28th March, 2022
Every generation has had its fair share of prosperous young Nigerian entrepreneurs, from John Hopkins in the eighteenth century to Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, in the twenty-first. Critics are drawn out by your organization’s founding philosophy.
But today’s millennials have done the same, looking for novel approaches to achieve bigger goals. For a country with as much culture as Nigeria, the transformation of the country in the new millennium would depend on the success of a young entrepreneur.
In order to foster a culture of nation-building and leadership dynamics, we are thus recognizing the unique characteristics of youthful entrepreneurship in Nigeria. These individuals inspired us and many others, and here are some of the country’s most successful up-and-coming businesspeople.
Theoder Innocent
Theoder Innocent Okechukwu (TiOkechukwu), known as InDiscov, is an entrepreneur, founder and chief executive officer of Paychatik, a fast-growing company comprising Paychatik Wallet, Inflowchange, Charity (InDiscov).
Theoder Innocent Okechukwu in his prime is a jack of all trades master of all, he chairs a taxi firm that created over 20 jobs in Ukraine where almost everyone around the world thought there’s no opportunity.
The United Kingdom-based is not resting on his oars as a financial expert and technologist. InDiscov (Akashirike) is an adventurer and technologist, NFT collector, and vlogger.
Known for his exceptional business ideas, problem-solving, and business development skills, InDiscov is building his own cryptocurrency wallet called “Paychatik” shortly after building “Inflowchange.com“.
Okechukwu is always taking chances and creating opportunities. He studied at Krok University Kyiv Ukraine. Okechukwu’s plan is to own a bank in the future and to enhance the fintech outlook for the Nigerian banking industry.
Maya Horgan
“Be strategic. Know your network is limitless, and contact whomever you desire to reach; but always make sure you have some value to offer them.”
Maya Horgan Famodu is the founder of Ingressive, an organisation that aids companies expand into Africa. Horgan has also established a non-profit setup for her firm – Ingressive for Good, which provides micro-scholarships, tech trainingand talent placement for African youth.
In conversation with Guardian, she speaks about nothing being more important than one’s “ability to do through numbers, experience, expertise (and) intelligence.” She further advices on developing the entrepreneurship value and adds, “Always lead with numbers and the tangible value you offer.”
Tiwalola Olanubi Jnr.
Tiwalola Olanubiis the founder of Dotts Media House, one of Africa’s leading digital marketing agencies. Being enthusiastic about youth development and entrepreneurship, he quotes
“The best thing that can happen to any entrepreneur is to start chasing their dreams as early as possible. My advice is to start early as soon as that idea gets into your mind.”
Tiwalola is a part of numerous CSR projects such as Leap Africa’s Youth Day of Service and among others. He is also the founder of Zarafet Loaves, a Lagos-based bread bakery, and Trendupp Africa.
Florence Chikezie
Florence Chikezie is a strategy consultant, coach, trainer, author, and investor. She is the founder and CEO of ReDahilia International Limited, a trusted business that offers free investment informations for client spanned across the globe.
Florence believes the solution to the economic problems faced by Nigeriaand other countries in the world lies in the confines of entrepreneurship.
“The game plan has always been to pass on the knowledge and ensure that business owners do business the right way.”
Gossy Ukanwoke
Gossy Ukanwoke is the founder of Beni American University, the first digital university of Nigeria. An education-driven entrepreneur, he founded an online forum named as Students Circle Network which has wide database of academic resources, allowing interaction over educational resources for young learners.
“Education is about teaching people how to make a living, and teaching people how to live; how to interact with others, how to lead their lives and make something out of themselves. With education comes discipline and we need a lot of discipline in Nigeria as well.”
Ukanwoke has further worked with African governments on strategic developments to assist in creating better access, quality and relevance of learning in higher education institutions.
Bidemi Zakariyau Akande
Bidemi Zakariyau Akande is the founder and CEO of LSF|PR, one of the fastest growing PR agencies in Nigeria. Guided by values and principles, Bidemi spoke about an entrepreneur’s tendency to be naturally “pulled in different direction, losing focus of (their) core values.”
In this regards, she adds, “It’s important to be guided by principles and operate by those principles.” Her organisation LSF|PR is a recipient of a certificate of excellence by the SABRE Awards (2018) — the worlds biggest PR awards programme, dedicated to benchmarking the best PR work across the globe.
“It’s ok to start small and scale as you grow. You don’t necessarily have to wait for when you have all the funds you need.”
Fred Oyetayo
Fred Oyetayo is the founder of Fresible, a digital agency in Nigeria with expertise in web development, branding, and digital marketing.
He has earned a B.L Degree from the Nigerian Law School in 2015 and an LL.M Degree in 2018. Oyetayo is also the curator of Law Repository, a platform of engagement and value orientation for Nigerian law students, lawyers and para-legals.
“One of the first things I realised in life is self-awareness. If you want to connect the dots, you must know your purpose.”
Chika Madubuko
Chika Madubuko is the founder of Greymate Care, an Al-driven caregiving platform. An online platform that connects the vulnerable to a professional caregiver, an idea arose from Madubuko’s personal challenges that she faced when looking for a care-giver for her grandmother.
Finding the greatest purpose out of her education, she describes how her course MSC Biotechnology from the University of Hertfordshire “enabled (her) to push herself and provide a comprehensive and practical approach to the industry she wanted to pursue a career in.”
She has now based her service offering around providing trained professionals to care for vulnerable family members.
Uche Pedro
Uche Pedro is the founder and CEO of BellaNaija, a media company known for creation of content in the lifestyle and entertainment domain. She earned a degree as the Masters in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School.
Being passionate about her nurturing the youth of her community, she founded the #BNDoGood, an initiative that supports numerous non-profit organisations such as LEAP Africa, Slum2School, Django Girls, among other.
“Cut out the noise, focus on doing the right thing, making an impact on opening doors for others to come”
Obinna Okwodu
Obinna Okwodu was the co-founder of Fibre, a Nigeria-based company helping users find rental accommodation by reducing the entry barriers to renting property in the country. The Fibre model reduces the time and costs to find rental accommodation from 200 days to a week.
Previously working at Morgan & Stanley as an Investment Banking Analyst, Obinna has graduated as a Bachelor in Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) When asked for an advice to young entrepreneurs, Obima notes,
“Don’t make assumptions, ask questions. Test the market before going into it.”
