Tech Innovations and Businesses by Yorubas

Bus Stop
Founder: Emmanuel Adegboye 


Bus Stop is a transit application for navigating through African cities using public transportation. In Lagos alone, the current population is estimated at 25 million people and a major percentage of these people rely on public transportation for their daily commute.

The problem, however, is that the transportation system (in Lagos) is quite chaotic. Things are never the same. Bus times cannot be accurately predicted (There are actually no bus times! You just go to the garage or stand at a bus stop hoping to get a bus), bus routes change, new routes open up, prices fluctuate and all of this makes moving around a challenge. It’s even worse when you’re going to a new part of town.


This can be daunting for both residents and visitors. Every now and then, someone gets to ask around how to get to wherever it is they want to get to.

I do it a lot too, but I think things can be better organised. My first time travelling alone in the U.K., I wasn’t afraid I would get lost or anything because I had my routes planned out before I even left Nigeria. I was very confident because I knew exactly where I was going, exactly where to get the bus to move me around even from city to city, and exactly how much it was going to cost me.


That’s the problem Bus Stop is trying to address. We’re trying to understand the patterns in the seeming chaos and model the transport systems as is so that navigating using the app feels very natural and gives you an exact representation of the reality on ground.

Bus Stop is still in development, but we will launch soon starting with Lagos, Nigeria. There’s, however, already a lot of expectations and I know because we have people signing up daily even though we haven’t launched.

The exposure at the (MITx) bootcamp is important for me because of the mentoring I would get for my startup, the experience I would gain by networking with other entrepreneurs from across the globe, and the other benefits of being plugged into the entrepreneurial ecosystem at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The training at the bootcamp would also provide valuable insights into how to move my startup to the next stage of growth including how to pitch to potential investors and how to acquire customers. I intend to harness the knowledge and networks I would acquire to further develop Bus Stop into a product that is an integral part of how millions of Africans commute daily.


Prior to Bus Stop, I developed a web-based geographic information system for Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria. It is the first of its kind for any Nigerian university and for that I was awarded a fellowship to present a paper at the 10th International Conference of the African Association of Remote Sensing of the Environment in Johannesburg, South Africa.

- See more at: afkinsider.com/100782/spotlight-on-nigerian-tech-startup-busstop-seeking-patterns-in-chaos/#sthash.6INYyPfs.dpuf

Main Street Technologies
Owns: MainOne

Founder: Funke Opeke



Main Street Technologies the owners of Main One Cable and began operations in 2007 pioneering the submarine cable system in West Africa. Funke Opeke a 1981 Elect Elect Graduate of the Obafemi Awolowo University founded the company. Before founding the company she worked for Verizon Communications in the US and then returned to Nigeria to work for MTN and then Nitel (between 2005-2007)







After setting up the company she went on to raise about $240million (N38.4billion) from the African Finance Corporation and some Nigerian banks which they used to build the first private submarine cable system in West Africa - Main One Cable. By providing the backbone for which fast internet connectivity is run in Nigeria and West Africa the company is very well positioned to tap into the huge infrastructural gap and earning potential of the information technology industry. Soon, more funding will be required to continue its huge expansion drive and Nigerians I expect will be on the waiting lines to help out as equity providers.

-------------


“MainOne” (formerly known as “Main One Cable” or “Main One”) is a leading provider of innovative telecom services and network solutions for businesses in West Africa.



Since its launch in 2010, MainOne has developed a reputation for highly reliable services to become the preferred provider of wholesale Internet services to major telecom operators, ISPs, government agencies, large enterprises, and educational institutions in West Africa.



MainOne’s world class submarine cable system running down the coast of West Africa, state of the art IP NGN network, growing regional and metro terrestrial fiber optic networks, and data center facilities enable broadband services for businesses needing online connectivity solutions in West Africa.



Our network is interconnected and peers with leading operators and internet exchanges worldwide to provide global reach to our customers.

Interswitch


An idea ran through Mitchell Elegbe’s ingenious mind while still heading the Group Marketing and Business Solution at Telnet Nigeria in 2001. It was to build a system that would enable electronic transaction of money. A year later, Elechi had founded Interswitch.



Today, Interswitch not only has the infrastructure for online, real-time transaction switching and payment processing, its shared infrastructure has been adopted by banks, government agencies and corporate organizations to accelerate growth while reducing cost of operations.



The growth of the company and the future such growth holds encouraged investors to join Elegbe’s Interswitch success story. Helios Investment Partners, International Finance Corporation and Adlevo Capital acquired over 60 percent of the company’s shares in 2010, retaining the goal-getter, Mitchell as CEO and driver of the Interswitch train to the great future they see ahead.

How three Yoruba students created Nigeria's online jobs giant


Instead of slacking off, Ayodeji Adewunmi, Olalekan Olude and Opeyemi Awoyemi started an online job search company.

Five years later their start-up, Jobberman, has got a multi-million dollar valuation, employs 125 people, and is still growing.

Three students had time on their hands in the summer of 2009 when their university lecturers in Nigeria went on strike.
Instead of slacking off, Ayodeji Adewunmi, Olalekan Olude and Opeyemi Awoyemi started an online job search company.
Five years later their start-up, Jobberman, has got a multi-million dollar valuation, employs 125 people, and is still growing.
While Nigeria is Africa's largest economy it still has massive unemployment problems, in particular among young people who are also more likely to be connected to the internet.
Jobberman has become the single largest job placement website in sub-Saharan Africa, helping over 35,000 people find jobs within the last two years.
The number of companies using the site to find employees has grown from about 40 in 2009 to some 35,000 today.
Young Jobberman employees sitting in front of computers wearing headsets.



The company employs 125 people in Nigeria and beyond
Carrying between 500 and 1,000 jobs on the site every day, the founders estimate that there are about 1,000 active users searching for a job at any given time.
"The growth has been tremendous, it's at rocket speed. One of the biggest challenges has been to keep up with the volume of work," says Olalekan.

Overcoming fraud fears
However, there have been other challenges along the way.
"In the beginning a lot of people did not trust an internet-based business because at that time a lot of people were using the internet to perpetuate fraud here in Nigeria," he says.
But as other online businesses thrived and became trusted, so Jobberman thrived. Companies would dip their toe in the water with one or two postings and then when they trusted the site they would come back.


Olalekan Olude says he is proud because each job someone finds on his site Ayodeji Adewunmi with a Jobberman van helps support a household

In 2012 some of Jobberman's clients wanted to use the site to find workers in Ghana and so the company took its first work outside Nigeria.
Two years later it says it is now the biggest online job site in Ghana as well as Nigeria.



The company is now expanding its reach to Kenya with a partner called Brighter Monday. The partnership also gives it a footprint in Uganda and Tanzania.


'They found me'

Amarachi Apakama who found a job on Jobberman
Amarachi Apakama found a job through the site without filling out an application


Some people find a job through the site without actually applying for one.
Amarachi Apakama uploaded her details and was approached by a company to take the position of executive assistant at a mobile phone content company.
"That really changed my life," she says. "It was a morale booster. It helped my confidence - the fact that my interests and my experience put together such a good fit that I didn't have to apply for the job."
Multiplier effect
"It is incredibly fulfilling helping people to become economically empowered by getting job placements via Jobberman," founder Ayodeji Adewunmi says.
Africa's new entrepreneur branding
The BBC's business teams across Africa meet the continent's entrepreneurs who are starting up new enterprises and seeking to create big opportunities.
Read more: New Entrepreneurs
"One company recruited more than 80% of their employees through the site. Another time, a director was able to hire a former colleague in the United States to come and work for his company here in Lagos. All amazing stories."
Olalekan Olude adds: "If you put food on the table by virtue of getting a job for someone, that person also fends for a mother, or a brother and you create a multiplier effect within that household.
"And anytime we get to hear of such stories, we are very, very happy. It motivates us, it makes us look forward into the future and try and get more people to get more jobs."


www.bbc.com/news/business-29013286

Lot of Yorubas in Tech, I see. 

I'm not even done with the list of people. I just tire small ni. 

Welcome on board my bro/sis.