If I build a model that can predict the rate of unemployment in Nigeria, and recommend interventions to bridge the gap, for instance between now and 2030, what would it mean for policymakers?

I always think of the last man.

In my work, there is a sense of responsibility that tallies with my own life’s purpose, in that in whatever I do, I am always thinking of who it is being impacted. From wanting to be a medical doctor, to a pastor, to a journalist, to a lawyer, a psychologist, and a software engineer, I have had to make several career choices in my life, driven by the need for impact. Today I am a data scientist with the Mastercard Foundation, a Foundation that works with visionary organizations in enabling young people in Africa, and indigenous Canadian communities to access dignifying and fulfilling work. As a data scientist, I make sense of the available data in the organization, in the thematic countries and organizations where we work, and in building and deploying analytic solutions. I always think of the last man while I do my work, with heart and soul knowing that what I do will impact the lives of young people in Africa and Canada.

“One’s background must not put one’s back on the ground”

You know how there is that saying that “one’s background must not put one’s back on the ground”, this statement aptly describes how I grew up. My parents lived in Abeokuta, a “room and parlor” in my grandma’s house, and although it felt like nothing was going to come out of our lives, my parents believed that even if they didn’t have much, it was a must to give their children education. Being the first of five children, I was able to attend a fairly good primary school and secondary school, wanting to become a medical doctor.

I did not consider my background when I decided to be a medical doctor. I came to a decision because one time when I was in primary school, my little sister was ill and admitted to the hospital, I saw how passionate the doctor was in taking care of her, doing his job with heart and soul, it made me think in my heart “these people are lifesavers, I am going to be a medical doctor too!”

A pastor in my neighborhood

Not long after this, I changed my mind and was going to become a pastor. I was always intrigued by how the pastor taught with so much gusto anytime I went to church with my family, so much so that I decided to start my own house fellowship. I would assemble all the children in my agbole (yoruba for neighborhood), sit them down, and preach to them; I was a pastor in my neighborhood. I had a pulpit and my sermon was always a regurgitation of what I learned at Sunday school in the church. Asides from the fellowship, I and my siblings taught ABCs and 123s to the smaller children in the group who didn’t have the privilege of going to the kind of schools we went to. “Oya, oya, oya o, e wa se lesson” (yoruba for “Hey, come for tutoring) was how my siblings always called out to them. I knew I was rather average academically, but I was willing to teach the children and even today, my motivation still hasn’t changed, I didn’t want to leave anyone behind.

A spark of brilliance

In the second year of my junior secondary school, something happened that would become a redefining moment in my life however ridiculous it may sound. 

We had organized a class party and needed to make some electrical connections for the Christmas lights. As the son of an electrical engineer, I wanted to help out and connect a bulb to a wire. Unknown to me, there was a naked live wire I didn’t see, which tickled my forehead and I felt the shock. What will happen in the coming days led me to believe that the electrical current stimulated some part of my brain because I no longer was average academically, I became brilliant! You see why I say it sounds ridiculous, it may or may not have any scientific proof, but it was my experience. I’d like to state that I am against anyone experimenting with this because for me it was purely accidental but yet it was still a spark of brilliance.

Admitted to psychology

I had become brilliant in the process of serving my peers, taking the initiative to do the thing nobody wanted to do. From then on, things changed. In the final year of junior secondary school, I was the president of the press club and had become a “superstar” representing the school in debates and quiz competitions. I had become smarter.

I had a conversation with my literature teacher one time, and after this conversation, I began considering becoming a journalist. This became the new plan, but at the end of secondary school, I made my final choice after a lot of introspection; my logic was, I was going to study law. I can always go back to journalism as a lawyer.

I applied to study law at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ife, and like a lot of Nigerian students in public universities will understand, I was admitted into Psychology.

I had never heard of Psychology…

I had never heard of psychology before now, this was going to be my new path, or so I thought.

The first exposure I had to the world of data and analytics, the focal point of my work at the Mastercard Foundation, came in my second year of studying psychology. There was a research project in my second year at the university, where we had to collect and analyze data. While others paid people to have their analysis done for them, I was determined to learn how to analyze the data myself. It took a lot of effort, but I learned it so well that I became an instructor; teaching people how to use the statistical package, and then subsequently a businessman; getting paid to analyze data for people. All this time, I was still studying psychology, even though uncertain of what prospects it held for me in the future. The best way I could prepare myself was to get a certification that would prepare me to be a human resource manager.

Getting into data science

The first opportunity I got after graduation was to be a business analyst at a software development company and not a human resource manager. I worked at this organization for two years where they built real solutions to problems and it got me interested in the field of software engineering. A friend and colleague in the company offered to help, and I got started. I started learning Java, this was backend stuff, I wanted something people could see quickly, so I switched to PHP. I had come to realize something while working at this company, there was a gap in that nobody was interested in making sense of the data being generated by the systems we were producing. After a conversation with another friend who was about to go for his master's in data science, I got curious about the field and how it held the answers to the questions I had been asking. 

I made a final switch to learning Python programming and Machine learning, and within a year on the job, I was answering the questions; helping out to make sense of the data in the company. This came with a new role, Business analytics, and data engineer!

I knew I needed to become more valuable in this newfound path and honing my skills was important. I stumbled on a Bootcamp, at the time the biggest in Africa, organized by Data Science Nigeria (DSN). It required going through a hackathon, for which I participated and got selected for the Bootcamp.

No one is left behind

At the DSN Bootcamp, I realized a lot was already happening in data science that I didn’t know about. I was determined to learn all I could and find a way to add value. I soon volunteered to be a mentor with DSN, mentoring some of the University and polytechnic students that were part of DSN. I was diligent in doing this, with heart and soul, and it led to an opportunity to work on a project for the Lagos state government funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. I was the technical lead for the project but wanted to do more for DSN than just being the technical lead on a project.

The DSN community at the time I got in was less than a thousand registered members and within two years of working with them to expand the community while still working on the data project, we organized a boot camp that had over 10,000 registered members from 30 countries.

The first engagement I had with the Mastercard Foundation was during the COVID-19 lockdown, where I was part of a DSN project funded by the Foundation to execute a learning intervention program called “Learn at home”. Nigerian students in primary and secondary schools would continue learning mandatory subjects like Mathematics, English Language, Biology, etc. during the period of the lockdown. What we did was develop a platform that was compatible with legacy phones and lightweight platforms. It was an online radio that also had an adaptive online engine built in. The impact was significant among young Nigerians, reaching over a million primary and secondary students. I also worked on a project, AI invasion, where we went into the hinterlands of Nigeria and trained volunteers who in turn trained the members of their communities on artificial intelligence and machine learning skills. At the end of the DSN project I was hired for, I got to know of an opportunity at the Mastercard Foundation whose mission and vision align with my desire to help young people find dignifying and fulfilling jobs, to ensure that no one is left behind.

When I help people, I help myself. I am a product of the knowledge and information I have gleaned from people who have gone out of their way to support and be of help to me. I feel I must pay back the universe, I mean there is still a lot I deserve but for all the things I have, I must be a funnel. 

A funnel, to help catalyze other people’s growth and ensure no one is left behind. This is who I am.