Inlaks Director, Dare Emerges Fintech Salesman Of The Year at the Fintech Awards
The organizers of the Nigerian Fintech Awards announced that Mr Tope Dare has emerged as the 2022 Fintech Salesperson of the Year at the dinner in Lagos on November 4, 2022.
The Fintech Salesman of the Year gong goes to an outstanding salesperson who has impacted the financial industry in many ways by advancing the deployment of ATMs by Nigerian banks to address the major issues of cash handling and automation with outstanding innovations. Sales is one of the most important functions in the fintech industry.
Dare is the Managing Director, Sales and Strategy (Infrastructure Business Division) at Inlaks, a provider of information and communication technology and infrastructure solutions in Nigeria with a presence in the West and East African regions.
The Nigerian Fintech Awards Director, Mr Sola Fanawopo, said the sales manager’s role in Fintech requires hard and soft skills such as customer handling as well as personal and interpersonal communication skills. These skills also include cross-functional collaboration, an entrepreneurial mindset and proactive and extensive industry knowledge.
“These are the necessary skills a salesperson needs so that he can have a full understanding of the Fintech industry and develop experiences in B2B and B2C sales,” explained Fanawopo.
He added that Fintech Salesman of the Year was among the new categories introduced to the awards in 2022.
“The judges were impressed by Dare’s performance in the ATM market, which is why he won the award. The award is in recognition of his hard work and efforts that have led to the growth and promotion of the ATM industry in the country and across Africa since 2002 when he was the Technical Manager of ATMs in a commercial bank in Nigeria.”
Academically in the Fintech domain, Mr Dare holds a certificate in the Fintech program at the Said Business School, University of Oxford. At INSEAD, he obtained a Certificate in Leading Digital Transformation & Innovation and pursued his passion for data analytics with a Certificate in Business Analytics: Decision Making Using Data at Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
He is responsible for the sale of more than two-thirds of the 22,500 ATMs to all banks in Nigeria during his 12-year Fintech sales career. He has also promoted sales of Hyosung ATMs and digital transformation initiatives in emerging sub-Saharan African markets.
Speaking to journalists after the award, Mr. Dare said: “I want to express my sincere gratitude to the Nigerian Fintech community for recognizing me with the Fintech Salesman of the Year 2022 award.
“I am deeply grateful to my current and future Nigerian banking customers who have placed their trust in me to procure, deploy and maintain over 11,500 Hyosung ATMs since 2013 growing the ATM brand to become the market leader in Nigeria with 51% market share .”
He added that with the support of his trusted business partners, OEM (Hyosung TNS) and the Inlaks team, the industry would experience better digital transformation.
“I look forward to more continued and new successes in the digital transformation of bank branches with innovative Fintech solutions in 2023 and beyond,” he said.
