Akin goes to school

Akin goes to school is a legendary Nigerian novel read by all in the 70s and 80s. It told the story of a young lad who went to school and became successful despite the hardship of life.

The biggest lesson for me wasn’t how he overcame his adversity but the importance of education. Sometimes when you think you ‘ve had it all, it is time you rebooted.

I’ve worked for 9 years since I hung up my lab coat as an engineer, counting beans for 4 different financial institutions and at this time, all I want to do is kick back my chair and experience the thrill of learning again. I’m going back to my engineering roots to probably stick my fingers in some live wires and let some sparks fly. Ok, maybe something not as dangerous but let’s see what happens.

So I’m off work for 12 months and I’m going to let my hair grow long and wild. Gosh, freedom from the suit feels so great.

Author: Adedeji Olowe

Adédèjì is the founder of Lendsqr, the loan infrastructure fintech powering lenders at scale. Before this, he led Trium Limited, the corporate VC of the Coronation Group, which invested in Woven Finance, Sparkle Bank, Clane, and L1ght, amongst others. He has almost two decades of banking experience, including stints as the Divisional Head of Electronic Banking at Fidelity Bank Plc. He drove the turnaround of the bank’s digital business. He was previously responsible for United Bank for Africa Group’s payment card business across 19 countries. Alongside other industry veterans, he founded Open Banking Nigeria, the nonprofit driving the development and adoption of a common API standard for the Nigerian financial industry. Beyond open APIs, Adédèjì works deeply within the fintech ecosystem; he’s the board chairman at Paystack. Adédèjì is a renowned fintech pundit and has been blogging on technology and payments at dejiolowe.com since 2001.

One thought on “Akin goes to school”

  1. Learning is a life time process. It’s starts 4m birth to death and no amount of time or cash expend on edu.is a waste, so kéep d flag flying. yemi

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