What I learned at my first Paystack offsite

Once every year, Paystack pauses the daily rush of work and brings everyone together for an offsite. It’s a few focused days where Stacks across markets meet in person to reset, learn from one another, and align on the year ahead.

As a new joiner, this was my first time experiencing it. Four months into my role as a Brand Storyteller, I traveled to Cotonou in Benin Republic and finally met the people behind the Slack threads and Zoom calls. Being in the same space as the wider company made Paystack feel more tangible and more connected than it had on my screen.

The theme guiding this offsite, and the 2026 plan, is The Pursuit of Excellence. It’s a call to take ownership, make better decisions, and raise the quality of how we build and serve merchants and users. Over the course of the offsite, leadership shared the context behind this theme and what it means in practice for the year ahead.

In this post, I’ll walk through what my first offsite was like. From getting to Cotonou to the conversations shaping 2026, here’s what stood out and what I’m carrying into the new year.

Preparing for Cotonou

Once the offsite dates were confirmed for December 1 to 3, the planning committee shared a set of Notion pages, Slack updates, and Google Slides that quickly became my reference point. I checked them often. They covered the agenda, travel guide, packing tips, shuttle details, and the small things that matter when you’re traveling with hundreds of people. As a new joiner, having everything documented made the lead-up feel manageable.

Since I live in Abuja, my trip started earlier than most. I flew into Lagos on the morning of the offsite to join the Nigeria and Ghana Stacks traveling by road to Cotonou. Colleagues from South Africa, Kenya, and other markets flew directly in, but for many of us in West Africa, the journey began with a bus ride.

The journey in

At the departure point in Lagos, people settled into different travel moods. Some opened their laptops, others compared snacks, and a few clearly wanted a quiet ride. The planning committee had arranged two bus options to match these preferences: a vibe bus and a chill bus.

I chose the vibe bus, mostly out of curiosity. It lived up to its name. There was music, pockets of laughter, and the slightly awkward but exciting energy that comes with meeting teammates in person for the first time. The chill bus offered the opposite experience, giving people space to sleep, read, or work in silence. Watching everyone naturally choose what suited them made the setup feel considered without being overdone.

Before boarding, we received an aso-ebi swag bag. It was a travel tote filled with offsite essentials, including luggage tags, the aso-ebi top I selected during sign-up, and a few Paystack keychains. It was a small touch, but it added a bit of fun to the start of the journey.

The drive itself was calming. I spent much of it taking videos and chatting with a few Stacks I hadn’t met before.

From connection to clarity

Following our arrival in Cotonou, the first day of the offsite was about settling in. We checked into our hotels, gathered for lunch, and eased into being together in the same space. I’d already met a few Stacks on the journey in, but this was the first time I saw the wider company gathered at once. Familiar Slack names and Zoom faces carried a different weight in person.

The day ended with a welcome party at Francoise’s Garden, which also included our annual business review. We looked back on the year’s key milestones, challenges, and learnings before easing into the evening with music and conversation.

The conversations shaping 2026

Day 2 of the offsite marked a clear shift from connection to execution.

We focused on company context, priorities, and the thinking guiding Paystack into the year ahead. The day opened with a keynote from our CEO, Shola Akinlade, who reflected on the company’s journey and the phase we’re entering next. He walked through Paystack’s early years of finding product-market fit in Nigeria, navigating competition, and building the foundations required to scale. He then spoke about the second phase, which centered on expansion beyond Nigeria, embracing regulatory changes, and strengthening financial and operational discipline as the company grew.

With that phase largely complete, the keynote looked ahead. Shola framed the next chapter as one focused on building on the foundation already in place: raising the bar on quality, deepening ownership, and improving how the company builds and operates at scale. This set the context for Paystack’s focus in 2026, anchored on The Pursuit of Excellence and the expectations that come with it.

The keynote was followed by Demo Day. Teams across the company shared what they’ve been building, walking through products, tools, and internal systems at different stages of development. It offered a practical look at how ideas move from problem definition to execution, and how different functions contribute to improving merchant and user experiences.

The day closed with a customer fireside chat featuring Wiza Jalakasi, Director of Africa Expansion at Ebanx. He shared lessons on supporting large merchants at scale, the importance of clear documentation and predictable systems, and how infrastructure decisions directly shape merchant experience and confidence in new markets.

We ended the day with dinner and socials. Some people joined activities like karaoke, poker, board games, sports, and language games. Others, myself included, spent the evening in conversation, getting to know colleagues outside the context of work.

Turning strategy into action

Wednesday, day 3 of the offsite was about participation and application. We opened with breakout rotations, where the company split into smaller groups based on how different teams contribute to Paystack’s goals.

Each group worked through the same simulation: a fast-growing company facing a sudden drop in enterprise usage, unclear signals, and no obvious answers. The value of the exercise wasn’t in finding the right solution, but in how we worked through the problem together. Watching developers, storytellers, customer experience team members, and industry leads collaborate highlighted how ownership shows up across roles, even outside our day-to-day work.

In the afternoon, we moved into functional and project-specific breakouts. These sessions focused on alignment within teams, reviewing goals, surfacing challenges, and clarifying priorities for the year ahead. Leadership shared expectations, and teams had space to ask questions and align on next steps.

The offsite wrapped up with a closing gala in the evening. Seeing Stacks in their beautiful semi-formal outfits felt like a fitting way to end three full days together.

The night included a spoken word performance by a fellow Stack that had the room erupt in applause, an awards ceremony recognizing outstanding work from across the company, and plenty of good food, dancing, and conversation. It felt like a celebration of each other, of what we’d learned over the last few days, and of a challenging year behind us. More than a send-off, it felt like a moment of alignment as we stepped into the next phase together.

Leaving with clarity

As the offsite came to an end, I left Cotonou with a clearer understanding of where Paystack is headed and how my role fits into that picture. Seeing how decisions are made, hearing directly from leadership and customers, and spending time with Stacks across markets added important context to the work we do every day.

Going into 2026, what I’m carrying forward is a stronger sense of ownership and a clearer bar for quality. I’m excited about contributing to work that’s more intentional, better connected across teams, and closer to the realities our merchants and users face.

For me, the offsite turned strategy into something practical. It made the year ahead feel focused, demanding, and worth showing up fully for.