Origins: The LearnFactory Journey
As the last quarter for 2019 begins, there is a lot to be grateful to God for.
5 years ago this month, October 2014, I registered a company, LearnFactory Nigeria Ventures, at CAC Umuahia.
Spoiler Alert: this is a long read, as it covers my entrepreneurial story from 2007 to date, and how the LearnFactory dream was born. I crave your indulgence to read with patience
Having spent the previous 7 years (2007–2014) living between Lagos, Accra and UK, I felt compelled to return home to the South-east and lead a revolution in tech. As the first full-stack software development training and technology hub in South-East Nigeria, LearnFactory Nigeria became the vehicle to pursue this mission.
As a young man, I was privileged to have worked for some visionary and amazing gentlemen, which gave me opportunity to work on and lead some large scale projects like deploying computers and internet infrastructure nationwide as part of the NCC’s DAP and ADAPTI projects, projects with Shell (SNEPCo), Globalcom, leading the integration of some digital payment platform with NIBSS, and also served as a project lead in automating the collection of the TSC tax from airlines for the NCAA. For this period of my life, I am grateful to the Chairman of Zinox Computers, Chief Leo Stan Ekeh, who in 2007, saw in me an ambitious young man and gave me a platform to work for and learn from him as the Personal Assistant to the Chairman of the Zinox Group and Special Projects executive.
2006–2008: The First Taste of Independence
I finished NYSC in August 2016 and immediately headed back to Aba.
2008–2010: The Years of Finding Myself
After leaving Zinox Computers in September 2007, I immediately traveled to Ghana to join a missionary training course which was to last 3 months. I had some resistance from home, as my Dad really wanted me to travel to Imperial College UK to do a post-graduate course in Info Tech. Even though I finally got admissions at Bradford University instead of his alma-mater (Imperial College) and my Dad had made provision for complete payment of fees, I opted to go to Ghana. This is one of those decisions you make that leave you doubting your self many years down the line. I ended up spending 3 years (2008–2011) but these were some of my best, and worst (fit in heartbreak from a lady) years.
2011: The First Entrepreneurship Foray
I returned to Nigeria fully in early 2011, and along with a fellow missionary trainee (Timothy Arowobusoye), I decided to set up an intra-city transport company in Lagos state. The then governor, HE Raji Fashola, had just launched the BRT scheme and there was a mad scramble. Unfortunately, all the cards were stacked against my new partner and I; because we both didn’t have money, even to clothe ourselves; not to mention registering a business and raising all the capital required to run the business.
I wrote the business plan and had to do a bit of leg work. During this period in early January 2011, I had to put up with a friend. For some reasons you will get to understand soon, I’ll not mention his name. We met in 2006/7 at a cybercafe in Aba. He was then in FUTO, was also neck-deep into programming (C#) and we immediately hit off a friendship. Before leaving the cafe, I discovered he had just been thrown out by the person he was staying with in Aba and was stranded (as he was not from the South-east). I asked him to follow me home, told my parents he was my friend and needed a place to stay, and our house become his home for the next few years. Even when I left to join Zinox, he was always welcome in the house, both at Aba and Umuahia.
Fast-forward to 2011, he was now working for a software company in Lagos on my return from Ghana. I reached out to him that I needed a temporary place to stay while I pursued the transport idea I was working on; and if he could accommodate me for a while. He agreed and I moved in; he had a room and parlour apartment. My partner and I met in his parlour in the mornings and from there struck out to pursue our project. 2 weeks into my stay, he wakes me up one early morning around 5am and tells me his company was sending him for a project to the East that day and I had to leave. I was disoriented; I asked him to at least give me a day or 2 to make arrangements or at worst case, he should lock the room and let me stay in the parlor which had just a plastic carpet in it then. He refused; so I had to pack my meagre belongings and leave around 6:30am. I cannot begin to describe the pain, shock and betrayal I felt; I literally sat by the roadside and cried. I called Timothy to tell him; he could not believe it. He was that voice of encouragement I needed; unfortunately he could not help me himself as he was squatting with a friend in a 1 room apartment around Yaba.
We agreed to meet at Chicken Republic in Jibowu to strategize, as it was close to where he stayed. We sat and prayed and wondered how to go forward. As the evening approached, the need to find a place to stay became urgent. During my time traveling to Ghana between 2008 and 2010, I almost used Cross Country Motors exclusively. So I had built some relationships there. As we were close to their terminal at Jibowu, I called one of my contacts there and explained my predicament. He asked I come over, so Timothy and I went to see him. He said he could not help as where he stayed was too far in Ogun state; but that if I didn’t mind staying in their waiting room that night, I was welcome to do so.
So, for the next 3 days, I slept with the touts and luggages in the Cross Country terminal. I would wake up early to use the bath and toilet (I would skip the details here so you don’t pass out); go out to meet with Timothy at Chicken Republic (which had become our defacto office), buy 1 of their cheapest meals there and share (this was our only meal for the day, and was necessary for them to allow us stay) and return in the evening between 7 and 8pm so as to get a good space on any of the chairs else the floor was your portion.
By the fourth day, I was broken and ready to give up. I told Timothy I would be returning the next day to the East instead of continuing to live in these conditions. At least my parents had a good home and I could save and plan and return to Lagos. I moved from Cross Country park at Jibowu to ABC Terminal at Amuwo Odofin, to leave for Aba the next day. I was really depressed, angry and disappointed. I got into the terminal around 8pm when suddenly my phone begins to ring. It’s a number I didn’t know but on answering, it turned out to be one of the young people from our church — Steve Ebere Ezeka. Apparently, after I left Timothy, he was really troubled and started making calls to anyone to see who could help.
Steve asked where I was, I told him and he asked I start coming immediately to Ojo Barracks, which was not too far from where I was at Amuwo Odofin. I got into another bus and Steve became God’s answer to prayer and provision. He had a 3 bedroom apartment in Teddi and over the next 9 months, he housed and fed Timothy and I while we struggled to get our business off the ground. I remain eternally grateful to him; and in a few years when he was getting married, I was happy to be his best man.
It became urgent to raise funds so I had to shop around a bit for funding. Mr Ayo Bankole, whom I would later go to work for, gave us space at his office in Ogudu. Another gentleman, who had been a friend, mentor and big brother to me since 1992 when we met, called one morning and asked that I come see him immediately. As I was taking my last paper for a professional course I was undertaking that morning, I requested if my partner could come see him and he acquiesced. Timothy went to see him at his office at Ikoyi and a few hours later he called me and was crying on the phone. Mr Osita had given him #50,000.00 (Fifty Thousand Naira) as a startup fund for us. For 2 people who could hardly afford to put #300.00 (Three Hundred Naira) together, it was a huge miracle. I joined him in the crying and praying and thanking God for the great miracle. Very early the next morning, we were at CAC (Corporate Affairs Commission) office in Ikeja to register our company, which took about 50% of our money; the rest we kept for operations and all our running around. The company, TAG Travel and Tours, had Timothy and I as equal shareholders holding 50% each.
To resolve the bus challenge, we went round to see all the bus dealers in Lagos for Toyota, Nissan and Tata. A lot of people looked at us as if we were not serious; we didnt get much. On our way during one of these trips, I saw the new Innoson Vehicle Motor; we quickly went in but were redirected to their offices in the East. I immediately raised cash and traveled to Nnewi to the Innoson Factory. I was told to go to Enugu, so I jumped the next bus and headed to Enugu. I spent 2 days waiting all-day in the reception without being able to see my target: the Chairman/CEO, Chief Innocent Chukwuma, as he was very busy with them working on the orders they had then. On the third day, I was determined that come hell or high-water, I would see him today. I took up my seat again in the reception, but this time I faced the second door which overlooked the factory entrance. Immediately I saw him, I made my move. I dashed out and through the door before security could do anything. Immediately he saw me working briskly towards him and the security scurrying after me, he waved them off and asked me to come ahead. I explained to him our predicament (the need to raise 100 air-conditioned buses for the BRT project). As he got more intrigued by the discussion, he took me into the factory with him and showed me around a bit, while listening to my propositions. I explained to him our inability to buy the buses or raise the 20% down-payment required to get the buses from a bank. I offered him to own a portion of the company and also give the company the buses on hire-purchase scheme. He then gave me the piece of best news ever: that if we are able to secure the deal, that he would give us buses we need.
With the bus challenge resolved, we came to the next mountain: HOW DO WE GET THE BIDDING DOCUMENTS? This required a down-payment of #250,000.00 (Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira) from the Ministry responsible. We had no clue how to raise that money and the deadline was fast approaching. Undeterred, we kept pushing. We visited the two main bodies responsible for the BRT scheme then, LAMATA and LAGBUS, to ask technical and other questions. Our enquiries were really direct and our audacity did open some doors, as we got to know some of the senior staff who were really impressed with our guts.
But we still had the problem of #250,000.00. One fine morning, Timothy and I visited his elderly mum who worked as a junior staff at one of the Ministries at the State Secretariat in Alausa, Ikeja. During the ensuing introductions and conversation with some of her colleagues, we mentioned we were in the BRT bid and one of them told us that the office were the bid documents was allocated was in the Ministry in the next building. A light went off in my head. I dragged Timothy with me across and up to the next building; all I could see in my head was the documents. I was bent on getting them, whatever way possible. We found the right office with a sizeable crowd in it waiting to see the Commissioner. We looked out of place in our worn trousers and plain shirts; sitting in the midst of polished and well-dressed business people all waiting to either submit their bids or purchase the bidding document. We sat there for the next 3 hours, as people went in and out of the Commissioner’s office.
The secretary treated us dismissively; you won’t blame her, we looked like lost tramps. After several hours of waiting on an empty stomach, our patience was worn thin. My partner left several times, but came back in frustration when I refused to budge. I was determined to wait there till close of work, if only to see the Commissioner. And then a miracle happened: the Commissioner came right out of his office to escort one of the guests. He walked her entourage right outside to the staircase and then came back. I knew it was now or never; I damned every consequence and jumped in front of him. He stopped in shock and before his staff or security detail could react, I had started pitching our company and why it was essential we were allowed to bid. With a wave of hand, he stopped his security personnel who were already advancing to take hold of me. For the next 5–7 minutes, he then dived into an intense Q and A session, asking some serious technical questions regards running a successful BRT project. And I was prepared; since I didn’t have money, I spent a lot of time studying the implementation of BRT in several South-American countries including Brazil.
I could see the smile of wonderment on his face; he was silent and looked at me deeply for a few seconds. He then signaled to his secretary to bring him one of the bidding document packs. She did, and handed it over to him. He told her to note down that he was paying for that pack; then he brought out his card and handed it and the bidding pack to me. He said to me “I’m impressed. I’ll be looking forward to see your bid”. And with that, he bid me farewell and walked back into his office.
With all eyes on us, Timothy and I left in a daze. Did we just get this document free of charge, which better-equipped, better-funded companies struggle and lobby to get? We didn’t speak more than 10 words between us from Alausa all the way back to Ojo where we stayed; it was when we got home and opened the envelop and saw all the bid documents right in front of us, that the floodgates were opened and we both cried. Through the tears, we sang and prayed and thanked God; this was a miracle we were not expecting. I learnt a big lesson concerning God’s provision that day; our plans had been focused on how to raise the #250,000.00 and then find someone who knew someone who would help us get the documents. But God had other plans. After that day, I have learned to trust that what God starts, He will finish despite whatever current obstacles or challenges may stand before us.
Unfortunately, I would have loved to tell you it all ended well and we won the bid and we had an amazing company launch; but it didn’t work out that way. But I learnt valuable lessons in partnership and team, being passionate about solving a problem and throwing your whole heart and soul after it; failing forward despite excruciating and debilitating defeats and obstacles. Marrying passion to purpose is crucial; because that is the only thing that would keep you sane and committed to pursuing the dream and persisting to solve the problem you are focused on when all around you is falling apart. This is essential, some may wonder why I left my field of tech and was pursuing after transportation. The truth is: I was solving a problem for myself: THE FEAR OF ONE-CHANCE. During my last few months in Zinox, I was unfortunate to be a victim of one-chance and I lost a lot of personal and corporate effects: 2 laptops, 4 phones, 1 external hard drive and some sizeable money. I had just finished paying for my company issued laptop (deducted over 6 months from my salary) and had bought a new HP laptop with fingerprint (a new feature then, for coding and other stuff) and the just released Sony Ericsson P1. Along with an older phone I had and 2 company CUG lines, I was stripped bare. Fortunately, I was the only passenger the robbers treated with some respect and deference; maybe because I gave them a huge loot, was dressed in a suit and kept my calm throughout the whole robbery process. Most of the other passengers, including 2 elderly women who were on their way to the market, were tossed out of the bus while it was on high speed. I was kept as the last passenger, and when we got to the police station at , they slowed down, told me “Oga no vex”, gave me #100.00 to continue my journey and asked me to drop. I stood transfixed for the next 5 minutes after they had gone, trying not to freak out at how much I just lost, wondering how the other passengers they threw out were faring, but grateful I was alive and in 1 piece. I continued to work, got in and went straight to my seat. I avoided everyone, including our MD then Mrs Vivian Abii, until the Chairman came in and asked me to prepare some documents for him. I then told him what happened, he sent for Mrs Abii, asked a report be filed and approved a laptop replacement for me.
The mental scare that experience caused made me determined to provide a safer, alternative transport service for professionals/workers specifically and Lagosians at large. Pulling an extract directly from the business proposal for TAG Travel and Tours, below are our Vision and Mission.
Our Vision is “to be a dominant player in the transport industry through the provision of secure, affordable, comfortable and timely world-class transportation facilities and thus becoming the customer’s first choice for all their transport needs”.
Our Mission is “to satisfy the security, punctuality, comfort and affordability transport needs of all cadres of peoples, providing the highest standard of (professional and efficient) service using an indigenous and highly motivated workforce”.
This was the itch I was trying to scratch, for myself and hopefully for others. The second and subtler reason for my daring attempts was as a cure to heartbreak. While in Ghana, I had loved and lost; it was like a tornado — it gripped me with such force, it swept away every other thing and then it left me sated and dry like a man dying of thirst in the wilderness
While our journey to TAG continued, I had some family matters to also attend to. My elder sister, Ogechi, was getting married to the love of her life, Tomiwa Akinola, in London. In early March 2011, I applied for my British visa in Lagos and got denied. To appeal, I needed to go to Abuja and interface with a lawyer. My siblings, who were all very eager for me to come abroad, had to fund this as I was flat broke. After gathering all my documentation, I traveled to Abuja in late May to meet the lawyer and we filed the appeal. I was asked to come back the next week, which I did. To cut a long story short, the British embassy kept me waiting for 6 weeks, as I was always asked to come back the next week. I could not travel back to Lagos as I had no funds. As July 7, the date to the wedding drew closer, I started panicked. A friend of my dad I was supposed to travel down with, came into Abuja on July 4th, I escorted him to the embassy on 5th, and his visa was ready by Friday 6th; I still went to the embassy with him, with hopes that a miracle would happen. Alas, it did not; and he traveled to London alone, taking a night flight so he could be in there by the morning.
I went into depression that night, as I could not understand why God would allow me still miss this opportunity, after all I had been through. I was in bed all through Saturday, refusing to take any of the international calls from my family members. It was really a brutal body blow. The greatest irony was that on Monday, 9th July, I got an SMS from the British embassy to come collect my passport as my visa had been approved. I experienced a whole range of emotions, from outright livid rage to self-pity to even anger against God. In petty rebellion, I refused to go collect my passport; that the embassy could hold it since they loved it so much, lol. I had to leave Abuja to return to pursue our business, so I grudgingly went to collect the passport and returned to Lagos.
Things were pretty much on a standstill when I returned to Lagos. We met regularly at the workplace in Ogudu but we couldn’t do much without funds. Timothy and I watched our dream dying before us for lack of funds, and it was a really painful process. I learned how a parent felt when you watch your child suffering and dying slowly in your arms; and having done all in your power, there is nothing you could do further to help but just watch and mourn. It was not pretty, and I woke up every day with a throbbing pain in my left side, just below the ribs.
I got a call late August to come to Abuja to design a website for a client; I had no option but to go. Already the relationship between my partner and I were straining due to lack of funds and an inability to push further. And I was tired of depending on the gentleman housing us for transport whenever I had to go out. So I left. I stayed with a friend at the staff quarters of Nackovad Hotel in Wuse Zone 3; it was a tiny, cramped room that required one of us to sleep on the floor but I was grateful for the free food, bed and unlimited internet. Meanwhile, the client I had come to see backed down from the website job on the grounds that it was too expensive. I was very annoyed; this man made me risk my life to travel from Lagos to Abuja only to back off now. And worse, I came with a one-way ticket, expecting to buy my return ticket from the first deposit he would make. All that just went up in smoke; I was once again stuck in Abuja
October 5th, 2011. I woke up to the sad news of Steve Jobs death. I practically hero worshiped him, so it was a very bad day for me. I scoured the internet for all the information I could get, and mourned him in my own way. Suddenly I had a call, it was from the UK, Mr Ayoola Bankole who had given us office space to use at Ogudu. After enquiring into how I was faring, he told me that Virgin Atlantic was celebrating their 10-years anniversary in Nigeria and were doing a 50% discount on flights for the next 3 days; and that I should quickly book a ticket since I had an active visa.
So on October 20, 2011, approximately 30 years after I was unceremoniously returned to Nigeria as a 7-month foetus (because my Dad was in a hurry to return home after his studies) and thus denied the opportunity to become a British citizen as my 2 elder sisters, I made my return to the UK.
2011 was my 30th year; and it was my year of being in the crucible. It was that turning point where I went from the wilderness years, to a purpose driven life.
TALK ABOUT TRIP OUR PROJECT BEING POSITIONED LIKE A CURRENT DAY UBER with snacks, audio messages etc TALK ABOUT BAYO AND SLEEPING IN CROSS COUNTRY
2013 became a pivotal year for me, as a man, a protege and an employee. I would always remain indebted to the guidance, love and mentorship of Mr Ayoola Bankole of AK Banks Consulting and Mr Joachim Adenusi, the CEO of ConradClark. Their faith in me helped bring me back from the brink of self-destruction due to the battles within and without. After a lot of foot dragging and severe personal losses, including all my investments in transportation and land in Lagos, on January 3 in 2014 I returned to Aba, the city of my childhood, with only #1,500.00 (One thousand five hundred naira).
January 7th, the Federal Govt reopened applications for the 3rd edition of YouWIN. I submitted my application on the last day (January 28) and in April, we were announced as one of the winners. After a rigorous selection process, we made it to the final round and we’re awarded #8m (Eight Million Naira) to establish a tech hub.
With a plan developed through the YouWIN process, I knew WHAT I wanted to do; the 2 challenges before me were now the HOW to get about it and the RESOURCES needed to actualize it. I prayed and hoped that the YouWIN grant will come through to resolve the RESOURCES challenge, as there was no other means. I was still broke, living in my parents house in Umuahia and they were both retired civil servants whose pensions were not coming regularly. I was in this hard place of hopelessness that fuels desperate action.
I had a cranky old laptop and could barely manage to buy subscription. I spent my days preparing the curriculum for the program I wanted to run in the school, while waiting. I was torn in several directions: I loved Ruby-on-Rails but it could only serve for web development; C# was also great, but web development meant learning ASP.NET Web Forms (and I dreaded it); my affair with Java had gone cold, but it seemed the only alternative because of mobile development with Android. And then something happened: during one of those days of research, I came across an advert on Google by HackReactor announcing their first remote beta course. I was ecstatic; it was perfect. Their course curriculum centered just around JavaScript (with whom I had a love-hate relationship, with the hate part clocking like 99.85% on the Ritcher scale); but it would give me the ability to do all I wanted to do (web, mobile, server, desktop) in 1 language. I then visited their site and almost had a heart attack: the tuition fees was north of $12,000.00 (Twelve Thousand Dollars); I would need to sell myself and my 2 retired parents to afford this o. Not to be deterred, I applied; not hoping for much in terms of scaling through the interview process or the giant mountain of the fees. I conditioned my mind with the reasoning that when YouWIN paid, I will payoff the fees as part of course development.
Interestingly, I was called for the first interview. It was a late evening call due to San Francisco being on the Pacific Timezone, which made them about 8–10 hours behind. I scaled that interview and a few days later, I got a call from one of the co-founders who has become a lifelong friend — Shawn Drost. He was excited as much as I was, because I was their first student from Africa and they wanted to know how the experience would go. After our discussions, I was put through to the final stage of the interviews, which was to build some apps. I worked tirelessly to meet the deadline, but internet wahala almost cost me the spot. I had completed my tasks but could not upload; and the deadline was fast approaching.
On the date of the deadline, after several failed attempts, I reached out to Shawn to explain my predicament. While we were talking, the deadline reached, I was sent a message that I didn’t meet up so won’t be a part of the class and all my access to their platform was immediately revoked. I almost went crazy. About an hour later, Shawn called back that he had sorted all things out and I should join the class. I got a welcome email along with a link to the Google Hangouts where they were running orientation for my fellow students. We had people from Hong Kong, the Bahamas, Europe (I think), Africa and the US. Unfortunately, the young chap from Bahamas, who was in my opinion the best developer in our class, passed away last year in his mid-twenties, leaving behind a young family.
The next 3 months went by in a blur. Classes ran for almost 14–17 hours a day and because of the timezone difference, it meant my classes started around 5pm and will run to about 8am. Add to this mix the constant power blackouts due to NEPA and her numerous name changes; the fluctuating data networks that made it compulsory to have more than 1 network at any time; being broke; and having a laptop that had it’s own sinister agenda — it failed more times than I can remember. At other times, the laptop batter will run out of power while classes were going on; and without any means of charging up, I’ll gladly go to bed.
That I survived this period was a miracle. Sometimes I fell asleep while lectures were going on in the group conference call; on one hilarious occasion they screen-recorded me sleeping and snoring away while lectures were going on :(, the laughter the next day was so interesting. But you won’t blame me, this was 2am, there was no electricity and I was using the a rechargeable lamp to provide illumination.
I am indeed really indebted to Shawn Drost; he kept calling to encourage me to press on and on one occasion, he brought his co-founder and the then-CEO of HackReactor on the call, Tony Phillips. In 2018, Shawn got married to his longtime girlfriend and invited me to the wedding. Unfortunately, the American embassy had other ideas, so I was sadly not able to go :(
They wrote an amazing article about me on their blog http://bit.ly/hackreactor-chibueze-ukaegbu and this period truly helped me define myself as a developer and a trainer of developers.
The many difficulties I faced between July and October 2014 while running the HackReactor program further helped me to understand and appreciate the terrain for running business in our country
On January 12, 2015, the YouWIN grant first tranche of 15% was paid; on May 28th, while the farewell dinner was going on, His Excellency Goodluck Ebele Jonathan gave us a parting gift by paying the 2nd tranche of 60% while the last tranche of 25% was paid by the succeeding government 1 year later in May 2016.
The YouWIN fund served as seed money to acquire the infrastructure and sustain the company for the first 2 years of dryness in Aba. Those years were enough to discourage and shatter my resolve. With a tag line of Grooming Craftsmen and Software Engineers, our goal was to introduce advanced software development skills to young people in the South-east. Alas, we faced rejection even by the market and the people we came to serve, who believed that our programs were too advanced and too expensive and they would rather travel to Lagos and Port Harcourt to do the very same courses. We had high staff turnover, on 2 occasions, I had all my staff resign on the same day. Those were really heartbreaking times, but we kept pressing forward. But the experience and funding helped us discover and do what we loved the most: running free coding programs for children in primary and early secondary school.
2017 started a new phase for us, with 2 key projects: one for the Abia House of Assembly and the second, a 10 month remote contract job with Telios Support Services (TSS) where we were part of a team that built the web, mobile and backend platform for a financial services client based in the UK. This has still been one of our biggest and most challenging projects; and served as the catalyst for some of the best friendships I have made including the CEO of TSS — Muyiwa Akin-Ogundeji and his partner Adebowale Phillips. It was also on that project I met the amazing Oluwadaser David or Daser the Laser as we called him; the CEO of NHub (the coolest tech platform in the North-central, based in the beautiful city of Jos) and currently the Director General of the Plateau State Information Technology Agency (PSITA). 2017 was also the year I spoke at my first TEDx event — TEDx Aladinma in Owerri, put together by Emeka Ulor, the managing partner at Tritium Communications. There, I shared the stage with some amazing people including Kennedy Ekezie, the now 20-year old founder of Africave, a platform with the vision to train great leaders and entrepreneurs from Africa.
2017 wrapped up with a visit by Techpoint Africa, Nigeria’s leading tech information platform. We had the pleasure of hosting their superstar team, led by Wale and Muyiwa, for 3 days; it was all shades of awesomeness, especially the culinary portions. Their amazing write up on us, done by Ifeanyi, led to more publicity and many open doors. You can find the article here. Their trip coincided with the first Google Deve Conf to be held in Aba, which drew in an amazing number of Developers and tech enthusiasts. Championed by the cool guys at RAD5 Tech Hub (Nnanna and Igwe), the event was an incredible success. I sat on a panel which was headed by another amazing influencer in the tech community in Nigeria — Aniedi Udo, the Program Manager, Developer Ecosystem for Sub-Saharan Africa at Google, and had other key figures in the South-east/South-south tech ecosystem like Uche Aniche of StartupSouth and Bruce Lucas of Olotu Square. The topic we discussed was centered on the tech ecosystem in the South, and it was riveting.
2018 led us to take another radical decision: given our desire to impart to our people and their unfortunate rejection, we did 2 things: we increased the scope of our software training course from 3 months to 6,and we made it a free internship. It sounded crazy, but 20 people signed up and 12 finished 6 months later. 6 went on to get amazing jobs while we absorbed 6 as permanent staff. These 6 laid the foundation for the amazing stuff we have achieved so far in 2019. But the cream of 2018 was being selected (out of over 2000 applicants) as one of the 12 finalists of the inaugural Google Impact Challenge, for the free coding lessons we run in primary and early secondary schools. This was a life-changing milestone for us, and started us on a accelerated upward trajectory.
2019 isn’t yet over, but has been our most amazing year yet; it has been a roll call of Rockstar hits:
We expanded our course offering include futuristic tech like artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, data visualization and cloud computing.
We currently have 2 Cohorts of about 36 interns (April and July batches) and a new batch of about 20 starting this October. With interns from almost 13 states, and applications from Kenya and India, the LearnFactory Internship is gaining national and international attention.
We acquired our own permanent place, the LearnFactory House, a 3-storey complex in the heart of Aba.
We have grown into 3 corporate bodies: a limited company, the LearnFactory Foundation and a 3rd company to be announced in 3 weeks when the registration is completed.
We brought on 2 amazing partners: Osas Otamere as COO, who I met at Enugu State University in 1999 and have had an amazing friendship of 20 years with. A banker of over 12 years. His experience spans Oceanic bank, Ecobank and finally FINCA MicroFinance bank which he helped grow from 1 branch to over 7 branches before his departure in 2018. He has helped grow our team to 15 talented and driven people, and brought structure and due process to the organization; something I have not been able to do given I’m more of a big-picture and restless dreamer kind of person. The 2nd partner is Femi Omotayo, a passionate educationist who will be running most of the activities of the 3rd company.
In partnership with NzukoLabs, we hit our biggest milestone for 2019: we were awarded by the Imo State government to train 34,000 Imo Youth in coding over the next 4 years. We are in discussions with several other states in the South-east and North on youth development initiatives.
We just clinched a major training partnership with one of the global big 4 tech companies.
We were visited by Tech Trends of ChannelsTV, and a feature piece is being done on us.
With the Google Impact Challenge funding, we established 15 computer labs in 15 schools in Aba (to provide a conducive learning environment for the kids) and are training over 8000 kids on how to code.
We got selected (again) by Google as one of their first implementer for the Google Online Safety campaign, charged with training 2800 students, teachers and parents on how to use the internet and digital media responsibly.
In partnership with Connack Foundation, we ran a 2-week coding Bootcamp for over 200 hundred kids in Umuahia where they were introduced to coding and web design.
We launched several initiatives: CodeEAST (a project to train 500k youth in coding over the next 10 years) and Women-in-Tech (a project to train 2500 women in advanced tech skills over the next 5 years).
This is the senior team that has made all the magic happen, and I’m grateful to them for believing even when it seemed crazy to do so: Osas, Isaac, Lawrence, Chidera, Chibuike, Favor, Bernadine, Shalom, Sandra, Ezekiel, Femi and Osese. Without you guys, there is no LearnFactory Nigeria.
There is still so much to be grateful for, but I will tell those stories by December 31st 2019.
No matter where you are now, hold on to your dream. By taking that step to start, and persevering when it look all hell was let loose, we have increased our sphere of impact and are touching far more lives than we believed we could.
I look at myself and my frailties, and all I can do is thank God for choosing an unworthy earthen vessel as myself to make this a reality. I cannot wait to see what He has in store for us.
To You alone, Oh Lord, be all the glory.
iC
Chief CodeSmith
