From humble beginnings and unto the biggest stages

I was excited and felt pumped up afresh to continue moving those mountains yesterday when Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook publicly disclosed that he was investing in Andela. The for-profit company  (everything does not have to be a NGO, ok?) runs a four-year program, the goal of which is to produce world-class developers. The first six months are a crash course in programming skills, and the last three and a half years are a full-time remote apprenticeship with global tech companies. Those companies pay Andela, which in turn pays its fellows an above-average local wage (for a developer) during the duration of the program.

Andela is the very first investment of the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative $40 billion behemoth. Andela might be marketed as a New York company with campuses in Lagos, Nigeria and Nairobi, Kenya, but some of us have known Andela for a long time and we know that Andela is one of Nigeria’s success stories.

Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, the Nigerian co-founder has been very instrumental in Andela’s rise and is a valuable member of their team.

Just last month, this same Mark Zuckerberg commended Jobberman founders Olalekan Elude, Ayodeji Adewunmi and Opeyemi Awoyemi in his statement ushering the launch of Internet.org in Nigeria. Another Nigerian company that started from humble beginnings.

Who would have thought Nigeria’s Start Up scene would ever have such big updates coming in a time like this?

Anything can happen, my own duty is to continuously work out the ideas and get things done everyday. In the words of Abraham Lincoln: “I will study and prepare myself, someday, my chance will come”.

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Watching The World

• Mark Zuckerberg just made a big investment in a startup that pays young people in Africa to learn code
• Why Andela’s Nigeria Story is Important.