Gbenga Adigun is the founder of Scrella, an insurtech platform transforming access to smartphone insurance across Africa. With over 15 years of experience in banking and finance, he brings strategic insight and a passion for financial inclusion to his work. Through Scrella, Gbenga is using technology to make insurance more affordable and accessible for underserved communities.
In this interview Chisom Michael, Adigun discusses how his experience across banking, construction, and technology shapes his mission to make smartphone insurance affordable and accessible in Africa. He also shares insights on trust, innovation, and the role of insurance in driving digital inclusion.
You have worked across banking, construction, and now technology. What experiences from your earlier career have shaped the way you are building Scrella?
Every phase of my career taught me something critical about people, systems, and execution. Banking taught me financial discipline, risk management, and how trust underpins every transaction.
My time in construction, especially at Rebar Perfecta, showed me how structure and process can transform an industry that was once informal and fragmented. Now in technology, I’m combining those lessons, financial structure, operational efficiency, and human-centred design to build Scrella as both a sustainable business, a financially inclusive product and a trustworthy brand.
Many device owners in Africa struggle with affordability and access. How does Scrella balance the business model with the goal of financial inclusion?
At Scrella, financial inclusion is the foundation of our model. We designed our plans to start as low as ₦3,500 annually, making protection accessible to people who have never considered insurance before.
Commercially, we balance this by leveraging technology and partnerships to reduce overhead costs. It’s not about choosing between profit and inclusion, it’s about proving that inclusion is a profitable strategy when you build with empathy and scale in mind.
Scrella uses artificial intelligence for remote device inspection. What challenges did you face in introducing this technology, and how have customers responded?
The first challenge was trust. Many users didn’t believe an app could check their screen and its sensors accurately. We had to invest heavily in user education, which is showing, not just telling, that the process works.
But once people experienced the speed and convenience of being able to get insured in minutes without visiting a centre, adoption grew rapidly. Today, users love that they can insure their phones from anywhere. It’s that blend of innovation and convenience that wins trust over time.
Moving from traditional finance and construction logistics to insurtech is a unique shift. What guided your decision to enter the smartphone insurance space?
It started with a pattern I couldn’t ignore. In my other business, team members constantly came to me for help fixing broken screens and these repairs often wiped out their monthly salary. The same thing happened with my mentees and even family members.
I realized this wasn’t just a personal issue, it was a structural one. People’s lives were being disrupted by something preventable. That insight, combined with my background in financial systems, made the smartphone insurance space a natural next step. Scrella became my way of solving that problem at scale.
Insurance penetration in Nigeria is low compared to global standards. How do you see digital platforms like Scrella changing this trend?
Digital platforms like Scrella are rewriting the insurance playbook. Traditional models relied on paperwork, agents, and stressful, long claims processes, which are all barriers to adoption.
We’re using technology to simplify everything: instant eligibility checks, & onboarding, transparent pricing, and seamless claims. This transparency breeds trust, which is the key to adoption. Over time, as more people experience the benefits firsthand, digital insurance will move from being an option to being a norm, much like mobile banking did a decade ago.
As smartphones become central to work, education, and daily life, what role do you think insurance will play in enabling digital participation for underserved communities?
Insurance is the silent enabler of digital inclusion. When people know their devices are protected, they use them more confidently for work, learning, and commerce.
For underserved communities, that safety net can mean the difference between staying online or being cut off. Scrella’s goal is to make sure a cracked screen doesn’t disconnect someone from an opportunity. In a broader sense, device insurance is becoming a form of digital empowerment because it keeps people connected to progress.
Scrella covers both new and in-use smartphones. How do you ensure that risk management and customer trust are balanced in this approach?
Covering in-use devices is part of our inclusion mission, but it does come with risk. That’s why our AI-driven remote eligibility test is so important, it gives us an accurate real time health status of the device before it’s insured.
On the trust side, we maintain transparency: customers see what’s covered, what’s not, and what their diagnostics report says.That balance between transparency and data-driven risk control is what keeps both our partners and customers protected.
Beyond individual customers, do you see opportunities for partnerships with mobile operators, banks, or governments to scale access to device insurance?
Absolutely. Strategic partnerships are at the core of our growth vision. We’re already working with mobile retailers and repair vendors to embed insurance at the point of sale or service.
The next frontier is integration with telcos, digital lenders, and fintechs, allowing users to access insurance through their existing ecosystems. We also see potential in working with governments or development agencies to extend device protection to teachers, civil servants, and entrepreneurs who rely on smartphones for their livelihoods. It’s about embedding protection where people already are.
As a founder, how do you measure success — is it customer adoption, social impact, financial returns, or a mix of these?
For me, success is a blend of all three. Financial sustainability is crucial; it keeps the lights on.
But what truly drives me is seeing the social impact: people keeping their businesses running, students staying connected, all because they’re insured. Customer adoption validates our relevance; financial returns ensure our continuity; social impact reminds us why we started. When those three align, that’s real success.
Looking ahead, what long-term shifts in technology or consumer behaviour do you think will most influence the future of device insurance in Africa?
The biggest shift will be embedded protection insurance that’s built into devices, data plans, or financing packages. Consumers won’t have to think about buying insurance; it’ll be part of their digital lifestyle.
