Senior Regulatory Affairs & Compliance Lead at Appzone Limited
AppZone is a response to the growing need in emerging markets for financial services accessibility to the masses. The company was formed with a genuine belief in Africa’s latent ability to support the home grown production and delivery of world class IT Software for the enhancement of key sectors of the budding economy. AppZone started off primarily as a developer of custom e-Banking and payment software for leading commercial Banks in Nigeria. In less than 3 years, AppZone had accumulated a remarkable asset-base of e-payment software products and intellectual property. In a bid to extend existing payment solutions to smaller scale Financial institutions, AppZone observed the absolute dearth of basic IT infrastructure and commenced a 2 year project to develop a world class yet affordable core Banking platform for Microfinance Banks (MFBs) and other small scale retail financial institutions. The culmination of this project saw AppZone in full ownership of an entire integrated suite of IT infrastructure required for the effective functioning of any modern retail Bank. Today AppZone has consolidated these platforms into a shared and entirely managed Banking and payment automation IT infrastructure under the brand BankOne. AppZone was incorporated in July 2006 as Price and Networks Limited and commenced full operations in June 2008 with a knife edged focus on creating a world class organization and defacto provider of IT software for the financial services industry. The young, dynamic and driven co-founders of AppZone decided to bring together their wealth of technical, administrative and entrepreneurial experience as well as key leadership competences to create a winning team comprising the best in brains and character. The end point being to transform the financial services industry in Africa and emerging markets around the globe thereby creating immense value for the respective economies and facilitating their overall growth and development.
Job Description
Lead Qore’s regulatory affairs and compliance programme during the combined-team phase.
Support active licensing processes, including the PSSP licence application and any related regulatory submissions, follow-ups, evidence requests or supervisory engagements.
Maintain a regulatory intelligence function covering applicable financial services, payments, AML/CFT, data protection-adjacent, cybercrime-facing and market-entry regulatory requirements.
Track developments from relevant regulators and authorities, including CBN, NFIU, NCCC and other applicable central banks, financial sector regulators, cybercrime-facing authorities, data protection authorities and market regulators across Qore’s operating or target jurisdictions.
Translate regulatory developments into clear internal obligations, action points, owners and timelines.
Maintain the regulatory filing calendar, obligation register and regulatory engagement tracker.
Prepare, review and quality-control regulatory submissions, responses, position notes, supervisory correspondence, licence-related documentation and regulator-facing materials.
Manage working-level regulatory correspondence and ensure material regulatory positions are escalated to the Chief Legal Officer before communication.
Support compliance monitoring, evidence collection, policy lifecycle management, compliance issue tracking, remediation tracking and internal compliance reporting.
Coordinate with Legal on regulatory legal questions, with Risk and Privacy on regulatory exposure, and with Corporate Governance on matters requiring Board or committee awareness.
Support AML/CFT, sanctions, counterparty due diligence and compliance evidence coordination, working with relevant business owners and control teams.
Maintain regulatory and compliance documentation infrastructure, including regulatory intelligence reports, obligation trackers, filing records, compliance evidence registers, policy records and supervisory engagement logs.
Review AI-assisted regulatory and compliance outputs before they are treated as internal guidance, formal regulatory positions, compliance evidence or external communications.
Provide occasional cross-functional support to other LRCC teams in crisis or high-priority matters where regulatory, compliance or generalist LRCC judgment is required.
Requirements
Nigerian-qualified lawyer with LLB and BL, or a compliance / regulatory professional with strong legal and regulatory training. LLB and BL strongly preferred.
6–8 years’ relevant experience.
Experience in a reputable commercial, regulatory or financial services law firm practice and an in-house / industry role within a regulated financial services institution, fintech, payments company, bank, technology company or similarly regulated business.
Strong knowledge of the Nigerian financial services regulatory environment, especially CBN-facing obligations and licensing processes.
Good understanding of AML/CFT, sanctions, NFIU reporting expectations, regulatory filings, supervisory engagement and compliance evidence requirements.
Experience preparing regulatory submissions, regulator correspondence, policy documents, compliance reports or licensing materials.
Strong generalist regulatory and compliance range, with the ability to support legal, risk, privacy and governance-adjacent matters where required.
Strong drafting, analytical and communication skills.
Ability to manage multiple deadlines, regulatory requests, filings and evidence workstreams with discipline and precision.
Strong stakeholder management skills and the ability to coordinate business teams around regulatory and compliance requirements.
Comfort working in a lean, high-accountability, AI-enabled legal, regulatory and compliance environment.
Advantageous
Experience with payments, switching, banking infrastructure, fintech infrastructure, core banking technology, lending automation or financial technology operations.
Experience dealing with CBN, NFIU, NDPC, NCCC or equivalent regulators / authorities.
Compliance certification such as CAMS, ICA, ACAMS, risk, AML/CFT or financial crime qualification.
Multi-jurisdictional African regulatory experience.
Ideal Candidate Profile
The ideal candidate is structured, calm under pressure and precise with regulatory obligations.
They can read a circular, understand the business impact, translate it into action, and ensure the company has evidence of compliance.
They must be comfortable engaging regulators professionally, coordinating internal teams firmly, and escalating early where a matter may affect Qore’s licence, regulatory standing, compliance posture or reputation.