“Nigeria does definitely pay lip service to it’s young and now is the time to trust them with our future,” the chief executive officer of iROKO, Jason Njoku tells me, as he explains his fresh investment philosophy with his other company, SPARK.

Something has certainly changed about Njoku. The man who, in a blistering clusterf**k of F words declared on tech forum Radar, that he doesn’t care about the local ecosystem, has now evolved an activist (in a very recent post that, interestingly, referenced this reporter) bullish about bridging the gap between young Nigerians and the opportunities that they need.

“It’s time for local Nigerians to get a chance,” he said. “Funded companies (today are overwhelmingly (run by foreign educated people. I would rather risk a younger person be at an interesting company in Nigeria today that I would for someone who sounds like me or is foreign educated.”

The foreign educated chief executive is learning from his experience navigating the local market. “I have never gone out and said iROKO is killing it in Nigeria, I’ve always been like it’s pretty sh**,” he insists. “Everybody thought Konga and Jumia were crushing it, but if you actually spoke to those at these companies, they’re not.”

What’s immediately responsible for this new conviction?

“ToLet.com.ng is successfully run by 4 local Nigerians and they are overwhelming the most underrated entrepreneurs in Nigeria,” he reveals.

But more importantly, it’s Njokiu’s steady evolution as a person – and in the full glare of the public. The man who started his business as a scrappy under-30 year old clawing through the cold of the United Kingdom has mellowed thanks to a wife and two children, as well as the inevitable passage of time. And, today, he is concerned about what future his children will face as Nigerians.

“The number one rule of Nigeria is that things will always get worse before they get better,” he tells me. “My kids are going to grow up in Nigeria so Nigeria needs to be better and I need to do something about that.

He is deadly serious: “I will do something about that.”

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