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Northerners, What Are Your International Achievements For Nigeria? - Politics (10) - Nairaland

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Buhari Doesn't Have To Debate, His Achievements For 3.5 Years Will Talk - APC / I Have Forgiven You, But You Have To Mend Your International Image~Obj To Atiku / Northerners, What Is The Plan Of The North For Nigeria? (2) (3) (4)

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Re: Northerners, What Are Your International Achievements For Nigeria? by salegella: 4:03pm On Feb 25, 2018
QuotaSystem:


Yahoo Yahoo
Drug trafficking
Italian Prostitution
419


Need more?
H

Plus Cultism,
Robbery,
Kidnapping and
Internationally giving Nigeria Bad name
Re: Northerners, What Are Your International Achievements For Nigeria? by Nobody: 4:47pm On Feb 25, 2018
salegella:
H

Plus Cultism,
Robbery,
Kidnapping and
Internationally giving Nigeria Bad name
babe factory , fake and expired drugs, brothels, rituals, greed, dishonesty,libyan slaves,
Re: Northerners, What Are Your International Achievements For Nigeria? by masseratti: 4:55pm On Feb 25, 2018
QuotaSystem:
This OP is clearly obsessed with the North smiley.

Two days ago he asked what plan the North had for Nigeria (assuming it had none), by the time he was provided with a bulletproof roadmap to progress (despite failing to acknowledge the failures that southern leadership recorded in the 14 years it was in power since 1999), he ran away from the thread without acknowledging the roadmap, only to cough up this new one.

To confirm his prejudice, he has now asked northerners not to mention Aliko Dangote who is Nigerias gift to the black race and one of its biggest exports and sources of pride - a Fulani entrepreneur par excellence and richest black man alive, greatest industrialist in Africa that develops countries with solid infrastructure instead of powdered drugs. His insistence on excluding Dangote clearly proves that he is not genuinely curious but just seeks an avenue to bash the north in order to air out his frustration.


Even though we have inventors like Jelani Aliyu (Chevrolet Volt electric car), world leaders like Amina Mohammed (Dep. UN Secretary General), the world renowned colourful Hausa architecture among others, indulging the OP further will only reinforce his bigoted tendency to open another senseless prejudiced thread on his crazed obsession - the great people of northern Nigeria.
dan gote ,is not a fula man but hausa

1 Like

Re: Northerners, What Are Your International Achievements For Nigeria? by cjrane: 6:11pm On Feb 25, 2018


Fulani generals have looted Nigeria blind, i think it's an achievement to turn Nigeria from one of the most prosperous countries in 1960s to a country with the highest number of poor people on earth in 2018!

I think the ONLY and most important thing Fulani achieved for Nigeria apart from scientific treasury looting through "snakes swallowing" huge funds was to bring hardened Jihadi terrorists from Somalia into Nigeria.

Then try to export their terror to United States and United Kingdom through Farouk Mutallab and others.

1 Like

Re: Northerners, What Are Your International Achievements For Nigeria? by chernest2002: 6:58pm On Feb 25, 2018
Nothing good comes from northern Nigeria.

1 Like

Re: Northerners, What Are Your International Achievements For Nigeria? by Amoto94(m): 8:03pm On Feb 25, 2018
Nasir Yammama
Re: Northerners, What Are Your International Achievements For Nigeria? by Nobody: 9:27pm On Feb 25, 2018
And many days after, the thread has not been comprehensively responded to. This has to be the most embarrassing thread ever on Nairaland since 2006.

This is far worse than doling out petty labels and name tags.

Damn undecided

4 Likes

Re: Northerners, What Are Your International Achievements For Nigeria? by QuotaSystem: 4:38am On Feb 26, 2018
Y0ruba:
And many days after, the thread has not been comprehensively responded to. This has to be the most embarrassing thread ever on Nairaland since 2006.

This is far worse than doling out petty labels and name tags.

Damn undecided

You're horribly mistaken.

The refrain from further submissions is entirely deliberate.


QuotaSystem:
Unfortunately what some of us don't realise is that even if 2000 names are provided they would never be acknowledged as satisfactory by the OP and his brood of trolls because the real motive on this thread is not to learn about our international achievers, but simply to reinforce the false narrative that northerners are underachievers who are unmeritoriously ruling the country the most (the predominant thinking in the East where unsurprisingly the OP and all his trolls hail from) so that they can whip up anti-north sentiments in the south. The author of the thread admitted this in black and white and that is exactly why they'd keep condemning and rejecting your beautiful submissions so they can keep saying the North cannot produce up to 20 achievers of repute. Inferiority complex at its finest.

But does this erase the achievements or their mark in history? Does this stop Aliko from being the most successful businessman out of Africa ever? Does this nullify Jelani Aliyu's patent certificate? Does this change the reality of the North's political, military and diplomatic superiority and prowess? The answers are NO.

In my humble opinion we can continue with the beautiful submissions to enhance our collective knowledge, but its best the trolls and their criticisms are ignored smiley. God bless Arewa.
Re: Northerners, What Are Your International Achievements For Nigeria? by remedick: 6:29am On Feb 26, 2018
Y0ruba:
And many days after, the thread has not been comprehensively responded to. This has to be the most embarrassing thread ever on Nairaland since 2006.

This is far worse than doling out petty labels and name tags.

Damn undecided
grin grin grin
Re: Northerners, What Are Your International Achievements For Nigeria? by remedick: 6:31am On Feb 26, 2018
QuotaSystem:


You're horribly mistaken.

The refrain from further submissions is entirely deliberate.


give it up bro. The North does not have much to showcase in this area.

Politics and food production is your forte.
Re: Northerners, What Are Your International Achievements For Nigeria? by QuotaSystem: 7:23am On Feb 26, 2018
remedick:
give it up bro. The North does not have much to showcase in this area.

Politics and food production is your forte.

You amuse me smiley undecided

Dozens of distinguished personalities of international repute have been offered but ridiculously they aren't up to "your spec"?

So Amina Mohammed that wasn't acknowledged, who is Dep. Secretary General and 2nd in command at the United Nations is not of distinguished international repute and is not up to "your spec"? Barkindo OPEC Sec. General? Can you see why your thread is a joke? Lol.

This is exactly why we stopped taking you and your thread seriously and started to ignore it, even though I personally smelt the stink and called you out since page 1.

Like I said whatever your "conclusion" is, it does not change the obvious realities.


QuotaSystem:
Does this erase the achievements or their mark in history?
Does this stop Aliko from being the richest and most successful businessman out of Africa ever?
Does this nullify Jelani Aliyu's patent certificate?
Does this change the reality of the North's political, military and diplomatic superiority and prowess?
Does the thread bring state police, resource control or whatever frustration that birthed the thread?

The answers are NO smiley


God bless Arewa

Re: Northerners, What Are Your International Achievements For Nigeria? by remedick: 7:39am On Feb 26, 2018
QuotaSystem:


You amuse me smiley undecided

Dozens of distinguished personalities of international repute have been offered but ridiculously they aren't up to "your spec"?

So Amina Mohammed that wasn't acknowledged, who is Dep. Secretary General and 2nd in command at the United Nations is not of distinguished international repute and is not up to "your spec"? Barkindo OPEC Sec. General? Can you see why your thread is a joke? Lol.

This is exactly why we stopped taking you and your thread seriously and started to ignore it, even though I personally smelt the stink and called you out since page 1.

Like I said whatever your "conclusion" is, it does not change the obvious realities.



when you decide to see things logically, you will get what I want. Later, I will list a few achievements of the South so that it will serve as yardstick cos clearly you all don't even get it up to this point.
Re: Northerners, What Are Your International Achievements For Nigeria? by Almaiga: 7:50am On Feb 26, 2018
Alikote:
Gen gowon the destroyer of bafian amry and their cohorts
Chaiiii, see finishing. Igbos will not like this. grin grin
Re: Northerners, What Are Your International Achievements For Nigeria? by remedick: 8:58am On Feb 26, 2018
Apple buys a Nigerian-owned ICT firm for $1 billion

UNITED States of America’s most celebrated brand, Apple, has bought Nigeria’s Chinedu Echeruo’s HopStop.com. According to The Wall Street Journal’s publication, AllThingsDigital, it informed that though the term of the deal has not been disclosed officially, but HopStop has been compared to Israel’s Waze, which was recently acquired by Google for $1 billion.

Founded in 2005, HopStop.com makes mobile applications for both iOS and Android that covers over 300 cities and that helps people get directions or find nearby subway stations and bus stops.

Echeruo, formerly an analyst at investment banks and hedge funds, who founded HopStop, is now chairman of the Board for the app firm.

The move, according to market intelligence, is seen as Apple’s plan to bolster its map offering especially given Google’s recent acquisition of Waze.

A serial entrepreneur, Echeruo, grew up in Eastern Nigeria and attended Kings College, Lagos.

He attended Syracuse University and the Harvard Business School in the United States and founded HopStop.com after working for several years in the Mergers and Acquisitions and Leveraged Finance groups of J.P Morgan Chase where he was involved in a broad range of M&A, financing and private equity transactions.

He also worked at AM Investment Partners, a $500 million volatility-driven convertible bond arbitrage hedge fund.

He founded and raised nearly $8 million for his two U.S. based Internet companies: Hopstop.com and Tripology.com. Tripology.com was acquired in 2010 by American travel and navigation information company, Rand McNally.

True to form, Echeruo is working on yet another venture but this time, focused on small businesses in Africa. According to him, “there is no reason why every entrepreneur should have to reinvent the wheel every single time in all the countries in Africa.

My idea is to essentially have one place where a budding entrepreneur can access a template for starting a business, and then customise it to suit their own situation; essentially, a business-in-a-box. Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, that designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, online services, and personal computers.

Its best-known hardware products are the Mac line of computers, the iPod media player, the iPhone smartphone, the iPad tablet computer, and the Apple Watch smartwatch. Its online services include iCloud, the iTunes Store, and the App Store.

Apple’s consumer software includes the OS X and iOS operating systems, the iTunes media browser, the Safari web browser, and the iLife and iWork creativity and productivity suites.

Apple was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne on April 1, 1976, to develop and sell personal computers.

It was incorporated as Apple Computer, Inc. on January 3, 1977, and was renamed as Apple Inc. on January 9, 2007, to reflect its shifted focus towards consumer electronics. Apple joined the Dow Jones Industrial Average on March 19, 2015.

Apple is the world’s second-largest information technology company by revenue after Samsung Electronics, world’s largest technology company by Total Assets and the world’s third-largest mobile phone maker.

On November 25, 2014, in addition to being the largest publicly traded corporation in the world by market capitalisation, Apple became the first U.S. company to be valued at over $700 billion.

Source: https://guardian.ng/news/apple-buys-a-nigerian-owned-ict-firm-for-1-billion/

Source: http://venturesafrica.com/apple-buys-nigerian-entrepreneurs-online-mapping-startup/

Re: Northerners, What Are Your International Achievements For Nigeria? by remedick: 9:08am On Feb 26, 2018
Nigerian Sets Record, Scores 5.0 GPA In Russia



The Federal Ministry of Education on Wednesday in Abuja honoured Dr Victor Olalusi who scored 5.0 Cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA) in Russian National Research Medical University, Moscow (RNRMU) in 2013, arguably the first in the world.

Olalusi, who was the best graduating student in the whole Russian Federation in 2013, studied in RNRMU under the Russia-Nigeria Bilateral Education Agreement.

Speaking at the event, Dr MacJohn Nwaobiala, the Permanent Secretary in the ministry said a lot of Nigerian students were brilliant but Olalusi was a genius.

He said Olalusi had become an ambassador not only to the ministry but to Nigeria and Russia.

“We have to search the Guinness Book of Records for anybody who has achieved 5.0 in a university. It is curious and strange that all those that evaluated his performance could not find reason to reduce a point from him.

“You should be the ambassador of the Federal Scholarship Board, Ministry of Education, Nigeria and the Russian Federation.

“I look forward to the day you will stand before the President to receive your honour. We have recommendations to that effect, ’’ Nwaobiala said.

He then urged Olalusi to continue to be a role model to young Nigerians and also called on him to explore opportunities in post graduate research.

In her speech, Mrs Ifeoma Agunwa, the Director, Federal Scholarship Board, said Olalusi made 5.0 GPA in all the courses he took in the seven years he studied Medicine in Russia.

She said “Olalusi never had a 4.99 GPA. Even in the Russian language class, he did not fall below 5.0.”

In her citation on Olalusi, Agunwa said he ranked as one of the best students in the faculty which handed him a place in RNRMU’s Hall of fame for academic excellence.

She said that Olalusi had registered with the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria and had the compulsory one-year housemanship training at State Specialist Hospital, Akure, Ondo State.

According to her, he is presently going through the compulsory National Youth Service scheme in Rivers.

Mr Artem Romanov, who represented the Russian Embassy, said that Olalusi’s feat was very significant for everybody in Russia.

Romanov said “Nigeria is blessed with abundant human potential which is officially acknowledged in Russia.

“It has been acknowledged in the Russian Ministry of Education that Nigerians have a lot of exceptional talents. Genetically, Nigerians grasp knowledge easily.

“Olalusi is a hardworking person. It is not easy to achieve such in Russia; it goes with talent and hard work.

“I urge you to engage your knowledge in the development of your father land.”

While showing his appreciation, Olalusi thanked God for his rare feat and also commended the Federal Government and the Scholarship Board for the opportunity given to young Nigerians to distinguish themselves.

Mr Olarewaju Olalusi, the father of Olalusi, said that his son’s achievement was as a result of hard work.

Olalusi said his son did not attend high class schools but normal public schools which spoke volumes of the standard of education in Nigeria.

He then urged parents to monitor their wards closely and make sure they were not distracted from their studies.

Source: https://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2015/07/29/nigerian-sets-record-scores-5-0-gpa-in-russia/
Re: Northerners, What Are Your International Achievements For Nigeria? by remedick: 9:13am On Feb 26, 2018
Nigerian Breaks Academic Record At John Hopkins University-PUNCH Newspaper

A 22-year-old Nigerian has emerged the best graduating student of John Hopkins University in the United States. He obtained a Grade Point Average of 3.98 out of a possible 4.0 to earn a degree in Neurosciences, SEGUN OLUGBILE writes.



22-year-old Nigerian has emerged the best graduating student of John Hopkins University in the United States. He obtained a Grade Point Average of 3.98 out of a possible 4.0 to earn a degree in Neurosciences, SEGUN OLUGBILE writes.

A 22-year-old Nigerian, Emmanuel Ohuabunwa, has made history at John Hopkins University, United States of America. Ohuabunwa from Arochukwu, Abia State, has done the nation proud by becoming the first black man to make a Grade Point Average of 3.98 out of 4.0 to bag a degree in Neurosciences in the university. He was also adjudged as having the highest honours during the graduation that was held on May 24 this year.

For his efforts, he has won a scholarship to Yale University to pursue a degree in medicine. Besides, he has been inducted into Phi Beta Kappa Society, a prestigious honour group that features membership of 17 US Presidents, 37 US Supreme Court Justices, and 136 Nobel Prize winners.

According to Wikipedia, The Phi Beta Kappa Society is an academic honour society. Its mission is to “celebrate and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences” and induct “the most outstanding students of arts and sciences at America’s leading colleges and universities.”

It was founded at The College of William and Mary on December 5, 1776, and thus it is the oldest honour society for the liberal arts and sciences and among the oldest undergraduate societies in the US.

In an online interview with our correspondent, Ohuabunwa, who was born in Okota, Lagos and attended Lilly Fields Primary School, Lagos, said he left Nigeria after his junior secondary school education at Air Force Comprehensive School, Ibadan, Oyo State.

“My parents moved the whole family when I was 13 years old. I was about to begin SS1 at Air Force, Ibadan. When I got to the US, I was enrolled with my age mates, which meant at 13, I was in middle school. I went to Fondren Middle School, which was in the middle of the ghetto. That was one of the darkest years for me because I encountered a lot of peer pressure. Some of the students, ignorant about Africa, bullied me and called me names such as ‘African booty scratcher’ because to them, Africans were dirty and scratched their butts all the time.

“Some asked me if I lived in mud huts and ate faeces for breakfast. I remember one day, when I was walking to the school bus, a boy came from behind and punched me in the face, called me an African and walked away. It took everything in me not to retaliate. I knew that God had put me in the U.S for a purpose and it did not involve fighting or selling drugs or doing the wrong things.

“My experience during that year gave me a thick skin. I learned to stand for what I thought was right even when the opposition seemed insurmountable. I also learned to look at the positive in all situations. Even though these kids were bullying me, I was still gaining an opportunity to school in America and nothing would stop me from making the best of this opportunity.

“The shocker was that the kid that punched me in the face was black. I would have expected the blacks to be nicer to me. Nevertheless, I don’t blame those kids because they were ignorant about Africa. All they knew about us was the stuff they had watched on TV or documentaries, showing primitive African tribes, living in the jungle and making noises like monkeys.

“In regards to the whites, there might have been some minor episodes but again I don’t blame them for it because it is a problem with stereotypes,” he said.

But in spite of this humiliation and racial prejudice against him, the first in a family of three was not discouraged. He faced his studies and was always coming top in his class. After he completed his middle school education, he passed the entrance examination to DeBakey High School for Health Professions. It was at this school that his interest in neurosciences and medicine started.

“By the second year of high school, we were able to interact with doctors, nurses and other administrators in the hospital. The more I learned about medicine, the more it felt like the thing God was calling me to pursue and by being in the US I got a lot of people to support me to do this. Even though in high school, I got to see first-hand what it meant to be a doctor. We studied advanced anatomy and physiology, learned medical terminology, and learned important skills, such as checking blood pressure, pulse rate, and many more.

“I knew I wanted to go to the best school in the US. I had heard that Johns Hopkins Hospital had been ranked the number one hospital in the US for the past 21 years and I wanted to be in that environment.’’

Worried that his parents might not be able to sponsor him to the university, Ohuabunwa purposed to work very hard. He did and when the result of the PSAT came, he performed so well that he won the National Achievement Scholar.

By virtue of this award, he received certificates of recognition from various organisations including senators from the Congress of both Texas and the US. He also received scholarship from the University of Houston; Rice University, Texas A&M Honors College and many more.

He had also won the Principal’s Award during the annual awards ceremony at DeBakey High School.

“During our graduation ceremony at DeBakey, I also won the Award for the Most Outstanding Senior Young Man and the student volunteer award for my volunteer activities in the State of Texas,” he said.

But his breakthrough came when he won the Bill and Belinda Gates Foundation full scholarship to any university of his choice. He worked hard and gained admission to Johns Hopkins University to study Neurosciences.

But why Neurosciences, Ohuabunwa said, “I studied Neuroscience, because I was fascinated with the brain, its control of our behaviours and how various diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, lead to a decline in its activity. I also minored in Psychology because I wanted to understand disorders in the psyche. What causes bipolar disorders or schizophrenia. I did not just want to label them as crazy but to understand what causes these conditions and how we can treat them,’’ he explained.

But what does he consider to be the missing links in the education sector of Nigeria when compared with that on offer in US, Ohuabunwa said unpredictable academic calendar, corruption, examination malpractice and inadequate funding were some of the problems confronting his home country’s university sector. These, he said, were absent in the US.

“There were a few problems with Nigerian higher education that contributed to our emigration in 2003. The first was the number of strikes that occurred in schools. It took my uncle seven years to graduate with a degree that should have taken him only four years. A second problem was the corruption. We had heard of people going into universities, because they paid someone to look the other way. I also heard of a few cheating scandals, where people would pay someone to take their exams for them or get a copy of the exam a few days before,” he said.

But is he saying that US university system has no such problems at all? Ohuabunwa said, “Although this sometimes occurs in the U.S, it is less common because of the strict security. I remember when taking the Medical College Admissions Test, test required before one can matriculate into medical school, each student had to get his fingerprints taken every time we entered and left the hall. The whole place was packed with cameras and security staff that monitored everything we were doing. The exam was computerised to make sure that no one saw the test before the actual date.”

Another difference, he said, is that America rewards hard-work while the system also emphasises on a balance between academic life and extracurricular activities.

On how he won the scholarship to Yale, Ohuabunwa said his 3.98 GPA in Neurosciences, and many awards he had won and God’s grace, contributed to his winning the scholarship.

“As at the time of my application for medical school, I had a 3.98 GPA of a 4.0. This made me the only black student inducted into the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa. I was also awarded the Becker Family Scholarship for being the most outstanding student in the Neuroscience major at Johns Hopkins University. Furthermore, by God’s grace, I took the MCAT and scored in the top five percentile.

“That, combined with my hours of volunteer service in different hospitals across the US allowed me to gain acceptance into every medical school I applied to, including Harvard, Yale, Johns Hopkins, Columbia, and Cornell. As the time came to make a decision, I had narrowed it down to Harvard and Yale. Both schools, I enjoyed visiting. Nevertheless, while my parents prayed, they asked God to give us a sign of what school to attend. A few days later, I received a letter from Yale Medical School, offering me a full ride scholarship for all four years. That was the sign from God,” he said.

But would he come back to Nigeria after the completion of his programme, he said yes.

“I am absolutely interested in the health care policy decisions in Nigeria. Because there are many changes that need to occur, I will not rule out the possibility of coming back after my studies, in order to join hands with the leaders to make these changes possible.’’

He added that his ambition is to become a medical doctor specialising in brain surgery.

“Two weeks ago, my grandmother passed away after a long battle with strokes. Even during emergencies, it was difficult for her to get to the hospital, let alone get treatment. This is a common theme not only in the health care system of Nigeria, but in different countries in the world, where the poor get neglected.

“Second, Nigerian hospitals lack the infrastructure required to compete with major hospitals around the world. It would be an honour to one day contribute to this transformation that is necessary for improvements in Nigeria’s health care sector,” he said.

He, however, advised Nigerian youths who have the wherewithal, to go abroad to study. Ohuabunwa also called on wealthy Nigerians to invest more in the education of the poor rather than in acquisition of material things.

Ohuabunwa, however, said that his parents, who he described as his greatest role models, contributed a lot to his academic feat through Godly training, counsel and guidance. He also did not forget the impact that his short stay at Air Force school had on him.

“I was definitely not the brightest at Air Force. At that time, I felt like I spent more time running away from seniors than focusing on my studies. Nevertheless, I learned three things at Air Force that have served me well in the US. I learned discipline, adaptability and resilience. These attributes helped me a lot in US,” he said.

Source: http://saharareporters.com/2012/06/25/nigerian-breaks-academic-record-john-hopkins-university-punch-newspaper

Re: Northerners, What Are Your International Achievements For Nigeria? by remedick: 9:59pm On Mar 01, 2018
This is the company that made Mark Zuckerberg step his legs ON THE soil of Nigeria for the FIRST TIME.

How Andela Was Founded – Iyinoluwa Aboyeji

Editor’s note: You probably already know that talent accelerator, Andela raised $24 million in a funding round led by Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan. What you may not know is that media coverage of the funding sparked a controversy on Nigerian Tech Twitter about its founding narrative. This morning though, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Andela’s co-founder set the record straight with a 5-minute read on his Medium page. Here it is, from the horse’s mouth.

Last week was a huge milestone for African startups.

A company jointly founded in Nigeria and the U.S. is getting a significant investment and attention from Mark Zuckerberg — one of the most important people in Silicon Valley. During such a pivotal moment, it is important for me to share Andela’s history and inspire many other entrepreneurs through my story of failure, success and collaboration.



In 2013, Ian Carnevale, Nadayar, Brice and I started Fora, a distance learning platform for African universities. We reached out to Jeremy Johnson because of the similarities between his company at the time, 2U, and what we were hoping to build in Africa. We met at his office in NYC and then stayed in touch. From time to time, I would ask for feedback and he became my mentor.

In early 2014, it became clear that Fora wasn’t working as we had hoped. We were unable to raise the capital we needed and I did not have the political networks to break through various regulatory barriers we faced. After a long dry spell chasing elusive investors in Nigeria, we finally raised a small round from Extreme Startups — now HIGHLINE.VC. (Marcus Daniels, I love you and I owe you forever). This round was small but it gave us some months of runway. I had two options — pivot Fora before the cash ran out or die. Many of you who are entrepreneurs know this moment too well.

At this crossroad, we reached out to Jeremy again to ask for his advice. He had just gotten back from a trip to Nairobi to give a talk for the MasterCard Foundation. He had been invited out by Christina Sass, now one of Andela’s co-founders, and while there, he started thinking of how one might scale high-quality education without charging tuition.

We met up at the Fresh and Co. on 28th and Park in NYC and I told him Fora wasn’t working. We kicked around a few rough ideas and he walked me through one which would eventually become Andela. He promised to personally fund us and join our board if we were willing to consider it. I told Jeremy to give me 24 hours to think about it and talk to my team.

My team was intrigued and inspired by the model, though it was risky. Ultimately, Nad (one of my co-founders at Fora) convinced us that the new model was even more aligned with our mission to empower young Africans to take back the continent through education. The next day, we got on Skype and told Jeremy we were in.

Initially, we figured we would just try to pivot Fora as planned — we even ran the first recruitment and bootcamp as Fora. However, we quickly realized that Andela was actually a totally separate company, so we decided to start anew and wrap up Fora. Around the same time, Jeremy realized that he just couldn’t stop thinking about Andela, and told us that if we were interested, he would leave 2U to co-found the company with us and lead it day-to-day.

I was very excited to have Jeremy join full-time as our CEO. First, I knew I could learn a lot from working with Jeremy. Second, 2U had just gone public and he was (and still is) easily one of the highest profile entrepreneurs in education. Raising capital for a crazy, unproven idea like ours would be a bit easier with him on board. I do not, for a second, regret that decision. As our remarkable success in such a short time has shown, it was the right move.

Shortly thereafter, we convinced Christina Sass, who Jeremy had originally tossed the idea around with in Nairobi, to join us as well and drop out of her PhD program at Harvard. (Crazy eh?)

At this point, we decided to wind down Fora and create a totally separate company, called Andela, with Jeremy, Christina, and the four co-founders of Fora — Ian, Nadayar, Brice and I. Brice and Nadayar were essential to launching Andela. In fact, to begin training the first Andela Fellowship Class, we bought Nad a one-way ticket to Nigeria with a few days notice. He literally up and left his life in Canada on a whim to make this possible.

Despite having to shut down Fora, many of our early investors continued to support us. Some, like Pule Taukobong and Idris Ayodeji Bello, even re-invested in Andela. Today, we joke (not really) that Fora’s early investors have first dibs on investing in my startups for life.

What am I getting at? Andela is a story of people from all over the world coming together to solve a problem. This is one of our primary strengths as a company, and in part why we have attracted investments from great people like Zuckerberg. There would be no Andela without all of these people — two Nigerians (myself and Nadayar), two Americans (Christina and Jeremy), one Canadian (Ian), and one Cameroonian (Brice) — making huge sacrifices to bring it to life.

Andela started in Lagos, Nigeria, in Mrs Titi Adeoye’s (shout-out to her!) vacant duplex in 33c Cameron Road Ikoyi, which she handed us for free for our first two months thanks to a hook up from Yvonne Johnson — an early Fora Investor. The early days were really rocky and we have a lot of people to thank for keeping us alive when it mattered most. I especially need to shout out Bosun Tijani of Co-creation Hub, who gave us free meeting, office and interview spaces, Mr. Oyedotun, who gave us his office in Fadeyi to use, and Mr. Eke, who found us a place to lease for a month on Connal Road, among other early Andela supporters. It is because of all of you, and many others, that we are here today.

Many people have asked why the parent company is based in the U.S. The truth is that while it is possible to build a global company from Nigeria, it is very very difficult. While I have faith that this will improve, Nigeria is still a notoriously difficult place to operate and invest in from a legal point of view. So, since it has always been more important to us to change the world than to make a political point, we incorporated Andela in the U.S.

It is important for my story to be told to inspire other Nigerian founders who can multiply this success. As Andela, we can always do a better job of highlighting our roots in Lagos, clarifying the role of our global hub in the U.S., and making sure our story is told correctly. I care very deeply about that, which is also why I am writing this. It is tough to make sure the press, across multiple countries, tells the entire story from our point of view in 500 words or 30-second clips.

Two years ago, who could have thought a crazy twenty-something-year-old Nigerian from a humble middle class family could co-found a global company from Nigeria funded by THE Mark Zuckerberg? There had to be a melding of people, cultures, and circumstance for this to all happen and I am grateful to have built an amazing team, partnered with supportive investors and worked with outstanding colleagues who have made Andela what it is today.

So let’s celebrate the history we have made and then focus on what’s important — building the future of this continent.

We have work to do.

Source: http://techcabal.com/2016/06/20/how-andela-was-founded-iyinoluwa-aboyeji/

Re: Northerners, What Are Your International Achievements For Nigeria? by remedick: 10:02pm On Mar 01, 2018
Andela, a tech training and development outsourcer for African coders, raises $40M
[img]https://tctechcrunch2011.files./2015/06/andela2.jpg?w=738[/img]
Andela, a startup that trains developers in Africa and hires them out to global tech companies, has raised $40 million in Series C funding.

The financing came from CRE Venture Capital, a pan-African venture firm, with additional participation from DBL Partners, Amplo, Salesforce Ventures, and Africa-focused TLcom Capital.

Previous investors, including the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, GV, and Spark Capital, also joined in funding what is now one of the most highly funded African company not based in Africa.

Andela says it will use the money to fund aggressive expansion plans — including the launch of two additional offices in other African countries.

But the financing comes as some local entrepreneurs have told us they worry about Andela taking money and attention away from other startups which are actually based on the ground in the continent.

The company was launched in 2014 to train African software developers and place them in jobs at some of the world’s top technology firms. The idea was to take an underutilized talent pool to help alleviate a global shortage of software developers. As the company notes, roughly 1.3 million software jobs went unfilled in the U.S. in 2016 alone.

Andela has built up campuses in Lagos, Nigeria, Nairobi, Kenya and Kampala, Uganda to train coders and then put them to work on projects for companies such as Mastercard Labs, Viacom, GitHub, and Gusto.

[img]https://tctechcrunch2011.files./2015/06/andela1.jpg?w=1024&h=683[/img]

To date, the company has hired 500 developers — which it calls the 0.7% — from its applicant pool of more than 70,000 candidates.

Andela pays its employees a minimal salary for the first six months after they join but gives them each a laptop, provides subsidized housing, and offers two meals per-day. That’s in addition to technical and professional skills development, leadership training, and mentorship. The company says it invests $15,000 in each developer during this period.

After the six months, once developers are promoted and begin client work, Andela says it pays a salary that is competitive within their local tech ecosystem. That goes up to around $2,500/pm in Lagos and around $3,000/pm in Nairobi.

Andela co-founder Jeremy Johnson calls the business a “mission-driven, for-profit company”. Indeed, he says Andela has “become a poster-child for that — that you can actually build businesses that create real impact”.

A slew of U.S. tech titans from Mark Zuckerberg to Steve Case have praised the company for just that but the feeling from some local African entrepreneurs is that Andela may actually be slowing the pace of the tech industry’s development on the continent. They argue it is taking badly needed tech talent away from the local ecosystem just as it’s getting started.

In a statement published earlier today on Medium, Seni Sulyman, Andela’s country director for Nigeria, rejected that criticism — claiming it is bringing benefits to the local tech industry:

“From their experiences building world-class tech products for our partner companies, they are preparing to elevate technology products built in Africa. While doing this, they are already contributing locally, through initiatives like TeenCode, which supports schools in preparing teenagers for tech-enabled futures. Our developers are the heart and soul of our organization, and they are the future of our continent. We’ve always believed in them; we’re glad the world increasingly does so too.”

To further head off the criticism that’s coming from more than a few corners of the African tech world, Andela is touting its partnerships with organizations like Google and Pluralsight to provide mentorship to developers — and also the open sourcing of its curriculum.

The company says the skills it provides to developers working at global companies will also make them better leaders of their local tech communities when they finish their two-year contracts.

“Over the past three years, we’ve helped prove to the world that brilliance is evenly distributed. It’s now time to prove that our model of investing in extraordinary people isn’t just viable but revolutionary,” adds Johnson in a statement. “Increasingly, African technologists will be launching high-impact companies and solving some of the world’s most pressing problems, and this round will help that happen faster.”

Johnson is right but the African technologists that he speaks of are launching their companies right now. Witness startups such as Pagatech and Jumia that could be, or already are, billion dollar businesses that started locally.

Competition to the Andela model is also coming in the form of the Moringa School, which places developers in local tech companies after they complete their training.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/10/andela-a-tech-training-and-development-outsourcer-for-african-coders-raises-40m/
Re: Northerners, What Are Your International Achievements For Nigeria? by cjrane: 2:55am On Mar 02, 2018
Alikote:
i know say u be bush man but i go help u free up your hate...Sarki A Abdulkadir, MD, PhD
John T. Grayhack, MD, Professor of Urological Research

Professor of Urology and Pathology
shocked shockedgrin grin grin cheesy cheesy cheesy cheesy
Re: Northerners, What Are Your International Achievements For Nigeria? by MrMaestro: 9:45am On Mar 02, 2018
So this thread is still going on abi? And no answer?

1 Like

Re: Northerners, What Are Your International Achievements For Nigeria? by Lightening: 12:09pm On Mar 02, 2018
jpphilips:


You are an illiterate to have said this, not only are you an illiterate, you exist in the darkest part of the globe.
You think there is PDP in OPEC to think the position was zoned? You must be cursed with ignorance.
Go and read how OPEC sec generals are appointed before disgracing the unfortunate sperm that brought you to life.

About his achievements, Barkindo is the reason your economy recovered from recession. If you don't know how he did it then ask your father.

Butterfly feeling like an eagle. Let me educate you: Positions are zoned to member countries in a round robin form. The government of the day nominates the officer of their choice to OPEC, who does not have any choice than to rattify. If it is by merit, who was the bagger before the undeserving appointment?
As for your insults, go look up your kind.

1 Like

Re: Northerners, What Are Your International Achievements For Nigeria? by Lightening: 12:14pm On Mar 02, 2018
jpphilips:


And you have been wasting your foolishness all these years when you had the chance to foolishly become a billionaire? Wow!!

A bull in a China ware shop spotted. You cannever remove this terrible reputation of the Northerners through insult. Facts are sacred.
Btw go get your mate to trade insults.
Re: Northerners, What Are Your International Achievements For Nigeria? by remedick: 3:50pm On Mar 02, 2018
Lightening:


A bull in a China ware shop spotted. You cannever remove this terrible reputation of the Northerners through insult. Facts are sacred.
Btw go get your mate to trade insults.
that man is an igbo man. Lol. Quite a rare breed honestly

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