Ex-Andelan, Babajide Duroshola joins SafeBoda as Country Head, Nigeria
Ex-Andelan, Babajide Duroshola has told benjamindada.com that he is joining ride-hailing startup, SafeBoda as their Country Head in Nigeria.
On Friday, May 3, Andela's first Community Manager, Technical Talent—Babajide Duroshola announced his resignation from the engineering startup where he has worked for near three years.
Babajide whose background is in human resource management took on the challenge to build an Andela community in December 2016.
As a community manager, his role involved owning the Andela brand, building the regional strategy and ensuring the long-term success of the (technical talent) community in connection with Andela.
Speaking about why he left the bank to join Andela, he says, "I joined Andela because I wanted to add more value while being creative. At the bank, there was a template to recruitment which means everything was done for you and you just needed to copy and paste a model".
"The vibe I got from Andela was that they were making opportunities available to just about anyone—interested and passionate; as opposed to banks who typically recruited people at a particular advantage in life", he tells benjamindada.com.
It appears Mr Duroshola impacted lives while at Andela; as scores of people took to Twitter to commend his good work and impact in their lives—including colleagues and Managers. Here is a farewell message to Babajide from former Andela Nigeria Country Director, Seni Sulyman who is now their Vice President of Global Operations:
Good luck on this BIG transition @Babajiide. We'll all be cheering you on. Small plug 😁: The dream is to produce EPIC leaders in tech, business & government across Africa to help accelerate the development of our continent. One step closer to that future. Watch this space. #TIA https://t.co/zCsmevBE1Z
— Seni Sulyman (@senisulyman) May 3, 2019
While at Andela, Babajide supported Andela's expansion into Rwanda and helped grow the developer community through programmes like Andela Learning Community initiative that has now impacted 30,000+ African developers.
Here is a farewell message from one of the Rwandan beneficiaries, Placide Irandora:
Oohhh! You inspired us when you came in Rwanda for the first Andela Open Saturday meetup. I won't forget you, you have been always inspirational! By the way, I wish you success in whatever you gonna do next.
— Placide IRANDORA (@placideirandora) May 3, 2019
On becoming SafeBoda's Country Head
“I had spent 2.5years at Andela building local talents for the market. However, after staying a short while, many left the country for more exciting opportunities outside. Turns out that there are too few companies that can absorb these highly-skilled talents within the shores of Nigeria. So, I decided to switch to building companies that will actually seem exciting for the talents”, Babajide tells benjamindada.com.
SafeBoda is a venture-funded motorcycle taxi headquartered in Uganda’s capital city, Kampala with operations in Barcelona. On July 31, 2018, they completed an expansion to Nairobi, Kenya. Now, it’s time to explore other markets in the West of Africa, starting with Lagos.
Related article: The booming two-wheel (Boda Boda) automobile sector in Kenya
Speaking to co-founder and co-CEO, Alastair Sussock, he said “We are exploring Lagos and other markets and Babajide is leading the efforts for SafeBoda in Nigeria. Really excited for the future and the super strong talent we now have on our team”.
While at SafeBoda, Babajide is excited about the opportunity to build some structure into the less structured motorcycle transportation business. “It’s more than a ride-hailing company to me, the brand has an aura of emotion which I felt when I had my onsite with them. They have changed how people perceive Boda (Okada) drivers in Uganda and how they perceive themselves. And I’m looking to help them replicate that in Nigeria, starting in Lagos”, he concludes.
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