Heroes | 6

“My story isn’t about a rough childhood and lack.
Sometimes, even when you have enough, you may need to stand up for yourself and take charge of your own life. That is what I can say my story is about. I was progressing from JSS class into SS class when my father called me and said ‘You have to go to the science class’. Just like that. He didn’t ask for my opinion, he didn’t care if I had an interest in businesses or humanities. In my house, it was almost like you were not a part of the family if you were not in the Sciences.

Fast forward to my SS2, my father asked me to take the WAEC exam. For me, I had believed that if I could make it into the university, I would be free to do what I really wanted to do so I wanted to make my papers at once and advance into the university. When the result came out, I had just 2 credits, the rest were D7s, E8s and F9s. The month that result was released was the month I cried the most in my life. You know the way African parents are na, my father was disappointed and he did not spare any opportunity to rub it in. If he sent me on an errand and I returned a second late, he would turn it all round and say that was why I failed my WAEC in SS2.

Eventually, I moved past that.

When it was time to write JAMB in my SS3, my father purchased the form himself, filled it himself, and signed it himself. He filled the school I would go and all the courses I would study. It was his decision that I should study Mining – a course which I had no interest in at all. Dad’s decision for my life was final and Mining it was. No one could do anything about it. At the Post UTME, the cut-off for Mining was 65% in FUTA, I scored 56% or so – that meant that I couldn’t get in for Mining.

I took the change of course form and had to go back to my dad to choose a new course for me since he would never just let me make my own decisions myself. In the end, I laid out the options before him and we chose Materials & Metallurgical Engineering. My dad had no idea what that was neither did I. In the end, I was admitted for Building. My father didn’t like that and so he was of the strong view I should write JAMB again. For me, where my heart really was was in Computer Science but my father wouldn’t hear it.

About that time, I met a young man who knew about my interest in computers. It was this young man who advised me that since I could take computer-certification courses outside the FUTA curriculum, I should take the Building program and that I should run certification programs in computer while studying Building in school.

I heeded the advice and that decision was going to change my life forever..

“I focused on my certification programs and developed an apathy towards Building. I didn’t tell my father about my plans to take the certification programs from the start. Instead, I told my mom – she was more supportive and open. At the end of my first semester, I had a GP of 2.87 and my second semester I had a GP of 2.4 or something like that. My CGPA at the end of my first year was 2.57 or so. It was low like that. It was at the end of my 100 level that my father found out that I had been taking certification programs.

My father was totally displeased that I ended my first year with a Second Class lower. For me, it didn’t look so bad at the time since I was studying Building just to get a certificate. As far as my certification programs were going on well, I was good. Once again, just like the post-GCE experience, my father did not hide his displeasure at my result and the whole ‘computer jargons’ that I was obsessed about.

Going into my second year, I knew I needed my space to be able to make my own decisions and prove to my father that I could make something out of myself even without his control and to prove that I wasn’t a dullard. I rented a place to stay in Akure and so I never came home during holidays. In order to supplement what I got as allowance, I worked with software-related brands as an intern because I wasn’t a professional at the time. It was in my 200 level that I started my own software development company. It was a really small company.

By 300 level, I had begun to work on a platform called Fiverr. On Fiverr, I met someone who worked at a software development company in the US called The Coding Faculty. He was one of their engineers. I offered to volunteer with them. I was given the chance to work with their engineering team remotely and I did that all through my 300 level. Going into my 400 level, I worked remotely with a data-analysis and software development company based in India.

For me, things were about to change.

I ditched the thought of building a platform and just focused on my small company. Then, a few friends challenged me to build the platform and offered to handle the administrative and logistics aspect. I built the platform on WordPress in November 2015. It was supposed to be a platform where students can check the database of companies in need of interns and then they could go ahead and apply. The dream was never to be a platform where employers and prospective interns could meet and seal deals right there.

We called it Buddify.com.ng

In the first month that we launched the platform, we had about 40,000 views. The second month, we had 100,000 views. The analytics kept increasing month after month. By then I was overwhelmed by this and so I shut down the small company and focused on the new project of connecting students with internship slots.

As time went on, things kept changing. Traction increased. In the end, the platform because a place where real connections happened. In the sixth month, a mail came in from someone at ITF and the mail was basically appreciating us for the innovation we’d brought into easing internship placements.

We started meeting the heads of internship units of different companies, we started collaborating with brands as a platform for them to source for interns, we sealed partnership deals like organizations like the Industrial Training Fund (ITF). On and on like that, it grew. Till we eventually changed the name to @placement.ng.

We had 5000 users at the start and we had 200 successful connections. Placement.ng is almost 2 years old and right now, we have almost 4,000 successful internship connections. We have about 27,000 interns connected to the platform now and we have hundreds of thousands of views every month. I never thought I could start a company and run it up unto its current stature. We may not have millions of naira but seeing the platform provide solutions to both students and employers is the fire that keeps us going.

In December 2017, Placement.ng was among the top 30 selected start-ups out of 250+ in Africa by the MAKE IT Accelerator supported by the German International Cooperation (GIZ), Endeva and CcHub. The Make IT Accelerator support is about Promoting digital Innovations for sustainable and inclusive economic growth. In the next few months we would be supported with resources, mentors and networks provided by the German government.

Now, my father is beginning to see the success behind the ‘computer jargon’ that he never wanted me to delve into in the first place. Now he has some faith in me that, really, I knew what I was doing and that I wasn’t just fooling around with computers anymore.

I look back now, if I had followed the path my father had laid out for me, I wouldn’t have been able to create a platform solving such big problems for people. Placement.ng is why we landed in the Tribune newspaper. If I had studied Mining engineering like my dad wanted me to, maybe I’ll be doing my masters degree now and I’ll still be calling home for pocket money. I’ll never have broken free to find my path. As for me, Placements has given me a leverage – I have something to show everywhere I go. I go something to show that I can do.

And, yes, my 100 level grade was my worst in the university. Every semester after that was a hit back to back. In fact, in my 500 level alone, I had a GP of a first class grade.”

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