Businesspeople from Nigeria

"In whatever you do, strive to be the best at it."

"Foreign investors did not build South Korea - South Koreans developed their country; the Germans built their economy, an economy that was once in ruins. The Germans suffered a lot but now they are the best."

"In Africa, as you're being successful and doing things right, you're also creating a lot of enemies."

"He will do everything possible to ensure that he wins - within the constraints of the law. Obviously those who lose out in the battle complain."

"He's charming and humble..."

"On a visit to Tanzania, Aliko Dangote shared his dream of having an African-run business empire that would manufacture products all over the continent."

"Giwa-Tubosun’s work has earned her praise across the globe including from the World Economic Forum, and she has spoken on influential platforms – such as the TedxEustonSalon – about her vision for tackling blood shortage on the African continent. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said after meeting her in 2016 that “If she actually pulls it off, then she’d show a model that will impact not just Lagos, not just Nigeria, but countries all around the world.”"

"The biggest skill is storytelling. Investors want to be inspired. Of course, you need to be really good at defending your financial model. You need to be thorough in terms of your pricing model and your cashflow model."

"We have the same problem in most of Africa—indeed throughout the world. There is a demand for critical supplies of blood and oxygen, at the right place at the right time."

"If you can build a business in Lagos, you can do it anywhere else. It would be a cakewalk."

"Nigeria has a lot of promise. I have to do my part. And I will tell other young entrepreneurs to take a risk, to engage in scalable, smart and efficient operations. The market is huge."

"One of the things I know is that your dream needs to make you nervous. It needs to make you have some level of anxiety."

"If you’re a young woman, you have an idea, you’re shy and introverted, no one expects you to do great things, but you have something in you saying that you can. Listen to that voice, even if your voice is shaking and you’re worried, listen to that voice, stand up and just do it."

"Don’t wait for anybody to give you permission; just start. If that voice is telling you this is an idea and you feel passionate about it, start because that’s when magic happens."

"It is when you start, everything comes together, God sees your heart, grace will be added as long as you’re willing to do the work."

"Be focussed and consistent, there are lots of factors that will try to pull you down, from policies to resources. Have your eyes set on the goal and consistently give it your best. Be consistent with your thought, purpose and action."

"As a woman, the pressure to prove oneself might be there more than the men but I think we all can use that as a motivation to shatter records especially in male dominated industries."

"“Our vision is to be the supply chain engine for healthcare systems across Africa and save the lives of 1 million Africans in the next 10 years."Temie on the vision of LifeBank"

"“I thought it was so unjust that women could die in childbirth,” she recalls. “That got me hooked on maternal healthcare.” Temie on the inspiration behind LifeBank"

""I think of us as the Amazon of healthcare except we work only with hospitals. We bring global standard procurements to African hospitals right on their platform." Temie speaking on the impact of LifeBank"

"if ladies are smiling and flocking around you, then you know you are being successful."

"One thing in life is that there are parameters to measure success."

"There were many opportunities to learn every day about what life truly was."

"I believe I can make an impact and influence change in the lives of the downtrodden, and help ameliorate the sufferings of the needy in the State, not because that I want to enrich myself through political process."

"Demola Aladekomo opens up to Joy Marcus about his experiences in business and other issues"

"Q::How do you feel that Chams is listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange?"

"A::We were not the earliest indigenous IT company listed on the stock exchange; others before us focused on mainframe systems, while we were the first to concentrate on microcomputers. I also don’t see us as “creators” of the company, because true creation belongs to God alone. People may call themselves founders, but in my view, only God can truly create, while humans simply develop what already exists."

"Q::You spoke about turbulent times. Can you shed more light on that?"

"A::Our most recent major challenge involved the national identity card project. Chams led the development of identity management technology in Nigeria, spending years creating a system to produce and print ID cards on PVC, instead of the earlier paper-and-lamination method. After this breakthrough, the government approached us because of our role in pioneering the solution. Although the National ID Card programme began in 1996, it only made real progress after Chams joined in 1998. By April 1999, we had produced the first one million ID cards without receiving any payment from the government."

"Insurance must be seen, felt and sold like commodity that it is. It should be sold everywhere."

"There is a need for insurance companies and her professional bodies to leverage this platform by partnering with relevant companies and agencies in the technology sector to create and provide specialised services which would help update their internal and external operations."

"Any business born out of the desire to serve humanity is destined to succeed."

"My entrepreneurial journey began when I started selling coconut candy to my classmates. I turned a two-kobo investment into ten kobo—eventually saving nearly a pound in shillings."

"Since vision often points to an unknown future—filled with twists, turns, pain, and pleasure—we must rely on a force greater than ourselves. Faith in God is that force."

"This principle goes far beyond money. It’s about your time, talents, and treasures. Giving is like a farmer sowing seeds—scattering them, not always knowing where they will land or who will benefit, but trusting that in time, they will return in abundance."

"Patriotism is more than just loyalty to your country. It is about believing in its potential, contributing to its growth, and using your expertise and resources to make it better."

"If you want to serve humanity, start with your country. Be proud of where you come from—and let that pride drive you to build solutions that not only help your nation, but also show the world what we’re capable of."

"In my 30 years at CHAMS, I experienced both extremes—successes that elevated us and failures that brought us to our knees. Yet through it all, I learned one vital truth: These too shall pass."

"If I could go back in time, one of the things I would do differently is this: Avoid loans as much as possible."

"Remember, it’s not just about building a business. It’s about building a legacy."

"Just be respectful and when people have opinions that are better than yours, acknowledge them."

"You must understand that everyone has an ego. Not just you."

"If you cannot hire to fill your weakness, you will always have a blindside."

"Success to me is a personal journey."

"Hard work has no alternative."

"There is always a God factor in every success."

"If you are not humble, you cannot learn. Invariably, you cannot grow."

"If you are not willing to work hard, forget success."

"The role of luck is the ability to prepare and plan well because if you plan well, all things being equal, the chances are that you’re going to succeed."

"But if you don’t plan well, lady luck will not shine on you. Even if it does, you will not recognize it."

"We must encourage our diaspora to repatriate their wealth back home."

"If you want the naira to rise, don’t come on social media to vent."

"Ensuring accessibility to contraceptives is a crucial step in mitigating a potential population explosion, particularly when the financially constrained majority may prioritise basic necessities over family planning methods."

"For me, to be rich is to be knowledgeable, wise, to have common sense, to have the inspiration to become a political leader, to have the vocation to become a religious leader, to have the dedication of a scientist, the creativity and imagination of a writer or poet, the business acumen of an entrepreneur."

"The Nigerian startup bill is the end of the beginning"

"It is hard to define the growth stage of the start up scene but...we are maturing."

"Startups should be more focused on products and building their business."

"Now, I’m not mad about how the Trump administration chooses to spend US tax payers money. (Though, as the only non U.S. citizen in my family and given I own several American businesses, I pay those taxes too.) And let’s be real—America isn’t the first to cut foreign aid. Even the European countries complaining about USAID shutting down have been doing the exact same thing – cutting aid and making international development subservient to foreign policy goals."

"This is not about money. This is about risking the one thing America cannot afford to lose with allies all over the world like myself – trust. An America whose word the world cannot trust will not be safe, strong or prosperous. To keep America first, America needs to be a country that keeps its word because an America that cannot keep its word does not deserve to lead the world."

"There’s a saying: People might forget what you did, but they’ll never forget how you made them feel."

"You know, I want to help build the future of the continent by solving its biggest problems and turning them into fantastic business opportunities."

"At Flutterwave we say: “Africa is not a country but we make it feel like one”"

"Angel investors do much more than provide funding—they mentor, connect, and guide early-stage startups through their critical first phase."

"The biggest challenge is aligning investor expectations with the reality of the African market."

"Understanding local dynamics, consumer behavior, and market cycles is crucial for success."

"The successes I’ve had were because of the incredible team I had, and the failures I’ve had are because that team didn’t work effectively together."

"If you want to build a great company, get three to five people who could have each built a one-hundred million dollar company by themselves and come together to build a billion-dollar company."

"Find a customer! I’ve learned with all the startups that the moment we found a customer there was just so much less distraction."

"Passionate work and passionate play, that’s the secret to fantastic teams."

"I choose my truth and if you don’t like it SUCK IT."

"I want to be a woman because being a woman has paved a lot of ways for me. Women don’t actually know how powerful they are. They don’t know how to use their resources as a woman."

"In my opinion, money is everything. Anyone with that notion that money is not everything is deceiving his or herself."

"I allow people to say a lot of different things because that’s what keeps me trending all the time."

"If we accept the way elections are now, how do we tell the robbers and kidnappers that they are doing something wrong?"

"No country can progress if its politics is more profitable than its industries. In a country where those in government are richer than entrepreneurs, they manufacture poverty."

"Facilitate stronger institutions a key anchor that will turn Nigeria from a country of oil consumption to a country that produces based on fast factors"

"We would use merit to employ, dramatically reduce poverty and return Nigeria to a place of strategic relevance with high value"

"Insecurity is a result of ineffective security strategy, address this by projecting strong leadership, state security and pursue a robust reform of security sector"

"China’s GDP stands at $18.74 trillion, while Nigeria’s GDP is barely 1% of that size, a little over 200 billion dollars."

"Moreover, 63% of Nigerians live in multidimensional poverty, which is about 150 million people, the highest number in the world, facing deprivations in health, education, and living standards, while it is only 3.9% in China; meanwhile, China’s population is about seven times larger than ours."

"I’m really overwhelmed with gratitude, greatly humbled and honoured by that renewed merit given to me by the people of Ondo State by coming out in their hundreds of thousands to cast their vote for my party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and by extension for myself, to continue to be their governor beyond 2025, when this very tenure will be ending."

"When it comes to being active politically, not everybody who registered is very active politically. So, if you look a the records, not just in Ondo State, but in every other election in other states, that has been happening."

"I’m very interested in getting the average person in the state to acquire skills that can make them to become useful to themselves and be self-reliant. Everything that we do in Nasarawa State comes from our vision for the state"

"We are going to continue to do a lot to enhance women and youth empowerment in the state."

"Build something remarkable, be resourceful enough to find places where you can articulate what you are doing."

"Solutions to hard work is persistence and resilience."

"Figuring out a market that is growing is some of the things people look out for."

"It is important to think of your co-funders and your partners as people you are going to be on a long journey with."

"All acquisition conversations always require careful thought and consideration, and it was no different in this case. The Paystack team has been interacting with Patrick and the Stripe team over the past couple years and after significant amounts of collaboration and knowledge exchange between both companies, we agreed that this move was a natural evolution of what was and continues to be a great relationship."

"Venture-backed companies are generally destined for one of two outcomes. IPO or acquisition. Five years in, neither of these were on the list of things that we care about as a company. We’ve always been focused on building the best payments and growth tools for African businesses and are in it for the long haul. The option to team up with the world’s most sophisticated payments company to accelerate our ambitions happened to show up, and we believe it was fortuitous."

"Stripe and Paystack are both Y Combinator alumni, so that was the first point of contact. We were introduced to Patrick, who then offered to invest. Stripe would then lead our Series A, and along with Visa, invest $8 million in 2018. Since then, Stripe has been a close partner, and after over two years of knowledge exchange between our teams, we've built up a lot of mutual respect for each other. Eventually, it became obvious that our visions were so aligned that the natural evolution of the relationship would be to join forces in this way."

"Businesses are bought, not sold. The most important thing is to choose a problem you are excited about solving, and focusing on that every day."

"Choose a platform where you can be consistent and you think you can build an audience, stick to what you are great at."

"I initially moved back to Nigeria kicking and screaming. I wasn't ready for it, but I decided to make it work and avoided making rash decisions for the first six months to a year."

"After that, the guys at Big Cabal, the founders, and I started a conversation and they said, you know, you should come join us. And they wanted me to come do biz dev for them. And I was like, you guys can’t afford me. And somewhere along the line, the conversation goes to, do you want to come run it? And I said, that could be interesting because career-wise, I’d always wanted to kind of run my own business. I’d always wanted to build something, and I thought, I really liked TechCabal, I really liked Zikoko. I think the fundamental thesis of the business is interesting. We could do something with this, we could make it big."

"We’ve built a really good data unit within TechCabal called TC Insights. And that’s because we know this matters. This is the future. This is a critical aspect of being the kind of publication that TechCabal wants to be."

"At TechCabal, we think that technology will be the biggest driver of innovation, of employment growth, and high-quality employment growth, of productivity growth across countries over the next decade and beyond. And what that means is that the media that covers that technology must grow. There must be more of us to tell the stories of what's happening, how technology is affecting people's lives."

"It’s important to utilise all skills and knowledge gained from different experiences to create a successful business."

"Media is not an easy industry. But when it’s done right, its impact is massive."

"Any company that is looking to expand to a new market has to learn to sell in those markets."

"Global expansion will make African tech companies more resilient, especially since they will be less reliant on the African market and less susceptible to its unreliability."

"What is going down in the investing space has not really hit the early-stage investments as hard yet it is still mostly later-stage investors that have slowed down. So, I think everybody should prepare for a tighter market fundraising, people should prepare for fundraising to become more difficult. If you have raised before the slowdown, use your capital well; stretch it as far as it can go to profitability and sustainability. And if you haven’t raised, you need to know that it’s going to be a lot more difficult."

"“The fusion of media and technology is reshaping how we communicate, share stories, and consume information.” Tomiwa Aladekomo at a tech summit speech."

"Let's build something that truly works not just for the few but for everyone."

"AI is moving fast we need outcomes not just dialogue."

"If the next majority are left out the world misses out on what its young brilliant minds including Africa has to offer."

"If governance is shaped only by those who already holds power it isn't governance but infringement."

"I grew up in Nigeria and moved to the UK with my family when I was 11. I did my GCSEs and A Levels in Kent where I developed a real interest in the sciences. Moving into robotics seemed like the ideal way to combine physics, biology and maths in one subject, so I went on to study robotics at UWE here in Bristol."

"Having spent time researching robotics undergraduate courses up and down the country, I was impressed by a video of the work being done in the labs here in Bristol – especially what was being done here with legged robots. That was what I specialised in while studying the degree course."

"At the end of my first year, myself and another student created a program to take robotics into local schools. Robotics is the perfect combination of the STEM subjects – Science, Technology, English and Maths – which younger students might not think to combine. The program expanded to four schools in Bristol in four years."

"Coming up with an idea, presenting it to people and getting them to say “yeah we believe in this” was nothing but entrepreneurship."

"In the fundamentals of robotics, the more freedom of movement you have, the more expressions the character can have."

"To build a great brand, you have to explain why everything looks the way it does."

"Success is the fire and how big you can make it burn."

"At the end of the day the key to a good pitch is to put yourself in the shoes of the person you’re talking to at the fund."

"The story stays the same but how you tell it changes as you progress further and further up."

"But you should never do anything that puts your entire company at risk. You need to contain your risks."

"It is important to think about your product and service along with how you gonna acquire customers in a repeatable way from day one."

"I just know the country that produced me."

"There are a million Topes in Nigeria...I’m not a diamond in the rough, and I want to get involved in some way to help with that."

"“Make sure people are in the role that fits for them, where their strength can really be used and where they can fly.""

"I had to work my way through college, sometimes holding up to 5 jobs at a time. So I was excited when I finally graduated with an electrical engineering degree."

"I landed my first job with a small startup of 8 people. We were developing digital imaging chips that could capture images the way the human eyes do. I was way out of my depth so I worked weekends trying to catch up."

"I’d say the experience really shaped me because it taught me a few things. First, we tend to place a lot of focus on things that are hard for us. I think that’s wrong. You want to focus on your strengths and get better at the things you’re good at."

"If I had to go back to do it, I would not have concentrated on semiconductor chip design. As much as I found it interesting, it was not my strength. Digital design in electrical engineering was my strength. So I went on and focused on digital design."

"The investor entrepreneur relationship is almost like a marriage."

"The investors are bringing something on the table and so are entrepreneurs."

"The investors are typically investing someone else’s money, at least for the institutional guys, so they can’t just put the money anywhere."

"They have to be confident in your ability as an entrepreneur to execute the business."

"I don’t think I would have changed anything about how we raised money."

"I think I’d rather own a small part of a big pie than a big part of a small pie."

"Our aim as a business is to solve payments and bring financial services to the mass market in Nigeria."

"It will take a lot of investment to get to that vision. I wouldn’t be surprised if over the lifetime of Paga, we invest over $100 million — we are well on our way to that."

"The first person I actually hired on to Paga in the early days left and that was a very painful experience for me at the time"

"My personal mission is to help change the face of Nigeria and Africa at large, by helping to bring ideas to life"

"Single largest network of financial access points in Nigeria."

"70% of Nigerian adults” who don’t have bank accounts."

"We want to help individuals pay and get paid."

"We do not care if you are banked or unbanked."

"Since launch, we got an endorsement of our application by the exam body, JAMB [organizers of UTME]. It was an exciting one for us. We have built a network of tutors who provide explanatory and coaching feature on the platform."

"For us, it was one of the best decisions we made considering the age demographics of our audience, who are either accessing via web or Android"

"At a time, users revolted against the payment structure; they insisted they weren’t going to the bank, since most our subscription was small compared to the cost of getting to the bank."

"Since then, we have seen the need for a seamless integration of payment options into the model. Many of our users also don’t own bank accounts and therefore can’t pay through cards/online."

"Getting the right set of people to work with to produce quality content is a big task that comes with its cost."

"Yes I’m a core programmer; one of the best during my set in school. I won 2013 national best developer for computer science students back in school."

"Generally, we all look very smart in the morning, ready to hit some milestones. Sometimes things get into an overdrive when something breaks down; an API for instance."

"Excellence in simple terms is being outstanding at what you do."

"Time is a fixed commodity dispersed evenly, the value of time is in the activities we invest in daily and every action has a reward and consequence."

"After about twelve years out of Nigeria, what I wanted to do was move back home and start a business to contribute my quota to the economic growth of my fatherland."

"That was when I grasped a little feelings of how things were happening here and I saw the opportunity to fill a gap."

"Technology these days make life a lot more easier. People that patronise our services all have the smart phone application on either their Androids, iPhones, PC or laptops."

"Our programmes are easy to use and free to download. Our duty is to connect passengers to drivers in a very simple way. We use GPS to connect our clients to the closest driver."

"So, when we were packaging this idea, we decided, in our little way, to use technology to bring safety to bear. When we sign up any driver on our platform, we take all his information, take them through a screening process, check his background, driver license, car registration, license, plate number and insurance documents."

"And it would really be tough for any of them to attempt such. We rely more on the original government documents and license they provide. We don’t do testing for them. We leave that for the government to do. We also don’t have a link with the government yet."

"But we make sure we do background checking on them. However, we are confident that what all of our drivers present to us so far have been real. We haven’t had any issue because they all belong to one taxi associations."

"Easy Taxi is a Smartphone application that connects drivers and passengers in a smooth, easy and safe way. The value proposition is straight-forward: Simply download the Easy taxi app on Google Play Store or the App store. Open the Easy Taxi app, which is available for iOS, Android and the new BlackBerry devices. Confirm your pickup point and then order your cab at the click of a button. In seconds you’ll receive confirmation of the name, photo, phone number and car model/license plate number of your driver, and you will be able to follow the vehicle’s location in real-time as it approaches you."

"We plan to expand to Abuja and Port Harcourt in the next 3 to 4 months. With the same model we have implemented in Lagos, we plan to make the business successful in other cities. It’s a lot of work, there have been ups and downs but people are catching on more now."

"That your mother was great, she did this for our country. She really made a difference — an impact. She's a heroine.That's what's intriguing to me now, to hear different stories from different people. [They say] "she treated my grandfather, she treated my mother, she treated me, she treated my children. She treated four generations of our family". And you hear that from so many different people. That all helps."

"(better known by his stage name Skilzar) is a Nigerian singer, songwriter, tech entrepreneur and tech-startup founder."

"Skilzar Digital is a web marketing agency conceived with the mindset of satisfying the web marketing needs of brands and businesses whilst ensuring they have the best experience working with a web marketing company"

"At Skilzar Digital we provide businesses with a variety of digital solutions to promote products or services online and help clients hit their online marketing goals whilst growing their business. We typically work with each company to understand their business goals, all while providing recommendations and services tailored to each unique needs."

"That is precisely why i decided that we would form Skilzar Digital Agency around the principles of outstanding customer service and a very thought-out product"

"It has been challenging running a business as a startup considering the epileptic electricity supply we have to constantly battle with in the country we have to rely on generator and inverter to stay online 24 hours of the day which takes up a huge portion of expenses in terms of fueling, servicing and maintaining the generators and inverters"

"We would produce and get our content to M-Tech. But it wasn’t really viable because it’s either the telecom networks were not paying on time, or the sharing formula was just ridiculous. I couldn’t even make my wage bills!"

"So, I took a loan and started importing mobile phones. That became an instant hit. We had a ready market, selling feature phones and smartphones to dealers, from Alaba to Onitsha to Kano."

"Over time, we saw the big picture and where we fit in. The phones I was selling, what were people using them for? That was how we got to the farmers."

"As a farmer, you need to get money for your produce. So, we would give you the platform to pay and exchange money. And I also see that you have crops to sell and give you a platform to do that. That end of the market that people seemed to be ignoring, the underserved financially, that market became the Tingo market."

"We initially did it as a USSD only platform, not an online platform because users are rural people, they are minimizing the use of data. The Web platform has only recently gone live."

"I’ll Always Be An Entrepreneur"

"“True progress comes when we invest in people, equip them with opportunities, and ensure they have the tools to thrive.”"

"“Purpose drives me having a purpose to see the Africa we dream of being realised.”"

"“When I saw how mobile technology was being made in Shenzhen, I realised there was a way to bridge that innovation back home.”"

"I am a software engineer and tech content creator currently living in Nigeria. I got exposed to computers at a very early age and since then, I have been a tech enthusiast."

"This led me to study Computer Science and now, I am building a career in Software Engineering. I also have a YouTube channel, where I talk about software engineering, productivity and career growth."

"When the job application became public, I applied, went for all the interviews and got an offer. Five months before that, I had tried interviewing with Google Dublin and I got rejected (this was my first job interview)."

"More female role models and communities are a good place to start. I know some women driving these things. One way to ensure that they reach more women with their programmes is by giving them financial support."

"I saw the huge digital divide that plagues Nigeria–and later, other African countries–and decided to connect as many young Africans as possible with digital opportunities, which should be a right"

"People who live in rural areas, young people, persons with disabilities and women are mostly affected, and one of the reasons that many people are stuck is the lack of opportunity which ironically is more available online."

"There were many attempts in the past that focused on giving free devices to people, including a popular $100 laptop project that ended up in the hands of families that sold some of the devices for the next meal. Many of the solutions that did not work were short-term and not focused on building the capacity of beneficiaries of the devices."

"I want to make sure that no young person faces the embarrassment I was met with in 1991, while in my third year in secondary school, and that no young African gets locked out of digital opportunities because of their location of birth, gender or lack of opportunity."

"I had no serious challenge as a father because God provided all the enabling. I had a good job as a lecturer; I had a good car and a good house."

"my father, Overseer Daniel Okebukola had a caring and loving relationship with all his children and applied a super strict disciplinary regime to keep us all on the path of righteousness."

"The father should be a provider, protector, teacher, mentor, role model, talent developer and counsellor."

"My goal is to make my children better than I am"

"When leaders fail to properly manage their countries’ resources, they allow foreign corporations or governments to exploit them, perpetuating a narrative that African countries need external forces to thrive"

"Resources mismanagement bane of development in Africa"

"The Peter A. Okebukola family is driven by at least five core values- fear of God, respect for elders, non-flamboyant lifestyle, exemplary work ethics and diligence. It is such a delight that all the children have imbibed these values and those with children among them are transmitting these values."

"Crying is not a sign of weakness. Everybody cries. It is either you cry on the outside or you cry on the inside. Crying is an expression of joyful or sorrowful emotions. For me, those who cry on the outside, at least in a moderated form, are able to outwardly express emotions and are sublime thereafter. For those who play macho and cry on the inside, the emotion is bottled up and find vent through other channels. On balance, people should learn to moderate their cries based on the circumstance and context."

"My motivation for inventing methodologies for teaching science which won me the 1992 UNESCO Prize, is based on the overload of methods of teaching developed by non-Africans which are not fit for purpose for the African cultural context."

"The logic is that by striving to model the great scientist and implement a work plan to surpass such scientist, the student will learn the way of the scientist and work towards achieving greater heights. When there is a will, there is a way. The outcome is predicted to be improved achievement and better attitude to STEM."

"The goal is to make technology accessible to everyone, regardless of the language of communication.”"

"By teaching in Yoruba, I’m able to reach those who might struggle with English-based resources, empowering them to use tech in their everyday lives."

"So for me, he declared, “the MVP award is a testament to the power of inclusive education"

"When people can learn in their native language, they gain confidence and can more easily grasp complex concepts like AI and data analysis."

"It’s not just about learning technology; it’s about empowering people to use it to solve real problems in their communities"

"it is always in our best interest to drive disruptive learning and innovation with world’s best practices. As a result of our partnership with Diamond Challenge, we foster learning through entrepreneurship, technology, and global citizenship amongst teachers and students in Nigeria and Africa."

"So, I am passionate about making technology more inclusive and accessible, and I’m thrilled that my efforts have resonated with so many people both online and offline including the over 100,000 followers on my various social media handles."

"This event brought together top government and global agencies officials including ministers of education, UNESCO, the ILO, the World Bank, and other major organizations."

"So, it’s been incredibly rewarding to see my work featured on platforms like the BBC and TechCabal, and I’ve even had the honour of speaking as a panelist at the just concluded African Union’s Skills Week held in Accra, Ghana."

"I strongly believe that using technology will greatly help to close educational gaps, especially among people in the hard-to-reach communities across Africa."

"Nigeria needs to take more proactive measures to position itself for prosperity within the digital economy, we must also emphasize the promotion of basic digital skills among those on the other side of the digital divide.” — on bridging the tech skills gap in Nigeria"

"“I was enjoying teaching but curiosity pulled me deeper into tech and AI and today I still teach not just students but teachers and business owners because there’s no limit to what you can be or achieve.” on his journey from classroom teacher to tech educator"

"Several factors inspired me to found WAAW Foundation in 2007 while I was completing my Ph.D. degree in Computer Engineering at Texas A & M University. At that time, I was the only woman of color in the program and my graduate education experience had been a very lonely one working mostly amongst men. I knew that I wanted to be an engineer and had the ability to be a great one, but I wished there were more women in STEM to support each other."

"I saw the huge impact technology could have in lifting entire communities out of poverty. I could see the rapid technological advances that were in the pipeline. For instance, I saw the advent of Google, PayPal and Amazon and some of my research was around the technologies that powered these huge companies and the impact they had on e-commerce, telecommunications, and the financial industry."

"In Nigeria, we have continued to engage with the community to push against societal norms that tell girls that a STEM education is not feminine. We have worked with government ministries, secondary school teachers, communities and especially parents of girls to educate them on the huge benefits of STEM education for girls. WAAW is looking to partner with Federal Ministries of Education, Science and Technology to re-invent what STEM education should be and retrain our teachers to incorporate hands on, locally available resources to promote innovation in the classrooms."

"Consider the recent research that states that 90% of jobs created in the next 20-30 years will require some sort of skill in STEM. That means that people who have STEM skills will have a huge advantage over those who don’t. Whether they are applying those skills in core technology or in healthcare, finance, agriculture, business, transportation. I think that girls should participate in creating those technologies so we can solve some of the critical issues facing us."

"I have never met a great leader who is not a reader."

"“If we have more space, in a government school or a university to make use of their spaces and their classrooms, we can do much more and accommodate so much more girls.”"

"We need to educate and sensitize people more. Sometimes when we talk about our programme, many people are yet to really understand the importance of educating girls, they say why only girls, why is this different from any other organisation."

"Trust your instincts, if you feel a person, product or approach is not right for your business, trust your instincts even more and do what is right for your business. Be unafraid."

"“I wanted to be that voice, I wanted to go back to my community and inspire more girls to consider tech as a career path.”"

"What we have done is to start to showcase women in tech as cool and successful, [and we have started to] engage girls at a younger age … and show girls that tech is really fun."

"I used to back off from reaching my dreams because I used to think that I was too little, too small, too that. Now I realize that I’m doing others a disservice. The more I reach for my dreams, the more successful I am. The more I share my story, the more I empower other people to reach for their dreams. We should all do that because each of our dreams is valid.”"

"Health is a journey. I would love to see a world where the first place of living healthy is going to Mother Earth and nature to look at what nature has given us to stay healthy.”"

"The telecoms sector saw an initial spike in activity when everyone shifted to online activities due to the lockdown, but growth has plateaued more recently. With the help of the government, industry players were able to ensure rights of passage and keep networks running despite the challenges brought on by the pandemic."

"Network congestion has become the norm this year, but there have been no network outages. Although many people and strategic sectors have struggled because they were not prepared for a crisis like Covid-19, telecoms companies have benefitted strongly. Nonetheless, the longer the lockdowns persist, the greater the impact on consumers’ propensity to spend money and therefore purchase network credit. The third quarter saw growth begin to flatline, and tighter margins are on the horizon, even for the largest companies."

"Online access is still a privilege and not yet a right in the country, as we would like it to become. We are, however, close to being able to offer affordable internet services to customers nationwide. The target of 2% of monthly GNI for 1 GB of data is within reach."

"The Nigerian Broadband Plan 2020-25 is now in place, and the Broadband Implementation Steering Committee seeks to provide solutions for low-income populations. Establishing community networks – whereby low-tech solutions can help to prevent white elephant projects – is another point of consideration. Ultimately, the sector needs to adopt sustainable practices and include local communities in the development strategy. In practice, this means understanding how multilateral organisations that work on a peer-to-peer basis can hand work over to local people who are trained to run projects."

"There is no shortage of investor interest in Nigeria, as shown by large-scale investments in wet data capacity around Lagos. Facebook and Google’s plans ¬–Project Simba and Equiano, respectively – are further evidence that Lagos is on the map. We welcome the arrival of these companies; it opens up competition and keeps traditional players on their toes. However, despite such interest around Lagos, increasing capacity in the hinterlands at an affordable cost remains an issue."

"Virtual learning has been the norm among the affluent since the beginning, and this model is in line with the western mindset that is increasingly prevalent. However, there is still some reluctance to engage with digital skills in the capital. A large part of that reluctance is due to inadequate equipment; some workers did not have a computer to work from home during the pandemic and therefore found it impossible to connect. Furthermore, in the public sector, some information is still stored on paper rather than in digital databases."

"Nigeria remains a 2G mobile landscape, and we are still expanding and reacting. Covid-19 has exposed the hurdles of corruption, infrastructure deficits and other pre-existing problems that we may now find solutions to through digital means. The country has the opportunity to correct some bad habits and think in a different way. Thanks to the pandemic, there is now more discussion on digital topics as governments around the world increasingly appreciate and consider new areas for development."

"Big data, artificial intelligence and data science are all on the table and ready for integration. However, we must move away from our reliance on oil to embrace digitalisation and open up more space online. There has been a spike in cybercrime activity which has, of course, made a bad name for the internet when overall it is a force for good. Nigeria’s journey requires people, processes and systems to build bridges to a more digital world. We now have more pieces to the jigsaw puzzle, we just need to put them together."

"We can build a strong and relevant education and skill development system on the successes and failures of others, without forgetting where we come from and where we hope to go."

"For years now, the theme of “Africa Rising” has continued to resonate amongst intellectual circles focused on our continent. In that time, I’ve felt a growing concern over Africa’s state of development. I wonder what the future holds, and whether we are actually set to “rise.” Our continent’s journey thus far and what lies ahead worries me. How do we lay the path to a brighter narrative for our future generations?"

"Let’s bring this closer to home. Nigeria’s population hovers around 190 million, and is expected to near 400 million by 2050. This is equivalent to combining the current populations of Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Greece, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and Sweden. I am worried about now, and I am terrified for the future."

"The Medium post on “The Education System Africa Needs” by Femi Longe struck a chord. Femi calls for a total overhaul of our current colonial education systems, which are insufficient for producing a skilled workforce required to support the growing population. The challenges we must overcome for Africa to rise are equally matched by deficiencies in human capital. So, what can we do to surmount these challenges?"

"A strong education system is the cornerstone of any country’s growth and prosperity. The current system we inherited and maintained simply doesn’t cut it. I admire Femi’s emphasis on the need for Africa to identify its goals and gear our education system towards those goals. While I agree that we should be guided by our own aspirations and cultures, I also believe that the best way forward is to learn from and build on the successes and failures of other education systems with our own goals in mind. A complete overhaul of any education system is a daunting and multi-faceted (and expensive) task. Particularly when it involves overhauling the entire curriculum, producing millions of teachers or facilitators, re-orienting mindsets, and potentially building thousands of facilities. This can feel intimidating. But there is hope."

"Luckily, we live in a time when alternative models of education and skill development are being created at an accelerated pace around the world. This means that the next generation of Nigerians (and Africans) can leapfrog and create and experience new models of learning. A handful of innovators have built and continue to refine what they believe Africa needs for the next generation: context-based learning and skill development opportunities with pragmatic outcomes linked to the market."

"At Andela, we aim to empower globally relevant builders of the future Nigeria (and Kenya, and soon other countries in Africa). Our developers hone their technical and leadership skills by working as distributed global team members of our company partners. We hope these individuals become the bureaucrats, administrators, builders, founders, and employers who have all gone through a bespoke learning experience built for purpose. What purpose? To lay the foundation for Africa’s technological evolution through technology capacity development."

"This is my call to action for my fellow Africans: join the movement. Find a field or industry you are passionate about, and build a scalable platform for developing human capacity in that field. If we can sidestep our education system and build new models that can scale massively, maybe… just maybe we can empower our people to reach their full potential and watch Africa rise."

"In the same spirit of innovation, Dell introduced Project Lightning, a high-speed file system tailored for AI workflows, and Power Cool, a liquid cooling system that can dramatically cut data center cooling costs. For enterprises grappling with rising infrastructure expenses, these solutions offer tangible pathways to lower total cost of ownership while boosting operational efficiency."

"What stood out most for me was how Dell has moved beyond theoretical AI discussions. Through its AI Factory initiative and strategic partnerships with NVIDIA, Intel, and Qualcomm. Dell is embedding AI capabilities deep into its product ecosystem."

"As someone deeply invested in IT digital transformation, I was particularly drawn to the spotlight on Kyndryl Bridge an AI-powered operating platform that is redefining how services are delivered at scale."

"By automating routine workflows and reallocating over 13,000 professionals to strategic roles. Kyndryl has unlocked over $775 million in annualized savings while elevating service agility and customer value."

"it is a real-time, integrated process powered by AI, automation, and intelligent infrastructure."

"Whether in healthcare, manufacturing, or financial services, the organizations that will thrive are those that embrace agile ecosystems, leverage AI at every business process layer, and pursue continuous operational refinement."

"The future of cybersecurity lies in our ability to anticipate, adapt, and act leveraging AI and emerging technologies to stay one step ahead."

"Complexity is one of the great evils,good men seek to slay it whenever they can."

"Honesty and popularity rarely coexist in the same space. Once in a blue moon, when what people want to hear is actually true, it happens."

"After we got the Internet, the first online service I wanted to build was a Nigerian Paypal. I held 3 or 4 related domains for a while, but failed to renew them, as I didn't have what it'd take. This was years before I thought about starting Nairaland."

"I learnt that one could make money by starting a popular website and placing adverts on it, but I couldn’t make my blog popular enough to"

"I always tell job seekers to create their own jobs, because nobody owes them a job."

"Look for a painful problem that others are facing, and then devise a way to make people pay you for the solution. Look for problems that don’t require much capital to solve."

"In a developing country like Nigeria, there are so many problems waiting to be solved. One man’s problem is another man’s profit! Competition is often weak which means you’ll make a lot of money. So what are you waiting for?"

"I used to be active on various discussion forums online, so I recognised their value. But the Nigerian forums available at the time were dominated by Nigerians abroad. They focused on topics like US politics and inter-racial relations."

"It’s good they ban it now so Nigerians have enough time to learn how to use VPN, because this Twitter will be very important in 2023 elections."

"If they ban it for the first time during elections, it would be worse for us a country."

"WhatsApp is banned in Dubai but everyone I know there uses it through VPN. VPN is now a normal thing to them. Lets make it a normal thing here jare."

"In a world saturated with images of seemingly flawless beauty and perfectly curated lives, it’s easy to lose sight of a simple yet profound truth; beauty is not just skin deep. While the beauty industry often feeds us a narrow and superficial definition of what being beautiful means, true beauty goes much deeper it stems from embracing who you are, cultivating confidence, and radiating positivity from within."

"Beauty is not confined to the surface; it runs deep within us, flourishing when we feel good in our skin. By fostering self-acceptance, confidence, and a positive mindset, we redefine what it means to be truly beautiful."

"Let’s pave the way for a world that embraces every unique hue of beauty, celebrating the richness of our differences rather than comparing ourselves to one another."

"The challenge in the market is that FMCG distribution is really fragmented."

"Taking the product from the manufacturer to the retailer is a tough task and there are various threads in the mix."

"What really excites me about Nigeria is the warmth of the people. On the professional side, the opportunities for scaling and creating impact in the market keep us in Nigeria – and jollof rice is an important part of life, of course."

"Finding essential products at the right price – or even ensuring availability – became a very big challenge, predominantly because distribution has multiple layers of process, and these layers are not digitised or connected."

"The profitability journey was an outcome of our efficiency on utilizing the assets that we aggregated in the network, and this has proven that the model that we put together as a ‘network of networks."

"We’re expanding now not just to grow, but to optimize."

"Every transaction in the FMCG value chain has two sides: the movement of goods and the movement of funds."

"Better occupancy in warehousing, smarter logistics routes, and deeper category penetration will all improve margins."

"They were more than happy to onboard [OmniRetail’s platform]! The retailer can now see the products that are available from the distributors’ inventory. He doesn’t need to worry which distributor he’s buying from, or how many he’s buying from – he places the order on a single platform."

"I think one of the key differences is, we started with the technology first. We are not focused on accruing assets. We are more focused on finding partners who could do it. We don't do any of the logistics or the warehousing. We get it done. So most of the other companies are doing it. Doing the warehousing or the logistics piece, or some of them doing both of them on their own. Our differentiation is that we do not get into doing it on our own. This helps us in scaling efficiently."

"So we are onboarding partners who understand the logistics, who understand the warehousing bit in these countries and will be willing to be our co partner in that country to drive it. So yeah, we are going to expand very soon into other West African markets that are stage one, and would want to be the leaders in the West African space prior to us moving into other markets in Africa."

"Majority of the fundamental problems Africa currently faces can be addressed by satellite technologies, be it communications satellites or Earth observation satellites."

"Young people are going to play a very important role in shaping the future of Africa and they need to understand that they have the capability to do this."

"I think space teaches us about possibilities. For a lot of people, getting into space is an amazing inspiration that shows us that anything is possible."

"In Africa, half of the population does not have internet connectivity, and that’s a problem you can address with space technologies."

"This places Africa at the forefront of space agriculture and reinforces the idea that the future of humanity among the stars must reflect the diversity and richness of life on Earth."

"I am a space scientist with a primary focus on the African Space Industry. I am currently the Regional Coordinator (Africa) of the Space Generation Advisory Council of the United Nations, where I am leading African students and young professionals in the creation of International Space Policy, and ensuring their opinions are heard in key policy making at the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs."

"Curiosity brought me into this path. Before then, I wanted to be the engineer who invents an automobile that swims and flies. While seeking admission into the University, I saw in a newspaper that the invention was made and I lost all interest in being an automobile engineer."

"It's amazing the problems we can solve using Space Technologies. 80% of the problems Nigeria and other African countries are facing can be addressed with better information; and space adds an important dimension to this."

"The government needs to rebrand the school curriculum to accommodate STEAM Education. Just like Bill Gates said when he came to Nigeria, the government needs to invest in the people. When we empower and train teachers, the knowledge will be passed to the grassroots and this will lead to capacity development."

"There are better things we can do rather than trolling each other on social media and being rude to each other at the slightest opportunity. We can build a great nation together; in fact; we can build the greatest nation on this planet together. We have the potential, let’s allow the labor of our past heroes inspire us into greatness."

"The e-commerce platform would hit a market valuation of over four billion dollars by 2022."

"When you compete with the "big boys",with resources in terms of cash,human capital, structure,and are global with a very strong brand,you have to be very courageous and have the heart of a lion but the great humility of a sheep."

"If you want to compete with multinational companies ,you have to be knowledge driven and you must stay focused on a niche market."

"I tell them we can also support any responsible government of the state which sincerely wants us to add value without us really being in the driving seat."

"If you meander towards the seemingly inconsequential, yet positive influences of your life, you will be positioning yourself to ride the wave towards defining yourself as the person you would be proud of introducing to other people."

"A potential threat to innovation happens when the innovators get pulled into fields that pay well, but do not require innovation."

"We create and improve every day, something all entrepreneurs have to master if they will make a difference."

"I am motivated by the ability to build technical solutions for problems people face."

"I am of the opinion that startup CEOs in Africa should use social media to amplify their brands and reach a wide audience."

"I observed that travel was also going to be the next big thing. I compared the Brazil and Indian hotel experience and travel tech space and I figured that it should be possible to replicate the model in Nigeria, as both countries bore similarities to Nigeria at that growth phase."

"We create and improve every day, something all entrepreneurs have to master if they will make a difference. However, every prospective entrepreneur must be aware that all entrepreneurs face challenges and must be prepared for that. Managing a growing team is a challenge that one has to deal with daily. There are, of course, also the standard ‘Nigerian problems’ of power and internet."