Vibranium Valley Hosts Stanford University Graduate School of Business MBA Class of 2020

On Thursday, 12 December 2019, Vibranium Valley hosted MBA students from Stanford University to a panel discussion on Nigeria’s growing startup industry. The session had in attendance Bunmi Akinyemiju, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) [AB1] of Venture Garden Group (VGG); Obi Ozor, Co-founder of Kobo360; Oluwaseun Runsewe, Director of products Opay; Jide Adamokelun, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Cars 45; and Damilola Thompson, Senior Counsel, Legal, Compliance and Corporate Development at EchoVC Partners.

Welcoming the guests to the event, Bunmi Akinkemiju shared the VGG vision titled “Transforming Africa through Technology”. He explained that the transformation of Africa entails mobilizing capital, it is only possible to mobilize data, where there are transparency and automation in key sectors and data, is what we use to mobilize capital.

At the event, the panelists discussed the developmental work technology has done in the country in the last three years. For instance, Oluwaseun Runsewe said, “We (Nigeria) have experienced a boom in technology over the last 3years, of the over two billion internet users in the world, we have over 22million users in Nigeria today”. Jide Adamokelunsaid, “ In Africa, we have companies that want to solve fundamental infrastructure problems and that’s a win for us. To scale, you have to do something you have never done”.

Olamide Aladesuru, a student representative of Stanford University and the event anchor asked the panelists on the challenges they have faced so far. Obi Ozorsaid, “The challenge we have is the ability to really solve the African problem. There is no financial platform that can solve the problem kobo360 has. We (Nigerians) need the ability to scale to be able to attract the right investors. Here in Nigeria, while we face human resources challenges, getting capital is a little bit easier because our companies and platforms are beginning to become global. There is no money or social security in most countries so everything must be affordable for people to access them.”

When questioned on the sectors in which each panelist would invest rather than their present operating sectors, Damilola Thompson, said “I would invest in marketing/enterprise as you don’t really need to incentivize your target. They see the value in your commodity already”; while Oluwaseun Runsewe said, “If I were to invest in Nigeria tech it would be Agritech. This is because there is so much value given to a lot of people in this sector, especially those at the bottom/masses”.

They were also asked how they have been able to manage and maintain their relationship with the government to function effectively. Oluwaseun Runsewe said, “ We maintain a stable and continuous relationship with the regulators and the government. We (Opay) carry them (the government) along in our processes and keep in touch with them often noting their feedback”. Damilola Thompson said, “To function effectively, it is important that you know the law so as to enable you to know your way around the law. Having full knowledge of the law is key”.

After the panel discussion, the students had the opportunity to interact personally with the panelists for further engagements.

Prior to the panel session, the students were taken on a tour of Vibranium Valley with several of them expressing delight at the unique design of the space.