An Engineering Student Fights for the Future of Nigeria

Collaborizm is an online tech incubator that is aiding underprivileged innovators to achieve their entrepreneurial goals. With most of its user base coming from the Eastern hemisphere, and more specifically, Asia and Africa, Collaborizm is changing the lives of millennials in poorer parts of the world, and has actually inspired somewhat of a quasi-religious movement in some of its users.

Here is one story about Areous Ahmadtj, a native Nigerian, who is now on a mission to spread the word about Collaborizm to other young innovators by contacting local universities. Here is Areous’ story:

Areous grew up in Jos, Nigeria, aka, “J-Town”, where he had to contend with many struggles due to lack of educational resources, technology, and electricity. In spite of these obstacles, Areous taught himself graphic design and programming with the help of his older brother Nas, a computer science student. Areous recalls one of his first lessons with Nas: “He (Nas) said that computer programming language is made of ‘IF AND ELSE IF’. I was a little kid at the time and didn’t really understand what he meant. A big problem I faced then was having no Internet access so my learning process was so slow.”

Therefore, when Areous came across Collaborizm, a platform which enables anyone from across the world to build projects and meet other makers, he was instantly hooked — this platform was giving him access to things he had never had access to before.

The idea of this journey started whilst sitting in his room thinking deeply about a project he had started several months prior on the Collaborizm platform, Taking Collaborizm to Students. Living in Nigeria, it was clear to him, being a student himself, that there were a lot of students that wanted to make something of their lives, but had no way to do so. Collaborizm offered that opportunity; however, most Nigerians were not aware of it. “This was the motivation I needed to get myself off the ground and go to the 5 best universities in Nigeria, I decided to go to ATBU first”, says Areous.

ATBU — Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University is a federal university of technology located in Bauchi, northern Nigeria; its mission is to provide relevant and high quality education and prepare individuals for work, leadership and a meaningful life, through promotion of research, teaching, development and testing of ideas in order to advance understanding and quality of life.

From his home in J — Town, Areous took a three hour taxi ride into the capital of Bauchi State, arriving at the Zaranda Hotel, Bauchi and faced his first challenge: getting in touch with university staff members. He began making some calls to anyone that might be able to help connect him with a staff member and he eventually connected with Aneo Ahmed, one of the university’s computer science and education students, and a friend of his brother, Nas.

Aneco Ahmed explained that the university has a lot of restrictions concerning outside visitors, but that since he is the class representative, he would be able to help connect Areous with the school rector. As a result of this introduction, Areous has a meeting scheduled with the school rector at the end of this month. In the meantime, Areous has a meeting with the Head of Programming where he will introduce him to Collaborizm and explain why it is critical to the university students.

In addition, Collaborizm will be creating a forum for the university students where they can share and develop ideas and post assignments. Areous also plans to create a course at the university’s Information Communication Technology suite (ICT) entitled “Collaborizm Developers”, which will cover concepts of various programming languages and networking skills.

In this short period of time, Areous has already garnered over 1400 sign ups from local Nigerian university students, he has gathered the support of several university professors and has given hope and inspiration to hundreds of aspiring makers and future entrepreneurs. Areous’ current plan is to remain in Bauchi over a one month duration to attract more users before he moves on to Bayero University Kano where we will continue to follow his incredible story.