Ejara, the Cameroon-based fintech that has become a leading voice for non-custodial crypto investment in Francophone Africa, has appointed co-founder Tierno Tall as its new CEO. The appointment follows the death of the company’s high-profile co-founder and former CEO, Nelly Chatue Diop.

The leadership transition, announced recently by the company, aims to ensure continuity for the startup’s 200,000+ users and its international investors. Tall, who previously served as Chief Operating Officer and Head of Product & Growth, has been a core part of the founding team since Ejara’s launch in 2020. Baptiste Andrieux, the third co-founder, remains in his role as Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

Nelly Chatue Diop was buried on January 31, 2026, in Jebale, in Cameroon’s Littoral Region, near Douala. She passed away on January 8, 2026; however, the cause of her death has not been disclosed. Her passing represents a significant loss to the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) financial ecosystem, where she was a rare bridge between decentralized finance and traditional banking.

The leadership change coincides with a notable strengthening of the company’s financial base. According to data from the French company registry, Ejara SAS (registered in France and holding a Digital Asset Service Provider (PSAN) license from the AMF) significantly increased its share capital this month.

The registry shows that the company’s capital increased from €600,000 in August 2025 to €1,500,000 as of early February 2026. This more than two-fold rise signals continued confidence during a period of leadership transition. To date, Ejara has raised over $10m in venture capital from investors including Dragonfly Capital and Anthemis.

Bridging the DeFi-TradFi divide

Nelly Chatue Diop was a structural figure in the regional financial ecosystem, successfully operating across both decentralized finance (DeFi) and traditional banking. At the time of her death, she held several influential roles:

• Independent Director at NFC Bank: Appointed in July 2025 to a board tasked with privatizing the state-bailed-out “zombie bank” within two years.
• President of the Cameroon FinTech Association: Acting as the primary liaison between the startup ecosystem and the regional central bank (BEAC).
• Chair of Makeda Asset Management: Leading efforts in the tokenization of real-world assets.

Tall now steps into the CEO role at a time when the region is grappling with modernizing its capital markets. While Chatue Diop was the public face of the company’s regulatory and advocacy efforts, Tall’s “in-depth understanding of the teams and strategic challenges” will be tested as Ejara looks to maintain its influence in the Web3 sector.

Strategy and Continuity

Ejara’s growth has been built on a “non-custodial” model — allowing users to “own their keys” — a strategy that gained significant trust following the 2022 collapse of centralized exchanges like FTX. The platform targets the mass market in the CFA franc zone, with entry-level investment tickets as low as 1,000 FCFA ($1.60).

In a statement, the company emphasized that the mission remains unchanged:

“Ejara’s leadership is in clear and solid continuity… Our investors continue to place their trust in us; our team remains fully mobilized, and our mission remains unchanged.”

For the CEMAC region, the loss of Chatue Diop is a material setback. For Ejara, the focus now shifts to whether Tall and Andrieux can sustain the momentum of the region’s most prominent fintech export while navigating the complex regulatory roadmap Chatue Diop helped initiate.