Aisha Pandor is the co-founder and CEO of SweepSouth. An online platform for booking, managing and paying for home cleaning services Sweepsouth is the first South African startup to be accepted into 500 Startups. Aisha did not start out as an entrepreneur, she is a scientist who completed her PhD in Human Genetics at the university of Cape Town. In 2016, Forbes Africa featured her as a top African millennial. In this episode you’ll learn: What growing up with parents who were deeply involved in ...
Feb 19, 2018•59 min•Season 2Ep. 30
Odunayo Eweniyi is the co-founder at Piggybank.ng She is also the Chief Operating Officer at SharpHire Global Limited, the organization behind Push CV, Piggybank and a new product in the pipelines. Piggybank is an online savings platform that securely makes saving possible by combining discipline plus flexibility to make you grow your savings to reach your savings target. The idea of Piggybank was born out of the desire to do something for people after they had gotten jobs (Push CV). The next lo...
Feb 12, 2018•58 min•Season 2Ep. 29
Chika Uwazie is the CEO of TalentBase. TalentBase makes it easier for businesses to manage their HR processes such as payroll, benefits, staff evaluation and time tracking. Chika joined the startup as the VP of business development immediately after moving back to Nigeria from the states. She has since then risen to the position of CEO and has gone on to represent TalentBase at 500 Startups. She has a lot of tips for young people looking to start businesses especially if you are just moving back...
Feb 04, 2018•1 hr 4 min•Season 2Ep. 28
Catherine Luckhoff is a serial entrepreneur. She founded her first business as a fourth year undergraduate. Her wide-ranging business acumen consists of business development, mobile, big data, music, startups and innovation in Africa. She now runs NicheStreem, an end-to-end solution for anyone including content owners, artists and music enthusiasts who want to launch their own audio/music streaming service. Catherine and her team raised 250,000$ in 5 days without a product. They are currently fi...
Jan 28, 2018•1 hr 6 min•Season 2Ep. 27
Olamide Brown is the founder of Flying Doctors Nigeria. Already, you understand how unique and important what she is doing is. Millions of people have lost their lives because they could not be transported to the right doctor or medical facility in time. Her sister, was one of these people. She decided to do something about it. Flying Doctors Nigeria (FDN) Limited is a Medical Emergency Service that specializes in air ambulance, medevac, remote site medical solutions, and infrastructural develop...
Jan 21, 2018•58 min•Season 2Ep. 26
On today’s episode, we have Demi Owoseje, founder of Majeurs Chesterfield. Majeurs Chesterfield specialises in “preloved” leather and fabric furniture. They also deal with brands such as classic twentieth century pieces. They’ve got a fondness for Chesterfield sofas, and pride themselves in delivering nothing short of stunning. Demi has an interesting story. She has excelled in a male dominated industry. In this episode, she weaves an interesting story about her journey and the defining moments ...
Jan 14, 2018•1 hr 1 min•Season 2Ep. 25
Temie Giwa-Tunbosun is the founder of LifeBank. LifeBank is a platform that makes blood available when and where it is needed in Nigeria. LifeBank has one goal… to save lives. In 2016, Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg found her work intriguing and rightly said “If she can actually pull it off, she’ll show a model that will impact not just Lagos, not just Nigeria, but countries all around the world.” She tells an enthralling story, particular is the “switches” she had and how they shaped who sh...
Jan 07, 2018•1 hr 41 min•Season 2Ep. 24
This is to introduce the Season 2 of Building the Future Podcast. One-on-one interviews with people who are using technology, entrepreneurship and innovative ideas to shape the future of Africa. This season is in partnership with the British Council Nigeria.
Jan 02, 2018•4 min
We have come to the end of Building The Future Podcast Season 1! It has been an interesting journey full of learnings and exposure. Season two starts next year, and already we have an impressive lineup of entrepreneurs as well as a special series planned I have given a bit of insight into what you can expect on Buildng The Future Podcast season 2. I look forward to sharing this journey with you!
Dec 03, 2017•11 min
This was a live podcast recorded in Abuja! Tola Onayemi is in the economic team of the office of the Vice President. He serves as a Special Adviser on the industry, trade and investment cluster by providing technical policy assistance. Tola is strongly of the opinion that crude oil is not the solution Nigeria desperately craves. He says, “ if we are ever going to take off as an economy, it’s not just oil.” This discussion dwells on progressively and sustainably making Nigeria and easy place to d...
Nov 26, 2017•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 23
Michael Simeon is the Co-founder and CEO of VoguePay, a user-friendly online payment system in Nigeria. Michael believes that to launch a product, it’s essential to research the market. In his words “You have to build something that fits for a purpose.” VoguePay is a multi-million dollar business that never received any funding or grant. In today’s episode, you’ll learn: How Michael’s sister influenced his decision to start Voguepay. She owns an e-commerce platform in the UK and wanted a payment...
Nov 19, 2017•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 22
Paul ziem is the founder and CEO of NerdCore, a digital entertainment studio poised to make very entertaining games, comics and other related products and services. Paul is of the opinion that gaming can change the African narrative. By the kinds of games developed, the storylines, the characters we can tell our stories and share our uniqueness with the rest of the world. According to Paul, gaming is the “new golf” CEOs play over drinks. In today’s episode, you’ll learn: Why did Paul move into g...
Nov 12, 2017•42 min•Season 1Ep. 21
#20, Edem Dotse Edem Dotse is the founder and CEO of Swiftly, a disruptive peer to peer platform making shipping affordable for everyone. If you are shipping a container, you can find someone to share your extra space. Sending a package by Air, add it to someone who has extra space or yet still collaborate to fill your shipment and share cost. Edem has a brilliant view about sharing. He thinks it’s pretty wasteful to ship a half-full container by sea or a half-full air package. In Today’s episod...
Nov 05, 2017•38 min•Season 1Ep. 20
Akin Jones is is the co-founder and CEO of Aella Credit, a provider of financial employee benefits. Aella credit is working towards eliminating the hassle of standard loan applications and enabling employees to borrow at competitive and fair rates through their employers. Akin Jones is one of the few startup founders that got multiple offers to join some of the best accelerator programmes in the world. In Today’s Episode, you will learn: Why Akin believes there is no real credit system in the co...
Oct 30, 2017•51 min•Season 1Ep. 19
Okechukwu Ofili is the co-founder and CEO of Okadabooks, a book reading and publishing platform that has powered over 14,000 books, 137,000 readers and a million book downloads. They have bootstrapped their startup for the past three years and are now in the process of raising money from investors. Okadabooks has gone on to become one of the biggest digital publishing site in Africa for authors. In Today’s Episode, you will learn: How the idea for Okadabooks was born out of Okechukwu’s frustrati...
Oct 22, 2017•53 min•Season 1Ep. 18
“Always provide a fantastic service” On today’s episode, we have Kendall Ananyi, co-founder of Tizeti which operates as Wifi.com.ng Wifi.com.ng provides unlimited uncapped internet to users for less than $25 per month. Kendall has an interesting. He has studied as an engineer and has worked with ExxonMobil, Microsoft, and PricewaterhouseCoopers. He started Wifi.com.ng in order to solve their personal problem. He wanted unlimited and fast internet. He was told by experts that the idea wasn’t goin...
Oct 15, 2017•54 min•Season 1Ep. 17
"Leadership is not about titles or positions, leadership is about solving problems." Oby Ezekwesili is a force. She was recognized by Time Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the world and by New York Times as one of the 25 Women of Impact for 2015. She was Vice President of the World Bank (Africa Region) with responsibilities for operations in 48 countries and a lending portfolio of about $40 billion. And also worked for as the Nigerian Minister of Education and later as Minis...
Oct 09, 2017•1 hr 31 min•Season 1Ep. 16
“No matter the rules, delivery is key” On today’s episode of Building the Future, we have Cecil Nutakor, Founder of eCampus. eCampus literally puts the classroom in your palms, giving you the power and control to self learn and explore at your own pace. Cecil is using technology to disrupt self-paced education in Africa. Cecil has an interesting story. He failed his senior secondary school certificate exams… thrice. He was written off as a failure. But he believed the system had failed him. So h...
Oct 01, 2017•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 15
“The customer is not just the king, he runs the business” On today’s episode of Building the Future, we have Oluyomi Ojo, Co-Founder of Printivo. Printivo is a DIY (do it yourself) web-to-print-to-doorstep platform. This startup is trying to redefine the digital printing business by offering consumers a radically easy solution for meeting their printing requirements. Oluyomi has always been an entrepreneur. Specifically, he has always been involved in the printing industry. He grew up learning f...
Sep 25, 2017•56 min•Season 1Ep. 14
On today’s episode of Building the Future, we have Afua Osei, Co-Founder of She Leads Africa. She Leads Africa is a community that helps young African women achieve their professional goals with engaging online content and pan-African events. Afua’s journey to entrepreneurship has been an interesting one: from working in the Office of First Lady Michelle Obama and working in other political campaigns to consulting for Mckinsey in Lagos and finally started SLA with fellow McKinsey consultant, Yas...
Sep 16, 2017•58 min•Season 1Ep. 13
On the podcast today, we have Michael Ocansey, the CTO and Co-Founder of AgroCenta. Michael runs an interesting business. Agrocenta aggregates small holder farmers in rural farming communities, and give them access to market, capital and resources. Agrocenta aim to sign up 1000 farmers and working on 1000 hectares in Ghana. And they are barely scratching the surface of opportunity! On This Episode You’ll Learn: How Agrocenta is using technology to make the sale and transportation of produce seam...
Sep 11, 2017•34 min•Season 1Ep. 12
On the podcast today, we have the CEO and Co-Founder of Paystack, Shola Akinlade. Paystack is a payments processing company which lets businesses accept payments via debit card or money transfer on their websites or mobile apps. Paystack was the very first Nigerian company to get into YC - which is no small feat! Shola is a software engineer by training and his foray into software engineering started when his uncle gifted him a computer. We discuss his journey as a developer, from being a part o...
Sep 04, 2017•53 min•Season 1Ep. 11
On the podcast today, we have Ngozi Dozie, Co-Founder at One Finance (OneFi). OneFi is a platform that provide access to finance by leveraging data and technology. One of their major product is a lending mobile app which enable people to get access to short term loans in Nigeria as quickly as possible. Ngozi has an interesting background…. he has First Class degree in Physics from Imperial College London. MSc in Computation from Oxford University. And MBA from The Wharton School. Before he start...
Aug 27, 2017•49 min•Season 1Ep. 10
Bob Collymore is the CEO of Safaricom one of the leading telco in Africa and pioneer of Mpesa, the world’s most developed mobile payment system. If there is any poster child of how innovative mobile technology is changing Africa, Mpesa will be a top contender. Bob was originally born in Guyana, but his work experience spans across diverse countries such as Japan, South Africa and the United Kingdom where he has held various senior roles in marketing, purchasing, retail and corporate affairs. It ...
Aug 23, 2017•49 min•Season 1Ep. 10
“One of the biggest mistakes online businesses make is to think that just because your service is delivered online, it means your customers can only be acquired online” Our guest this week is Marek Zmysłowski Marek is the cofounder of Jumia Travel (formerly Jovago) and HotelOga. is a hotel management system which enables hotels in Africa to have their own booking engine, websites and customer relationship management system. Earlier this year, HotelOga merged with Savanna Sunrise, another travel ...
Aug 20, 2017•1 hr 17 min•Season 1Ep. 9
“In business, emotions should play a secondary role and logic a primary one” Deepankar Rustagi is the Co-Founder and CEO at Vconnect, Nigeria’s largest online business directory and local search engine. Vconnect was one of the first players in the Nigerian tech ecosystem and has been active since 2010. This episode is a lesson on how to get traction for your startup by focusing on ‘One Metric that Matters’! It is very tempting to do a lot of things at the same time as an entrepreneur. Deepankar ...
Aug 13, 2017•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 8
Kola is the founder of Ventures Platform, an early stage fund and startup accelerator for founders across Africa. Within a year, Kola and his team have invested in over 20 startups through the programme. Kola bootstrapped his original business, Emerging Platform from idea to a significant success by mixing healthy dose of risks with grit. I met Kola last year, and we seem to immediately connect due to our shared belief in entrepreneurship as a viable way to accelerate growth potentials in Africa...
Aug 07, 2017•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 7
One of the major challenge for doing business in Africa is lack of data. It’s hard to get information about private businesses in the continent. There are lots of consultants and researchers scouting around the continent for every bit of data they can get on businesses. Rob Withagen used to be one of those researchers. Until he got stucked in traffic in a sweaty taxi on the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos. And then he had the aha moment. How about building a data platform that provides trackable ...
Jul 31, 2017•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 6
“Your product is only as good as its distribution channels” Mark Essien is the founder and CEO of hotels.ng an online hotel booking platform in Nigeria. With over 8000 hotels on the platform, hotels.ng is one of the largest online aggregator in Sub-Saharan Africa. He has raised over $2m from the likes of Spark, EchoVC and Omidyar Network. Mark is one of the most impressive founders I know. when I was planning to come to Nigeria in 2015 to get involved in the tech ecosystem, Mark dominated a lot ...
Jul 24, 2017•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Tayo Bamiduro is the co-founder of Max.ng. He is an interesting guy…. and I’ve got lots of time for him. I understand his business. My first startup was trying to solve similar problem. Max.ng is a hyperlocal, on-demand delivery service based in Lagos, Nigeria. Max.ng aims to tackle Lagos’ notorious logistics problem (traffic) using proprietary geotagging technology and also help reduce youth unemployment rate in the city. So about 50% of MAX’s Delivery Champions are below the age of 30. And the...
Jul 04, 2017•1 hr 28 min•Season 1Ep. 3
