Influencing the next generation - a thread;

11 yrs ago I ran a Java bootcamp for 40+ students at OAU, Ile-Ife. For a number of them it was their first exposure to coding.

Today, Femi is a Software Engineer at Apple California, Eze is an Engineering Manager at Andela Lagos,

and Ibukun is a Project Manager at Advanced in the UK. I am unable to find everyone today but I ran two more bootcamps training 100+ students in total.

Femi’s story is quite remarkable as he studied Physics at the time and went on to do a PGD and Masters in Computer Science.

His words to me recently “Thank you for the seeds you sowed then. It started it all.”

I would later recruit a number of students for Pace & @iQubeBase - tech startups founded by @eolutosin & @Fowe.

Not many know that some of the best engineering talent out of Nigeria today were trained at those companies via their internships (please raise your hand on this thread).

Several other folks trained and inspired students to code back at OAU; @dejite, @dfasoro, @opeawo

Yinka Tanimomo, @RichardBoyewa, his group, and many others too numerous to mention.

Today, I am excited to see the likes of @DecagonIns, @hnginternship, and @forloopAfrica continue to raise awareness about the power and promise of coding.

The most important ingredient for becoming a great software developer is mentorship or community. The ability to learn from more experienced engineers.

We need to continue to build this talent base and it doesn't matter if we do it for-profit or non-profit.

Beyond coding, we need to democratize digital skills in Africa to enable our young people to compete in an increasingly global talent pool and most importantly build the global companies of the future.

How can we achieve this? That’s a topic for another day.

What I want to leave with is a reminder that we have power and we need to use it to influence the next generation.