For most Nigerians, it starts with something small—a debit alert, a failed transfer, a weird bank charge you can’t explain. That’s when the real trouble begins. You pick up your phone and call the bank, and then you wait. And wait. Sometimes for 40 minutes, sometimes an hour. The longer you’re on hold, the more stressed you get.
This isn’t some rare glitch. It’s daily life in Africa’s biggest economy. Banks run millions of digital transactions every day, but their customer service lines are always jammed. People just learn to live with it.
That’s exactly the problem Optimus AI Labs, a young tech firm out of Lagos, decided to take on.
“We see how much people struggle just to get help,” says Lanre Basamta, Optimus AI Labs’ CEO and co-founder. “Banks can hire more agents, but it’s never enough. The system’s overwhelmed. That’s why we’re building AI to step in when the old way breaks down.”
He’s sitting in their buzzing little office—the same building where digital bank KUDA got its start before turning into a fintech heavyweight. Basamta glances around and can’t help but draw a line between past and present.
“If KUDA could start here, so can we,” he says, almost like he’s convincing himself. “Big things don’t always need fancy beginnings.”
Optimus AI Labs’ flagship product is an AI-powered support agent that chats with customers in real time. It answers questions, sorts out problems, and spots fraud in seconds. No more endless waiting, no more robotic voices that don’t get you. It’s built to attack one of Nigeria’s biggest headaches: unreachable customer support.
Basamta puts it simply: “People want to report fraud, but they can’t get through. Our AI doesn’t get tired. It never tells you to wait. It just helps.”
And with the Central Bank of Nigeria now pushing for faster fraud reporting and resolution, this is urgent. Banks have to move faster, and they know it.
Industry analysts say Optimus AI Labs’ system isn’t just about saving banks money. It might actually help people trust their banks again after years of slow, frustrating service.
The company’s already making waves in finance, but one of its most interesting partnerships is with Anambra State—a government dead set on turning itself into Nigeria’s tech hub. Anambra uses Optimus AI’s tools to cut through bureaucracy and get back to citizens faster.
“For us, Anambra’s special,” Basamta says. “They took a chance on us before anyone else—before the press, before the big contracts. Their trust in local talent let us move faster.”
State officials say the system helps public departments reply to people faster, especially where delays used to be routine.
But Optimus AI Labs isn’t stopping there. Their other big product, Omnis, uses machine learning to figure out what customers actually want and suggests financial products that fit. “It’s like a digital relationship manager that knows people better than most sales teams,” Basamta says. “It improves the customer experience and helps banks find new ways to grow.”
Banks like Providus are already on board, and more deals are coming.
What really sets Optimus AI Labs apart, though, is how they started. Before they tackled banking, the team built ZIKI—one of Nigeria’s first AI-powered learning platforms for secondary schools, created with two dozen local teachers. It’s still a respected tool in classrooms across the country.
“That project taught us discipline,” Basamta says. “With education, there’s no room for mistakes. We learned to be precise, and now we use that same focus to build AI for businesses.”
These days, Optimus AI Labs isn’t just working in Nigeria. They’ve built AI learning tools and dental management systems for Canadian clients, too—companies that trust them without ever meeting face to face.
“They don’t care if we’re in the same room,” Basamta says. “They just want results. And we deliver.”
Fintech giants have always dominated Nigeria’s tech scene, but the next big thing is AI—companies like Optimus AI Labs that fix problems people deal with every day.
In a country where most people expect to be ignored by customer service, Optimus AI Labs is offering something new: a real shot at fixing a broken system millions have just accepted.
When you ask Basamta if Optimus AI Labs could be Nigeria’s next tech sensation, he pauses, then grins.
“We’re not chasing headlines,” he says. “We want to make a real impact. If we solve problems for millions of Nigerians, the rest will follow.”
Anthony Emeka Nwosu