solving the problem our success created
By migrating out of Azure/AWS and building our own infrastructure, we have secured Sabi's financial future.
Our infrastructure achievements enabled us to deliver and scale four transformative products that are revolutionizing how Africa trades, transacts, and moves goods. Each product leverages our robust PaaS foundation to deliver exceptional value to customers.
Digitizing trade for minerals and agriculture across Africa
Trace brings transparency and efficiency to commodity trading, connecting miners, farmers, traders, and buyers through a comprehensive digital ecosystem that ensures fair pricing, quality verification, and ESG compliance.
Seamless KYC/KYB processes enabling rapid trader and farmer registration with compliance built-in from day one.
Sophisticated contract negotiation workflows with digital signatures, escrow services, and automated settlement.
Digital workflows for quality assurance with photo documentation, grading systems, and dispute resolution.
Immutable supply chain tracking ensuring ethical sourcing and environmental compliance from mine to market.
Powerful dashboards providing market insights, pricing trends, and performance metrics for data-driven decisions.
Complete financial infrastructure tailored for African commerce
Katsu provides comprehensive financial services infrastructure that powers payments, banking, and business growth for traders, SMEs, and enterprise customers. With integrated marketplace capabilities (coming soon), Katsu is the financial backbone of modern African businesses.
Full-featured banking infrastructure optimized for commodity traders with instant account creation, real-time balances, and transaction history.
Digital savings accounts with competitive interest rates and tailored credit products designed for trading cycles.
Lightning-fast payment processing with support for bank transfers, mobile money, and card payments. 8-second transaction completion.
Empowering agents to serve miner-farmer networks with Cash-In/Cash-Out capabilities, bringing banking to the last mile.
Comprehensive financial reporting and analytics helping businesses manage cash flow, track expenses, and optimize operations.
Business owners can now access a digital marketplace as an add-on, connecting them to suppliers, distributors, and customers while Katsu handles all payments.
Ready to launch in Q1 2026
Our agent application will enable Cash-In and Cash-Out operations for customers, extending financial services to remote areas through a trusted network of agents. Nearly complete and entering final testing phase.
Managing the physical movement and storage of commodities
Loft ensures commodities move efficiently from source to destination with real-time tracking, optimized routes, and reliable warehousing. The logistics backbone that makes African trade possible.
Intelligent route optimization, driver management, and fleet tracking reducing transportation costs by up to 30%.
Efficient inventory management with climate control monitoring, security systems, and capacity optimization.
Real-time delivery tracking with proof of delivery, customer notifications, and delivery performance analytics.
AI-powered insights for demand forecasting, route planning, and logistics cost optimization.
Strategic evolution: From standalone marketplace to powerful Katsu add-on
SabiMarket has evolved from a standalone product into a powerful business add-on within Katsu. Business owners using Katsu for payment collections can seamlessly activate marketplace features, creating an integrated commerce and payment experience.
Connect wholesalers, distributors, and retailers in a unified ecosystem with instant product discovery and ordering.
Real-time inventory tracking, automated reorder points, and streamlined order fulfillment workflows.
Businesses can customize their marketplace with their own branding, creating unique shopping experiences.
Data analytics providing insights into sales trends, customer behavior, and pricing optimization opportunities.
💡 Strategic Integration: By integrating marketplace functionality into Katsu, we are creating a seamless experience where commerce and payments work together. Business owners get a complete solution - accept payments through Katsu and sell products through the integrated marketplace, all from one platform.
Our infrastructure investments directly enable product excellence. Each platform benefits from our $2M cost savings, 35-seconds max transaction speeds, and 99.95% uptime - delivering exceptional value to customers across Africa.
Transformed our core banking infrastructure from geometric time complexity to constant-time performance through surgical architectural improvements.
Our Apache Fineract core banking system was suffering from geometric time complexity; processing times increased exponentially with transaction history. A simple deposit or withdrawal that should take seconds was taking 5-10 minutes for accounts with historical data.
Root causes: Real-time balance recalculation with entire transaction history, synchronous withholding validations, N+1 query patterns loading thousands of unnecessary records, blocking journal postings, and transaction pivot synchronization adding 30-50 seconds per operation.
recalculateDailyBalances use case after determining
no long-term benefits. This alone was fetching entire transaction history (~60
seconds for 95 records); now eliminated permanently.
fetchPostInterestTransactionIds during interest calculations.
Current transactions already have payment details processed; historical interest
transfers are now handled separately when needed.
💡 Key Insight: This was not just optimization; it was architectural reimagination. We moved from "recalculate everything every time" to "maintain accurate state with smart invalidation." The result: a core banking system that scales linearly with business growth, not exponentially with transaction history.
None of these achievements would be possible without exceptional leadership, an incredible team, and a culture that values excellence. My deepest gratitude to:
For trusting the vision and backing bold decisions. Your confidence enabled $2M in projected savings and infrastructure that will power Sabi for years.
Musa M., Babalola O., Usman A., Oluwatobi F., Kehinde O., Sherifdeen A., Peter M., Bashir S., Seun O., Segun A., Adetayo I., Johnbosco I., Judy N., Afees R., Israel A., Ahmad A. , Chukwuma I., and others - the backbone of execution excellence.
Unwavering support through every challenge. Three years of building platforms together; the real MVP.
Streamlined and focused; QA, DevOps, Developers, Managers. You turned ambitious plans into production reality with efficiency and excellence. This is YOUR achievement.
2025 laid the foundation. 2026 is about acceleration, expansion, and innovation:
See the platforms, tools, and systems that made 2025 possible