On this episode of the podcast, we were joined by Dolapo Omotoso. She is the Revenue Growth Director at TransferGo and has had quite an interesting career progression. We discussed how she went from law student to customer support intern and now director. She also gave some amazing tips and advice.

Follow her on LinkedIn.

We talked about: 

Breakdown

0:00 Intro

3:02 Icebreaker game

10:41 How to navigate the job market 

19:56 How to position yourself and what courses to take

24:20 How to get into tech

28:02 How to grow from social media manager to marketing specialist 

40:28 How Dolapo got into marketing 

56:44 Know when and how to advocate for yourself

1:00:38 Learn from you manager and make sure they recognise your work 

1:05:53 Is work-life balance really important?

1:12:22 How long should you stay at a job? 

1:16:16 Why she moved to TransferGo

1:18:20 Dolapo's career highlights and advice for others

We referenced:

TransferGo

PiggyVest

LemFi

Her article 

Treford

Temsi Africa 

RACI chart

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On this episode of the podcast, we're joined by finance expert, Abiola Adekoya. She has a well-used degree in Economics, is a Partner at Genea Family Office, and is the CEO & Lead Wealth Advisor at Artios Wealth... amongst many other achievements.

Follow her on LinkedIn

We talked about:

Breakdown

0:00 Intro 

1:50 Icebreaker game

9:07 Factors to consider before debt financing 

12:14 How to retire big

16:31 How to negotiate for equity 

19:59 Why women should ask for more

24:38 How to pay off your loans and improve financial health

31:04 What to consider before buying a house

34:21 How to maximise your savings

38:30 How to be financially responsible without reducing your quality of life

43:20 Abiola's background 

47:40 Recommendations 

50:51 Her career highlights 

54:14 The importance of being diligent 

58:22 What Abiola does as a financial adviser 

1:02:45 How families manage money

1:06:54 How men handle money vs how women handle money 

1:12:28 Her client success stories 

1:13:42 The state of the Nigerian economy 

1:17:09 Should we eat the rich?

1:19:18 General advice on how to manage money

1:24:21 Where to find Abiola 

We referenced

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Acquired (podcast)

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On this episode of the podcast, we were joined by Isaac Adekanye co-host of the the Road to 30 podcast and Head of Strategy and Operations at TFG Group. He shared amazing insights on how to run a successful business and money management tips to get you through this “T-pain” economy.

Follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter

We talked about:

Breakdown

0:00 Intro 

2:26 icebreaker 

8:08 Why TFG?

10:00 Where to invest in for a good ROI

11:14 Establishing authority as a young person 

14:58 What to do/know before starting a consulting business in compliance 

17:04 How to make a business work

20:06 Challenges in starting a business as a young person

24:11 How to get angel investors

27:07 Can we have the life of our dreams?

30:57 The safest way for beginners to start investing 

33:07 Isaac's background

40:49 Why Isaac is who he is

45:15 Isaac's career highlights 

46:16 What running TFG has been like

52:50 The people problem in running a business

57:47 Other problems faced by the business

1:02:54 How his MBA helped in solving business problems

1:05:23 How to make things work even in your absence 

1:09:18 Dealing with employee theft

1:12:14 How employees can buy into your dream

1:14:06 Ponzi schemes and avoiding them

1:16:16 How to manage your money

1:27:23 Building an emergency fund 

1:36:13 Tools to manage your money

1:38:19 How to survive financially in Nigeria 

We referenced

Road to 30

TFG Group

Glovo

Financial Derivatives Company

ETFs

Rich Dad Poor Da by Robert T. Kiyosaki

The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason

*Mischka YouTube

Flo Finance 

The Disciplined Investor by Andrew Horowitz

Marko - Whiteboard Finance

Jaiz Bank

Bamboo

Meristem

PiggyVest

Don’t forget to follow The Spotlight Podcast on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. You can also subscribe to our YouTube and newsletter

If you have any suggestions or questions, please complete the ⁠Q&A intake form⁠ or send me an email at [email protected] 

P.S: If you are interested in appearing on The Spotlight Podcast, please complete this form to indicate your interest.

In our recent webinar in partnership with Workspace Global, we discussed how to think about branding for your business using PaidHR as a case study. 

If you’re a startup founder looking to design a pitch deck or other social media assets, our partners at Workspace Global are giving you an amazing 7-day free trial of their design and development services. All you have to do is visit https://www.workspaceglobal.com/freetrial and use our discount code: WGSPOTLIGHTPOD. 

You can follow all the speakers on LinkedIn: Olumide Soyombo, Seye Bandele, Ore Badmus, Sydney Sam 

0:46 Olumide Soyombo's introduction 

2:31 Is there a winning formula for startups?

6:08 Reputation in branding and business

9:49 How important is a pitch in making money?

12:29 Can a good pitch turn a bad reputation around?

15:36 Deciding to put money into a business

18:20 Do outsiders always see the effort put into the business?

20:30 Bolt case study

23:24 Andela case study

26:24 Fullgap's impressing storytelling

27:48 Audience questions for Olumide

35:51 Seye Bandele's introduction 

37:04 About PaidHR

44:16 The importance of personal branding and reputation in building a successful business

46:15 Mistakes made and overcoming them

48:18 Reaching out after past rejections

51:07 What to prioritise when building a brand

56:23 Going from Pade to PaidHR

1:00:28 Audience questions for Seye

1:10:00 Ore Badmus’ introduction

1:12:33 The process behind the PaidHR rebrand

1:38:14 Audience question for Ore

1:43:54 Sydnye Sam’s introduction

1:44:30 What Workspace Global does

1:54:25 Audience question for Sydney

Don’t forget to follow The Spotlight Podcast on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. You can also subscribe to our newsletter

If you have any suggestions or questions, please complete the ⁠Q&A intake form⁠ or send me an email at [email protected] 

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On today's episode we were joined by Olajumoke Daramola. She has worked in the financial sector for over a decade and currently provides advisory services with Women’s World Banking, an organisation that aims to empower low-income women around the world through financial inclusion.

Follow her on LinkedIn

We talked about:

Episode breakdown:

0:00 Intro

1:58 Icebreaker  

6:05 Olajumoke's background 

7:49 Her experience at Sterling Bank

9:15 People that have influenced her

12:22 Why she transitioned into product management 

14:09 Her career highlights 

18:07 What financial inclusion is and how Women's World Banking comes in

20:31 Countries Women's World Bank operates in

21:17 Are women financially included?

25:49 Women's World Banking’s impact so far

27:22 Why Women's World Banking is focused on women 

29:11 The financial gap that exists against women

32:13 How Women's World Banking identifies with clientele 

36:03 Does Women's World Banking invest in people?

37:01 How Women's World Banking chooses partners 

39:04 Women's World Banking’s success stories

41:01 Challenges faced by women in relation to access to financial services 

44:37 The most difficult parts of solving the financial inclusion problem

47:21 Navigating policy changes that affect the business 

52:39 Olajumoke's advice for African women with businesses

56:34 How to get in touch with Olajumoke and Women's World Banking

58:32 Outro 

We referenced:

Women's World Banking

Sterling Bank

WISCAR

Professor Olayinka David-West

EfinNA

EfinNA Access to Finance Report 2023

World Bank’s Global Findex Report

Don’t forget to follow The Spotlight Podcast on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. You can also subscribe to our YouTube and newsletter

If you have any suggestions or questions, please complete the ⁠Q&A intake form⁠ or send me an email at [email protected] 

P.S: If you are interested in appearing on The Spotlight Podcast, please complete this form to indicate your interest.

On this episode of the podcast, we were joined by Dr Ikpeme Neto, popularly known as Doc Neto. He is a medical doctor and health economist with over 10 years of experience in the health sector.

Follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter

We talked about:

Breakdown:

0:00 Intro 

1:28 Icebreaker 

6:16 Dr Neto's background 

7:26 Who and what influenced him

10:50 His political views and how politics affects healthcare  

14:28 His career highlights 

16:22 What WellaHealth does

17:35 How WellaHealth came about

19:08 Running WellaHealth and building the team

22:44 How WellaHealth manages to remain affordable

23:24 Doc Neto’s view on competition

26:32 How Nigerians view insurance 

30:55 How WellaHealth is solving the insurance trust problem in Nigeria

32:50 What healthcare is like in Nigeria 

35:20 His research on the mental health of Nigerian founders 

37:35 Some of WellaHealth's biggest achievements 

38:36 The vision for WellaHealth 

39:24 Challenges the business has faced 

41:07 Where to learn more about Doc Neto amd WellaHealth 

41:42 Dr Neto's advice for fellow industry players 

43:37 Outro

We referenced 

WellaHealth

Africa’s Business Heroes

Shuttlers 

National Health Accounts

Nigerian Bureau of Statistics 

Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey

Don’t forget to follow The Spotlight Podcast on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. You can also subscribe to our YouTube and newsletter

If you have any suggestions or questions, please complete the ⁠Q&A intake form⁠ or send me an email at [email protected] 

P.S: If you are interested in appearing on The Spotlight Podcast, please complete this form to indicate your interest.

On this episode of the podcast, we spotlight master operator, Victor Onyekere aka “The Strategist”.

Follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter

We talked about:

Breakdown:

0:00 Intro

1:37 Icebreaker

6:27 Victor's background

12:58 Success stories

17:26 Challenges

23:26 The founder-operator vs other founders

30:05 Building a successful business

40:10 Companies that changed their strategy

47:19 How important are COOs?

59:01 How to determine if you're successful

1:02:25 Where to find Victor and what he's working on

1:07:44 Victor's thoughts on the future of the business and tech ecosystem (in Nigeria)

1:12:27 Outro

We referenced:

Talemia/Seeding

Moniepoint

Flutterwave

Chowdeck 

Paystack 

Opay

Palmpay 

Don’t forget to follow The Spotlight Podcast on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. You can also subscribe to our YouTube and newsletter

If you have any suggestions or questions, please complete the ⁠Q&A intake form⁠ or send me an email at [email protected] 

P.S: If you are interested in appearing on The Spotlight Podcast, please complete this form to indicate your interest.

On today’s episode, we were joined by Chidalu Onyenso. Chidalu is the founder and CEO of Earthbond, an organisation that uses climate data and analytics to make energy affordable for Africans. You can watch the full video on Youtube here.

Follow Chidalu and Earthbond on LinkedIn

We talked about:

Breakdown:

0:00 Intro

01:44 More about Chidalu

02:41 Icebreaker

05:25 Chidalu's career highlights

08:50 The energy problem in Africa 

11:30 What businesses are spending loans on

13:34 Deciding where Earthbond should operate 

17:30 How Earthbond got into the market

20:42 Why Earthbond focuses on solar energy

22:56 How Nigeria's natural gas influenced Earthbond 

25:26 Earthbond's success stories 

27:13 Challenges Chidalu and Earthbond have faced

36:13 Financing Earthbond 

37:15 How to reach Earthbond

37:54 Why businesses use Earthbond 

39:51 Earthbond's proudest achievements

40:47 Places with the best opportunities for solar energy in Nigeria 

42:20 Raising funds for the business 

46:11 Lessons from the Earthbond journey

49:23 Earthbond's North Star 

50:21 The future of Earthbond

51:54 Final words 

52:24 Outro

We referenced:

Earthbond

BBC Podcast: Focus on Africa

IBM

Don’t forget to follow The Spotlight Podcast on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. You can also subscribe to our YouTube and newsletter

If you have any suggestions or questions, please complete the ⁠Q&A intake form⁠ or send me an email at [email protected] 

P.S: If you are interested in appearing on The Spotlight Podcast, please complete this form to indicate your interest.

Today’s episode is in partnership with ProductDive. We were joined by Praise Obieromah, former ProductDive student and Product Manager at Siliconverse.

Follow Praise and ProductDive on LinkedIn

We talked about:

Breakdown:

0:00 Intro

01:30 Icebreaker 

09:22 About Praise

10:28 Praise's experience as a technology consultant 

12:52 Why Praise switched to product management 

14:33 How Praise heard about ProductDive

15:59 His experience with ProductDive

19:11 Some highlights of the course

20:28 His experience after taking the course

22:49 His confidence level before and after taking the ProductDive course 

24:24 Transferable skills from technology consultancy to product management 

27:08 Challenges he's faced

31:49 Advice for people considering taking a ProductDive course

34:00 Recommendations 

36:22 Where to find Praise 

37:31 What else Praise is working on

38:24 Final words

39:01 Outro

We referenced:

ProductDive

Siliconverse 

Product Management Blueprint Course

AIPMM Exam

Mixpanel

Postman

Don’t forget to follow The Spotlight Podcast on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. You can also subscribe to our YouTube and newsletter

If you have any suggestions or questions, please complete the ⁠Q&A intake form⁠ or send me an email at [email protected] 

P.S: If you are interested in appearing on The Spotlight Podcast, please complete this form to indicate your interest.

On this episode of The Spotlight Podcast, we were joined by Adeolu Adewumi-Zer, change leader and founder of ZER Consulting Africa

Follow her on LinkedIn, Instagram and follow ZER on Instagram

We talked about:

Breakdown:

0:00 Intro

1:51 Icebreaker

3:47 Adeolu’s background

8:33 Why Africa is special to her

9:26 Adeolu’s career highlights 

13:10 What is ZER?

16:33 ZER’s success stories

18:29 What Shared Value is all about

21:28 Their goals

23:12 Benefits of being a part of Shared Value

26:34 How to be a part of it

28:03 Shared Value’s success stories

31:41 Challenges in adopting Shared Value

32:49 Driving profitability through Shared Value

34:14 Shared Value Initative’s roadmap

35:53 Adeolu’s vision for Shared Value in the next five years

37:14 The role of tech companies in Shared Value

38:23 The future of ZER

39:37 Advice for young professionals and entrepreneurs

40:13 How to take part in the Shared Value launch

40:54 Other things Adeolu is working on

41:30 Outro

We referenced:

ZER Consulting

Shared Value Africa Initiative 

Tiekie Benard

LeapFrog Investments

Safaricom M-PESA

Apple Pay

Google Pay

Moniepoint

Interswitch

Don’t forget to follow The Spotlight Podcast on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. You can also subscribe to our YouTube and newsletter

If you have any suggestions or questions, please complete the ⁠Q&A intake form⁠ or send me an email at [email protected] 

P.S: If you are interested in appearing on The Spotlight Podcast, please complete this form to indicate your interest.