Entrepreneurs

"The same year, we got into Co-Creation Hub, we had an academy where we were taught about startups, entrepreneurship, and many others, it was really a very good experience for us then, having founded Jobs in Nigeria."

"We learned a lot of things about execution, building technologies and skills, and those things helped us a lot during our time at JIN. Still, I like to make an impact, and working at BudgIT is another one. BudgIT simplifies government data for ordinary citizens to understand, and technology plays a huge role in this because if you want to reach people and also want to simplify data, there are two sides to it. There are people who are on the internet and tech savvy, another are those who prefer the traditional way of doing things, am talking about those who prefer newspaper and stuff. It’s also possible we have people in these two segments."

"So at BudgIT, we have been doing a lot of publications to reach out to those set of people who prefer the traditional media or not too tech savvy and also, build websites and apps for the set of people that are tech savvy and online to help them simplify and understand government data."

"Early 2012, I met my co-founder, Temitayo. From there, we launched Jobs in Nigeria, which at the time was one of the biggest job hubs in Nigeria, we had over 200,000 members in over eighteen countries in Africa, it was a big deal for me, using technology to help people find jobs around them. Before then, some friends were always asking me to help them find jobs online and they would go through a lot of websites trying to find a suitable job. It was stressful and hard having to browse many websites for a job, apply and still not get a job. Tayo and I had the same dream, same passion, we built JIN and started in 2012."

"We currently do not receive money through the platform for offline work but we’re working on a new model for that. As for the digital jobs, everything happens on Findworka. Payments are made to our escrow account and money is later transferred to the service provider after completion of work. It is that simple."

"A Life in War and Peace” by Kofi Annan. I know this is not the typical business book, but I spent the first 20 years of my life in Africa, and in my teens, I watched a man who looked like me and spoke like me lead other world leaders through major geopolitical events. Kofi Annan made me believe that where I was born and the opportunities [or lack of] I had would only be limiting if I let it and could be an advantage. “Interventions” is his memoir."

"My name is Dele Bakare, the lead technologist at BudgIT. I studied software engineering at NIIT and also hold a Bsc. in Business Computing. I have a strong passion for technology and business. I was working at a technology company and also worked on several tech projects before traveling the road to entrepreneurship in 2011 when I founded Pandorgs, a Christian networking website that was developed towards bridging the gap of knowledge about Christian beliefs and life."

"We have also built some civic tools like Find a Cop, PICC, Tracka and many others. We have also organized some major tech hackathons in Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra leone. These are tech areas I’m involved in with a team of three other tech wizards and many project managers."

"The only sustainable model for healthcare innovation looks in equal parts at rich and poor regions, regardless of ethnic or cultural lines. This also means healthcare must become more collaborative. My only fear is history repeating itself, where the strong “prey” on the weak. Today’s generation of leaders must seek to do things differently, particularly in the healthcare space, to ensure there is a win-win mindset as an acceleration of technology and funding creates more value."

"Innovation is being driven by all stakeholders. However, I do think the voice we hear the least is that of the patients. In an ideal world, the drive for innovation should come significantly from the patients. In the end, Pharma, Providers, Payers and Doctors really work for the patient. And I believe now and increasingly into the future that the patient will have a stronger share of voice in driving innovation. With the increase of social media, accessibility to information, and patient advocacy groups, patients are demanding better care and better services. And, as I spoke about earlier, healthcare and treatment is becoming more and more personalised, which means whether an individual patient vocalises their needs or not, their genetics certainly will; and that has a profound influence on driving innovation upon pharma, providers, payers, and physicians."

"I think very positively. It should not take a pandemic to align stakeholders and drive innovation at a scale not typically seen before. Maybe thinking about how we can all work to prevent the next pandemic can keep us all aligned"

"Each environment has its unique set of challenges and opportunities, nationally, regionally, and globally. Across borders, one of the major obstacles, and at the same time a big opportunity, is that of disparities in healthcare. Disparities in healthcare are propagated where there is a lack of funding innovation into healthcare. Wealthy regions of the world have developed their healthcare environments significantly more than poorer regions; and even within some regions – wealthy or not – funding for healthcare infrastructure, let alone innovation, is disproportionally distributed and/or mismanaged. This has become the status quo for how our healthcare environments have developed, but this is now unsustainable in today’s globalised world, where an event in one part of the world can shut down all systems across the globe."

"How do I create a structure where people are feeling encouraged to do the work? How do I manage people who aren’t performing and really push them to do better?"

"I would not describe myself as an innovator. I think I am doing the work that needs to be done. If I am an innovator, perhaps it’s because I faced this challenge head-on and was persistent as well as fortunate in timing. I am lucky that our work is making an impact."

"I see the impact of genomics increasing across all scientific disciplines, and that is a great thing! Healthcare will get increasingly personalised, and treatments will get very specific to disease subtypes – this is already happening. Genomics will also accelerate the pace of development of such treatments. One more thing, I believe genomics will show us over time just how connected yet different we are, and that will have a significant social and cultural impact."

"I don’t know, but I know I don’t know it all! I believe the entrepreneurship journey is one of discovery. Always stay learning and never think you know everything. Be open to change. Allow growth to happen, and don’t fight it. Find joy and happiness in the little things. And enjoy the work you do!"

"As a young entrepreneur, we don’t get much exposure to quality leadership to learn and build from."

"I think some people are blessed to have great managers and bosses and I definitely was able to get that."

"I didn’t have many chances or opportunities to build that skill myself."

"I definitely found it challenging when I was first starting out to just figure out how do I motivate people that aren’t like me."

"“The driver of all growth is collaboration, if we get it right in one place, we can replicate it everywhere.”his #YabaManifesto article on building a stronger tech ecosystem through teamwork and shared effort."

"It is an honour. I think the Bloomberg New Economy Catalysts is taking a holistic approach to problem-solving and innovation by ensuring that a truly global and diverse group of leaders come together to work on global challenges. I believe that it’s within that diversity, my fellow Catalysts and I will provide the needed solutions, which is humbling. Where I come from (and I know this is the case in other places), we all really want to make an impact and make our parents proud. Mine told me they were after the announcement."

"They don't plan to slow down"

"the ladies who want to build million-dollar companies, lead corporate organizations and crush it as leaders."

"Absolutely not! My life plan was not to be an entrepreneur; my life plan was definitely not to live in Nigeria."

"It is important for technology leaders to take the lead and be innovative in the way we communicate to government, because they [government staff] are learning as much as we are"

"so many opportunities and potentials in Africa to innovate and help improve people's lives."

"Dealing with polices and governments can be hard. Also, distributions: How can I get a product that I made in Lagos out here to Austin?"

"I originally thought that I was going to work in public policy or work in Government. That’s what I studied in school, that’s what I worked in after university and I thought that that was the direction I wanted to head in."

"Every single challenge and opportunity also presents a space for an innovator and entrepreneur to solve that problem"

"Fundraising is not for the faint-hearted. *Getting global institutions to back you, back your firm, back your vision, back your strategy."

"It takes time, it takes years of building trust, years of communication, years of follow-ups."

"Anyone can be an innovator"

"When you finally get them, it’s very, very fulfilling."

"You’re fundraising for one fund, you’re deploying another fund, you’re exiting another fund, you’re hiring, you’re reporting, you’re doing investor relations."

"You don't have to look a certain way. It's not just for one type of person. Anybody can play a role, and there is so much work to be done."

"Sometimes I feel there aren’t enough hours in the day."

"Go and do the work! It doesn’t matter how sweet your marketing is, how fancy your offices are, how shiny your degrees look on paper if you can’t sit and do the work and deliver something that people actually need and value and care about, then it’s a waste."

"It’s a business that we remain very, very excited about in terms of the growth trajectory."

"The way that they’ve been able to create this ecosystem that is really enabling the informal economy to really scale and have access to finance."

"The unit economics of these centres are just phenomenal."

"We need to continue to showcase the success stories of impact investing where intentionality around impact actually enhances returns, this will be key in helping impact investing to become more mainstream."

"Access to capital for women and people of colour in my view is one of the most important dislocations in the private equity and venture capital industry that needs to be addressed in the next decade."

"There is a huge gap between intention to do impact investing, and the actual action. So I am hoping that this gap closes in the coming decade and that we have institutions putting money where their mouth is in terms of addressing racial inequities as well as unconscious biases women face."

"You set up a centre and it breaks even in a short space of time."

"Overcoming the misconception that to be an impact fund you have to sacrifice returns for positive social impact remains to be one of the biggest challenges. Mainstreaming impact investing and integrating gender analysis and ESG as part of the investment process and not only reserving this for impact funds will be where we will need to get to as an industry as a whole globally."

"Food security is probably the biggest problem our generations will have. Be able, be an actor, be a player."

"We are building systems that leverage technology, innovative finance, and inclusive agriculture to connect smallholder farmers to commodity and financial markets"

"We intentionally are looking to address the access to the capital gap for women in Africa as consumers and entrepreneurs as well as to reduce unemployment in our markets by providing growth capital to underfunded and overlooked companies."

"I believe that the tools needed for success in life are beyond building complex financial models and creating insightful decks. They require understanding people (millennials and tech-natives particularly) and how to keep them continuously motivated; understanding the world’s wicked problems (poverty, financial inclusion, climate change and adaptation) and how to create solutions that are commercially viable; and even harder, raising capital to solve these problems and creating social and economic value."