TECHnically: Andela holds a special place in my heart – Celestine Omin

Celestine Omin is a name that will always be associated with Nigerian technology ecosystem. He was one of the first hires at e-commerce pioneers Konga, and has since left to continue growing that ecosystem with Andela. He spoke to TECHnically about the Konga years and his new direction.


 

Good afternoon Celestine, and thank you taking the time to speak with us on TECHnically today.

Thanks for having me.

Recently your 4-year journey with Konga came to an end. What are the main lessons you learnt while there?

I think the most important lesson for me is “Ignore the noise and focus on doing what needs to be done”. I remember when Konga just started, there was lots of noise and people coming up with different theories about why it will not work, without even giving us the benefit of the doubt. If anything, the company proved that if you ignore and focus on the most important things, you will do well. Secondly, not shying away from the hard problems because I remember when we started there weren’t so many courier services we could work with. That was part of the reasons the company started its own fleet and that on its own was capital intensive and it was enough for anyone to go home and say you know what, I can’t do this. Third thing for me, as cliché as it might sound one of the things that kept us going was keeping our customers first above all things.

Why did you leave?

This is an interesting question, first things first I didn’t leave out of grievance. It’s a case of every journey having a destination. I had done e-commerce for 4 years and I have an amazing journey and when something showed up in line with what I have always wanted to do. It made natural sense for me to move.

How did you get into Konga in the first place?

Sometime in May 2012, I used to live Uyo. My phone rang and the person on the other end of the phone who introduced himself as Sim Shagaya and said he is trying to do develop something called “Konga” someone recommended you to me and I am hoping you will have time to speak with me. He actually offered to come down to Uyo but I told him I will come to Lagos. 2 days after I was on a plane to Lagos. He shared the vision what he wanted to do with me and it sounded interesting. At the time it didn’t also help that I was very bored at my previous job and I wanted something more challenging. So, I moved to Lagos in June.

What kind of man is he really?

Sim is an amazing guy. He epitomises what a true leader is. He’s one of those guys that nothing can stand on their way when they want to achieve something and for me that was quite inspiring. He’s a hard worker and he’s one of those guys that you can learn a whole lot from if you are patient enough except you are not willing to learn. He is a very charismatic person.

During your 4 years, Konga was used a reference point for the growth of the ecosystem. Recently there was a lot of debate around some of your financial results and customer base, how did the debates around your numbers make you feel being an inside person?

I choose not to pay attention to it. For me I choose to pay attention to what is most important which is how to serve the customer better. Just like every other company people will always have opinions on how things could have been done better. Take for example Yahoo went down lot of theories came up, lots of experts as it were came out sharing things that could have been done to save the company; but you see it’s only the man that wears the shoe that knows where it pinches the most. You could sit outside and talk all of the fancy things that all the management could have or be doing but there’s a difference between reality and what needs to be done. So I never really paid attention to it. Yes I was very much aware of it but I never did allow it get to me. For me it was just getting the job done which was serving the customers.

If there was anything you feel you might have done differently or better since you were there from the beginning?

Truth is e-commerce is a new industry. Jeff Bezos has always said that Amazon is on its first page of its first chapter of an eight-hundred-page book. This is a company that has been in existence for 20 years, so that gives you an overview of big this industry is going to be. For me as per Konga, mind you there’s no playbook whatsoever in e-commerce in Nigeria and you can’t actually import things from abroad and think they will work, it won’t because you will need to deal with your own unique challenges. So, for me Konga did everything it needed to do at every point in time.

In recent years, there has been increased attention in Nigeria’s tech sector, there have also been government involvement. What will you say are the top 3 things the government could do to help the tech sector grow?

For me, first things first provide favourable working conditions for entrepreneurs in Nigeria. Secondly, think of how to you can improve infrastructure. It’s very important. Today if you are starting a company and after a few years you need to expand you have to start thinking of how to generate your power amongst other things that other people elsewhere don’t even worry about. If we can fix power, I know it’s a long shot but it will go some way to help. Also under infrastructure another challenge is internet. We live in Lagos, and we have a range of service providers to choose from. Once you step outside of Lagos you don’t have any other option except to rely on the telcos. Thirdly I think the government also needs to find a way to support the indigenous companies here. A couple of months ago the government outsourced the development of a database for all the cars in Nigeria to some companies abroad, why can’t we do that in Nigeria? Imagine the multiplier effect if the government patronize indigenous companies striving every single day to make ends meet. It won’t only increase the growth but also spur other people to come in into the sector. Another thing the government can do is look for a way to revamp the curriculum of the computer science students. With all due respects to my Alma Mater, all that I am doing today as a professional has no direct correlation with what I learnt in school. The computer science I did in school was last done in 1970. It doesn’t work that way. We will continue to fall short if things continue this way.

Mark Zuckerberg came to Nigeria recently what do you think that brought to the ecosystem in your view?

For me that was the validation that I for one needed. Of course, people would say why do you need a foreigner to come validate all you have done? Let’s look at it this way; for Mark Zuckerberg to come and identify with the Nigerian ecosystem for me it’s almost equivalent to Michael Jackson collaborating with any other African artiste. It’s that big. This guy runs one of the largest companies in the world. He didn’t send some of his guys to survey the lay of the land for him. He came himself, dined and interacted with us. That is huge. For me, it is an indication of where the world is turning to. Tech is not just some flashy trend but I know it’s going to be here for a very long time.

After Mark came to Nigeria, Bosun Tijani tweeted (CcHub co-founder) that lots of parents started sending their children to learn how to code. What does that show you? He has seen what is going to happen here, he has invested here, and has promised to invest more so that’s good for us.

You’re now senior technical consultant at Andela. Why Andela?

Andela holds this special place in my heart. I was privileged enough to speak to the very first set of Andela fellows. It’s something I always wanted to do. Andela believes that brilliance is evenly distributed, but opportunity isn’t. Just so you know, I applied and interviewed with companies abroad like Airbnb, and when I did that, I was told that we know you can do this thing, but we need to get you an H1-B visa, which is the visa that will enable you come and work in the United States. If you follow the system, the application ends April of every year, and you can only enter the country from October of that same year. If you miss that window, you have to wait for the next year. I waited for two years and decided to go do something else. That is a painful experience because some opportunities are closed off to you as a result of some processes, through no fault of yours.

Andela is saying ‘Look, we have these relationships with other business people, and we can give you that opportunity to come and excel and do things with some of the smartest people around the world. That is something very close to my heart.

Like I mentioned to you also, computer science education is quite lacking in the country, and this is one company that is helping to plug that gap, and that is something I want to contribute to.

andela1

What’s your specific role there?

Like you rightly mentioned, I am senior technical consultant at Andela, my job is to help Andela’s business partners to achieve their business goals using technology.

Since Mark came, have you noticed an increased interest in Andela?

Yes. I can tell you for sure that the number of applicants for jobs and fellowships have doubled in the last couple of months. So it’s an interesting thing.

Do you think the tech ecosystem could have a timeline where they say ‘Before Zuckerberg’ and ‘After Zuckerberg’ or something like that?

You could say so, but for me the pivotal point for this market was when Rocket Internet came into the country. That meant that Nigeria had something.

Was the learning curve steep when you got to Andela?

Not necessarily because it is technology, and technology is almost like a universal language. If anything, it took me just a few days to understand processes of the company.

Is Andela looking at expansion?

At the moment, we are exploring opportunities in countries like Ghana, so let’s see how that turns out.

Do people who apply to Andela come fresh, or do they have a computer science background?

It helps if you have – not necessarily a computer science background – an understanding of what technology is, its role, and you have dabbled in it yourself. It gives you an edge over the person who comes fresh. At Andela we first look at how smart are you in terms of raw intelligence, how quickly you can grasp concepts, and your work ethic. That’s what determines whether you will be successful at Andela or not.

We have had people applying from different walks of life like management all the way to social studies all the way to the biological sciences.

There has a lot of talk about the lack of developers and designers in the ecosystem. Some even say is it the biggest problem. Do you agree?

Yes. It’s not just a Nigerian centric problem. It’s a global problem. There’s a statistic that says by 2020, there will be one million unfilled tech jobs in the US alone. I can tell you today that I get requests every week from somebody saying: ‘I need you to recommend this or that person’. Yes, the scarcity is something we definitely have to solve.

How many people have passed through Andela since it started two years ago? Do you know?

No, I don’t

Given Nigeria’s issues with employment, what role can the public and private sector play in extending opportunities in technology across the country?

I don’t think it is something for the private sector alone. I see it more as a public-private partnership. There are lots of companies in Nigeria with experience in building successful consumer technology businesses. In that space, jobs have been created that did not exist 5 years ago. 7 years ago, no one talked about digital marketing, but today it is commonplace. I will speak specifically about computer science, because that is where I came from. If I were the government of the day, and I was looking to solve the problem of lack of qualified people, I would talk to successful companies in Nigeria’s technology space and get them to send their best engineers to teach one semester each, and their salaries will be co-paid for that period. For instance, you get four engineers from Konga, Truppr etc, and they each take one class: Years 1-4, you teach for one semester each, then when you’re done, you rotate the process. There is a world of difference when you are an industry practitioner and you teach, then having someone who reads from the pages of a textbook to teach. By so doing, the students can aspire to be like the person teaching them, and also can see someone who is doing it at the moment, and can ask real-world questions like ‘when you see A, how do you solve it’?

You cannot take away that experience. It is invaluable. There are lots of schools in Nigeria, almost every state in Nigeria has a tertiary institution, but I am not sure they have computer science departments. It could be a pilot programme for the University of Lagos, Univerisity of Ibadan, and Obafemi Awolowo University. Send people from companies to teach, and do an exchange programme where these students will do internships at these companies and apply what they have learnt in the classroom, so that by the time they are done with school, they are ready for the market.

That’s why I love the efforts of people like Gbenga Sesan with TENT. For me, you’re in school you’re building a business plan, by the time you leave school you have a working business or something that you can take to the market.

One of the finest engineers at Google is also a professor at the University of South California in Berkeley, contributing to artificial intelligence and machine learning, and he still lectures. Imagine the quality of conversation and interaction he has with his students. It is different from the guy who is just in academia.

What advice would you give young developers?

As cliché as this may sound, don’t make money your primary driver. I have had people come talk to me and say they want to become software engineers, but if you find out why they really want to do it, it is because of the glamour and perceived wealth. If that is your main driver, you won’t go far.

I toiled for 5 or 6 years before anyone gave me money for my efforts. It was pure passion. So, do tech because of your innate passion and you will be able to persevere. Being a software engineer is not as glamorous as it looks. It is sweat, because you spend days and nights trying to make something work, and if you don’t have the staying power, and you don’t know why you’re doing it, it is easy to quit.

On that note, thank you very much for your time Celestine.

Thank you for having me.

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