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Olaoluwa Samuel-Biyi


Over the past few years, I’ve been experimenting with technology-enabled businesses in Africa, starting from my time as an early member of the team that built “Jumia” in Nigeria. Here, I share my thoughts about business, education, life and whatever else. Thoughts are mine alone and they don’t represent any of the institutions below.

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Work

We’re growing: Meet Omolara Awoyemi, Our New Managing Director

My objective is to relentlessly grow our brand to be the biggest non-cash value transfer platform in Nigeria and Africa at large.

Posted on 8th September 2018 by 'Laolu Samuel-Biyi

Work

Remitting with Purpose

Across the world, there are hundreds of millions of immigrants and travelers like me that need to transfer some immediate, non-cash value internationally, but the systems that have been set up to facilitate that don’t take into account the nature of transfers.

Posted on 24th November 2017 by 'Laolu Samuel-Biyi

General Thoughts

(Quora) Which countries’ economies will grow the most by 2066?

My answer here:  There are 1.2 billion people in Africa. There will be 2.4 billion by 2050 and that’ll be a quarter of the world’s population. Over the next few decades, not many...

Posted on 22nd October 2016 by 'Laolu Samuel-Biyi

General Thoughts

(Quora) How can we save the missing Nigerian girls?

Until we care and the nation stands still because of one death and one kidnapping, male or female, young or old, 276--or the more twitter-friendly 234--is just a number.

Posted on 7th May 2014 by 'Laolu Samuel-Biyi

General Thoughts

Find out what you get to earn as a founder with this start-up math

We all know the fair value of a good Developer, Designer or Accountant, but what’s the going rate of a Founder? (written in April 2014)

Posted on 2nd April 2014 by 'Laolu Samuel-Biyi

General Thoughts

The African techie’s curse – business model or product?

Examining and defining your motives as an entrepreneur will create a clearer path for your venture and reduce fatigue and frustration. (written in March 2014)

Posted on 14th March 2014 by 'Laolu Samuel-Biyi

Literature

Book Review (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie)

A while ago, I promised a review of all three of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s books. All were as brilliant as I expected (written in 2010).

Posted on 9th January 2010 by 'Laolu Samuel-Biyi

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Work

We’re growing: Meet Omolara Awoyemi, Our New Managing Director

My objective is to relentlessly grow our brand to be the biggest non-cash value transfer platform in Nigeria and Africa at large.


'Laolu Samuel-Biyi
We’re growing: Meet Omolara Awoyemi, Our New...
Posted on 8th September 2018 by 'Laolu Samuel-Biyi

Originally posted on SureGroup.

We’re happy to announce Omolara Awoyemi as the new Managing Director of SureGroup. In the last 4 years, we’ve grown from experimenting to building Africa’s premier digital gift voucher company, growing beyond Nigeria to Kenya and setting up tentacles in Europe and other continents. As we grow, it has become imperative that we put in world-class structure and competencies that can scale across new target markets.

This is where Omolara comes in. Before Rocket Internet’s Sabunta.com and Kasuwa.com merged into Jumia in 2012, Omolara was a vital part of Sabunta, working on Business Intelligence, while Adeoye, Babafemi and I worked in similar roles across different departments on the Kasuwa team. Since then, she’s spent the last 6 years building and leading in various capacities across Jumia. She played a critical role in helping to build Jumia from startup to scale, and upon her exit, she’d led JumiaPay as the Country Manager for a year.

Under Omolara’s leadership at JumiaPay, she was able to integrate with all leading banks in Nigeria for customers to securely pay for goods and services using SMS technology. She achieved 400% growth in user base from the first month of launch till July 2018, taking JumiaPay to account for about 30% of Jumia’s entire transactions in Nigeria. She also built a lending platform for merchants to securely obtain loans to boost their business on Jumia. We’re excited about leveraging her deep expertise in e-commerce, financial services, and payment to expand SureGifts (digital gifting and rewards), SureCredit (voucher lending for regular income-earners) and SureRemit (low-cost cross-border value transfers).

My objective is to relentlessly grow our brand to be the biggest non-cash value transfer platform in Nigeria and Africa at large. Our platform will aggregate local and international merchants and give them exposure to the daily individual and business customers who send gifts and value to their friends, family and loved ones globally in a simple, safe, fast and convenient manner. This innovation will improve personal connections for individuals, drive employee performance for corporate organizations and consumer engagement for merchants. I believe we are still scratching the surface of the endless opportunities that lay ahead.

— Omolara

We have worked with Omolara as a colleague, client, and customer, and we are confident that she will drive the vision of the Group and take us to the next level. This is one of many major steps we’re taking this year, and we will be sharing more of it with you in the coming months.

'Laolu Samuel-Biyi
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The crypto market is a wild place, and given how young the industry is and how I’m about 5 years into it, I can claim veteran status and opine somewhat authoritatively. I have...

Posted on 15th May 2022 by 'Laolu Samuel-Biyi
Work

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