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Our mission is to create problem-solving entrepreneurs – says Adesola Salami, team lead, Gurudemy

In 2020, Paystack a fast growing Nigerian Fintech startup was valued at 200 milllion US dollars. The company helped Nigerian businesses accept payments online. The news that the prominent American payment company Stripe had acquired Paystack spun across Nigeria. Everyone was thrilled. "Millions from pressing computers?" But this was not the case. Many Nigerian youths…

In 2020, Paystack a fast growing Nigerian Fintech startup was valued at 200 milllion US dollars. The company helped Nigerian businesses accept payments online. The news that the prominent American payment company Stripe had acquired Paystack spun across Nigeria. Everyone was thrilled. “Millions from pressing computers?”

But this was not the case. Many Nigerian youths had foreseen this reality and clung tight to it. Digital technology was the future of business, society, and industry. In the heart of Lagos, you find youths trying to make meaning of life and their ambitions. This is where Gurudemy, the Lagos-based tech school comes in. Like many Nigerian tech startups Gurudemy has identified a major problem that required attention. Nigerian youths want to compete with the rest of the world. Today’s world is fast paced and digital. To keep up, they need digital skills.

Skills like coding, programming, graphics design, User Experience and User Interface Design as well as Web Development are quickly shaping the destinies of businesses and economies. Revenues amounting billions of dollars have been generated annually from Facebook, Twitter and many companies that were born from computers. Jobs now require a form of digital skills from potential employees. We have youths as fresh graduates from our Nigerian schools leaving each year to play key roles in our human capital and labour force. How do we retain and multiply their production value if we do not stay updated with relevant trainings and education?

According to the Team Lead of Gurudemy, Mr. Sola Salami, transforming the Nigerian youths through relevant and effective education offered a better chance at redemption. “If we want youths to become productive in an economy like this, we must be willing to offer them the right opportunities,” he added. It was not enough to give youths label. Offering them chances in tech and digital transformation courses brought real and sustainable impact.

We applaud success stories like Paystack. It is time to promote the educational culture that produced those kind of entrepreneurs. This path helped them become the problem solving figures the Nigerian economy truly needed. We will create such entrepreneurial opportunities for the youths.

Gurudemy is already on its path to graduate and certify another set of 30 tech entrepreneurs. This move follows the successful graduation of their August-September, 2021 graduates.

Certificates recognized students who had completed their courses in Coding & Programming, Digital Marketing, User Interface Design (UI), User Experience (UX), Graphics Design and other notable courses. While emphasing the uniqueness in their teaching style, Mr. Salami disclosed that a few students from the September set were already accepting employment offers within Lagos. “One of them just got an offer and we encouraged our instructors to prepare them for interviews and other career or entrepreneurial hurdles they might face later. I ensure instructors are accessible. That’s how you build trust in learning environments.”

Speaking on the success of their teaching method and how they have graduated 20 students, he added:

“One of the things we discourage is the absence of action. Everyone must be motivated to the point where learning becomes doing. You know students have complete lives outside of our school walls. Some of them are employees looking to upskill. A few are married and are parents while some are fresh school leavers.

The learning space should be convenient in a therapeutic way for people who may have left their various stress zones to learn here in just 30 minutes. Also, the teaching plan must be different and have a backing of mentorship.”

At Gurudemy, instructors play mentorship roles that help students better assimilate and trust the learning process. Tech might be lucrative but it is indeed a new adventure. Aspiring students need reassurance, a comfortable learning space, friendly and experienced instructors including a vibrant lesson plan they can trust to simplify the complexities of learning digital skills.

As new sessions begin this October, the tech school took to its Instagram handle to announce its admission offerings in coding, digital marketing, graphics design, web development, UI/UX design. Those seeking admission can visit www.gurudemyonline.com or call +2349064485189
to get on board. Gurudemy is located at Ikota Villa Estate, Lekki.

About Gurudemy:
At the center of our learning curriculum is the desire to provoke your inner curiosity.

Challenges such as ignorance, low quality and outdated educational systems weaken our human minds. They make our youths inferior competitors to their counterparts excelling in other parts of the world. Such systems can only produce disadvantaged individuals with subpar skills and knowledge to run industries and economies locally and globally.

We cannot let this pattern continue. As of 2020, Nigeria has been heavily mentioned as the Poverty Capital of the World with the average citizen living on less than $2 per day (about N700). When education fails to offer conscious enlightenment and empowerment, the consequences are usually damaging. It moves from poverty of the people to the poverty of a nation. To clamp down on poverty, and level the ground, ignorance and inadequate skilled education must firstly be combated headlong.

At Gurudemy, we strongly believe it is not enough to acquire education. To further our people’s development, accessing an impactful and relevant kind should be the goal. This is why we encourage our students to occupy the frontlines in today’s world by learning digital and business skills. The digital world shapes today’s innovations and existence.

Consequently, all our learning syllabuses are designed to provoke that desired curiosity, inspire innovation, and cause students to see their worlds as creative canvases awaiting tomorrow’s masterpiece.

We need our students to become better contributors and better citizens in our social economy.

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