Every successful person has a personal story to tell. These personal stories encompass everything they have been through before encountering success. Success stories are very significant, so successful people are often called to give an account of their journeys.
Are you a tech entrepreneur looking for motivation to forge ahead, or are you an aspiring tech entrepreneur who needs the courage to start your business? This article is for you. I have curated the success stories of successful Nigerian tech entrepreneurs.
Inspiring Nigerian Tech Entrepreneurs and Their Journeys
There are many successful young Tech entrepreneurs in Nigeria whose stories are those of grit, perseverance, hard work, and confidence. Young people are exploiting Nigeria’s tech industry. They are changing the narrative, creating lucrative ventures, and redefining success in the industry.
The journey to success is not smooth. Those who always want it smooth always give up and fade into the background. Entrepreneurship is not for the faint-hearted; you have to be prepared to face numerous challenges.
Those who have successfully ingrained their foot in the soil of entrepreneurship have stories to tell. These stories now serve as a driving force for other entrepreneurs who are still taking baby steps in this industry or have encountered many challenges and want to give up.
Learning about other people’s success stories can motivate you and help you discover new ways to overcome challenges and achieve your goals. You can also learn from their mistakes and be careful not to do the same.
Below are some inspiring success stories of Nigerian Tech entrepreneurs that will inspire you to improve your business.
1. Iyinoluwa Aboyeji
Iyinoluwa Aboyeji is the founder of Future Africa, a company that invests in tech startups and helps Africa’s digital entrepreneurs scale their businesses. He grew up in Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria. He attended St. Savior primary school in Ebute Metta and then Loyola Jesuit College in Abuja. After his studies, he relocated to Canada to study legal studies at the University of Waterloo.
At the University, he met Pierre, who later became his friend. While in school, Iyinoluwa worked at the UN, while Pierre worked at Silicon Valley in San Francisco. When they reconnected after spending time apart, Pierre told Iyinoluwa about his experiences working in Silicon Valley, including working with the PayPal team.
This made Iyinoluwa curious about the world of technology. When the University of Waterloo completed Velocity, a building meant for tech enthusiasts to encourage collaboration, Iyinoluwa and Pierre joined. With other 6 people, they founded Bucknado, a startup that helped students in Waterloo have access to past questions. Unfortunately, the startup failed after 3 years because the lecturers threatened to take legal action against them.
After the startup crashed, Iyinoluwa returned to Nigeria with a startup idea. He was struggling to bring the idea to life when he met Jeremy Johnson, and together, they founded Andela, a company that teaches tech skills.
Iyinoluwa and his team encountered challenges in the early stages of running Andela. However, they scaled through. After leaving Andela in May 2016 to pursue an MBA, Iyinoluwa met Shola Agboola, who was building Flutterwave then.
He joined Flutterwave and became its co-founder. When he left Flutterwave, he started publishing articles on startups on online platforms. The articles garnered attention, and young startup founders started reaching out to him for investment, so he started writing emails to potential investors about companies they could invest in.
The result was pleasing, so he started charging for it, and that was how his third company, Future Africa, came to be. Iyinoluwa’s success story should inspire you to keep aiming for more and persevere in the face of challenges.
2. Ifeoma Uddoh
Ifeoma Uddoh is the founder of Shecluded, a fintech company that gives female entrepreneurs in Nigeria and some parts of Africa access to loans. Ifeoma started her business because of what her mother passed through when her father died. Her mother couldn’t have access to funds for her business.
Also, when Ifeoma Uddoh started working in a funding company, she noticed that women were denied funds. This prompted her to start a company that focused on women. Ifeoma faced many challenges in her business, but she did not allow that to deter her. Her story is one of determination, even in the face of challenges.
3. Olaoluwa Samuel-Biyi
Olaoluwa is the co-founder of SureGifts, a company that allows individuals and businesses to purchase and send digital gift cards. Before becoming a co-founder of this company, he was involved in some ground-breaking technology ventures in Africa, such as Jumia, Venture Garden Group, and Greenhouse Capital.
He founded SureGifts with Adeoye Ojo and Babafemi Lawal in 2014. His company has partnered with some big brands in the world, such as Game, Spar, Samsung, and Jumia, to handle their digital gift card programs. Olaoluwa and his team faced a lot of challenges, but that did not stop them from becoming the best. Today, the company has over 200 retail brands and operates in Nigeria and Kenya.
4. Mahmood Oyewo
Mahmood Oyewo co-founded RubiQube, an advertising technology company specializing in video and Super Rich Media to drive customer engagement. At an early age, Mahmood had a flare for science, so he used to participate in science fairs.
Before university, he founded his first company, Mabtech Solutions, where he made radio transmitter circuits and sold them to friends who played pranks by broadcasting messages. He also wrote C++ applications and sold them to secondary schools.
In 2009, Oyewo and his brother, Mukhtar, created a mobile airtime top-up solution but were rejected by Globacom, a company they pitched their innovation because they were young. They did not allow the rejection to discourage them, so they registered an app development and management company called MobiQube.
In 2012, Mahmood and his brother built a location-based mobile app aggregator called RubiQube. Unfortunately, the mobile app got lost in the Google Play and Apple App Stores. This was frustrating, but it did not make them give up.
In 2015, they started a video advertising service called RubiQube, a state-of-the-art advertising service aimed at driving customer engagement for businesses. Today, RubiQube Limited is one of the top advertising companies and has worked with top brands, including Nestle, GSK, Visa, Zenith Bank, UBA, and Coca-Cola.
5. Timothy Adeyele
Timothy Adeyele is the founder of Optiweb Communications, a company that provides innovative digital solutions to mobile users and develops new strategies for businesses in Nigeria and other African countries. Adeyele comes from a poor family. His father is a painter, and his mother is a petty trader.
His parents used to struggle to put food on the table and also struggled to pay his school fees in a public school. His tech journey started when he used to go to a cybercafé close to his school to learn how to operate computers anytime he was sent home from school. As a young boy, anytime he shared his dream of owning a technology company with his parents and other elderly people, they would discourage him, telling him it was impossible.
Since he was determined to achieve his goals, he was admitted into a leading ICT institution in northern Nigeria after secondary school, where he struggled to sponsor himself. He couldn’t make it to the end, so he dropped out and relocated to Lagos, where he worked as a Sales Attendant at a cement store.
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From there, he started making plans to establish his company, Optiweb. He faced many challenges in the early stages of the business. He struggled to get startup capital and was rejected by several companies. However, that did not discourage him from forging ahead. Finally, his breakthrough came when he partnered with Globacom to found Glo Mobile School, an educational platform that enables students to learn online.
Optiweb has evolved and won many awards, including Etisalat’s Most Innovative Service Provider of the Year in 2016, Africa’s Most Innovative Digital Mobile Service Provider of the Year award, and the African Brand Leadership Merit award 2017.
6. Jason Chukwuma Njoku
Jason Chukwuma Njoku is the founder of Iroko TV, a web platform that provides on-demand paid-for Nigerian movies. Iroko TV is one of Africa’s first mainstream online movie streaming websites.
Jason was born on December 11th, 1980, in Deptford, South-East London. After his primary education, he returned to Nigeria for school and then returned to the United Kingdom for his college education at the University of Manchester, where he studied Chemistry.
After graduating in 2005, Njoku did not want to pursue a career in Chemistry but to start a business, so he founded a student magazine called Brash, owned a blog, a T-shirt business, and a web design company. All these businesses crumbled, and nothing worked as planned, so he returned to the United Kingdom.
When he was there, he conceived the idea of Iroko TV. He had this idea when he noticed that no online streaming platform streamed Nigerian movies. So, he returned to Nigeria after convincing Bastian Gotter, his friend, to invest in the idea.
Finally, he launched Nollywood Love. So Iroko TV, which started as Nollywood Love, has grown to become one of the best Nollywood movie streaming sites.
The Bottom Line
Apart from these few inspiring Nigerian tech entrepreneurs, there are others including Chris Kwekowe and Emerald Kwekowe, Sunkanmi Ola, Maya Horgan Famodu, Ink Eze, Obinna Okwodu, Temitope Ogunsemo, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Olaoluwa Samuel-Biyi, Adegoke Olubusi, Tayo Oviosu, Adeoye Ojo, Silas Adekunle, Odunayo Eweniyi, Bilikiss Adebiyi-Abiola, etc. Go and read their success stories and get inspired.
The narratives of these Nigerian tech entrepreneurs represent resilience and creativity in the face of adversity. Their stories, filled with trials, innovations, and success, are not just tales but testimonies to inspire every aspiring tech entrepreneur/startup. The journey is filled with challenges, yet the rewards of perseverance are immense and transformative. Let the successes of these tech entrepreneurs be your guide and motivation.
Embrace the lessons they impart, avoid the pitfalls they’ve navigated, and strive to contribute your verse to the grand story of Nigeria’s tech revolution. Whether you’re at the starting line or facing hurdles along the way, remember that every giant leap begins with a step of faith. Dream big, start small, persevere, and you could be the subject of the next great success story.
