The Nigeria Startup Act will tackle unemployment and have a global impact - Oswald Osaretin Guobadia

Mr. Oswald Osaretin Guobadia is the immediate Past Senior Special Assistant on Digital Transformation to former President Muhammadu Buhari. 

Known by his sobriquet, ‘Mr. Straight Lines’, posterity will best remember him for being the brain box behind the Nigeria Startup Act which will in no small measure greatly drive the exponential growth of the Nigerian Technology Ecosystem and Digital Economy which is poised to massively create jobs and tackle the hydra-headed monster of youth unemployment. 

He shared his thoughts with Tony Ademiluyi on his unique story in this challenging journey called life. 

Buzz Times: You were born in the UK, grew up partly there and in Nigeria and then at 13 you were taken by your parents to the US. How did the experience of straddling three countries at such a tender age shape your thought pattern with regard to diversity and inclusiveness in a world tackling the challenge of bigotry?

Oswald Osaretin Guobadia:  I see you Tony, you have done your research.  To answer your question, it was fun as a kid but does have a downside as you cannot quite establish secondary school relationships. I did my secondary school education in three countries. I do believe the positive side of it is that it has made me flexible and highly adaptable to new environments.  It has also taught me how to form meaningful relationships with a diverse group of people with ease. I am a firm believer that all life experiences good or bad help mould who you become and is part of your toolkit.  It is a confirmed fact that the best market-creating ideas are produced from diversely inclusive teams, so we rob the world of pure value creation as was intended when people subjugate the natural order of things with bias. 

Buzz Times: You didn’t get into either medical school which was your dream educational institution as you initially wanted to become a medical doctor or physical therapy school as you wanted as compensation by following your father’s footsteps. It ended up being a blessing in disguise. Do you back the recent scrapping of affirmative action by institutions of higher learning in the US which according to critics creates a sense of entitlement among the minority ethnic groups?

Oswald Osaretin Guobadia:  I did not apply to medical school. I realized during my undergraduate days that I much rather work in a lab than work with patients.  Looking back now, it's quite clear that my application to physical therapy school is evidence of how confusing the question of what I will do in my life can be for some. I remember doing a summer internship in a physical therapy department as part of the application and not liking it, yet I went ahead with the process and got accepted to a few schools. What happened next can only be described as the hand of God, or some would call it luck. I always say that prepared people appear lucky. 

I jokingly asked a good friend about where he worked one morning, by that afternoon, I was sitting in front of a Vice President in Technology at Credit Suisse First Boston. I was hired on the spot as I was told I came prepared and displayed an ability to learn. On the affirmative action program, it is quite unfortunate that the good intentions of the program are greatly purposely misunderstood     . Affirmative action has not created a sense of entitlement but rather their sense of entitlement has been the main driver of critics and actions against the program.   

Buzz Times: You studied biology at Wesley College, Delaware but made a detour afterwards by studying Telecommunications and Computer Science at Pace University. Why the change in career path?

Oswald Osaretin Guobadia:  Biology was a passion in High school. Today, I still use my biology studies to sometimes approach thought or strategy development.  I recently described the policy maker and practitioner relationship within the tech ecosystems by referencing growing a bio matter in a petri dish with and without reagents.   So, I am not sure I left Biology as it's always in me, it's mine.  It’s in my toolkit. I believe the ability to learn is what a first degree provides. I found myself in a summer job that became a real job and that became the career you see today. When I realized that I had found what not only challenged me but made me happy, I applied to a computer science program to ensure I was grounded through a structured learning process.  Technology on Wall Street in the late 90s was an amazing learning experience and fun.

Buzz Times: You did what was considered insane and asinine in 2005 with your unpopular decision to move back to Nigeria a few days after being announced as VP at Goldman Sachs. At a time when many Nigerian professionals were migrating out of the country long before the japa bug became the buzzword on the streets, you chose to move back home lock, stock, and barrel. What informed that decision? Were you afraid of failure especially as you didn’t really spend your formative years here? Did you have a Plan B in case things didn’t work out or was succeeding here a death-ground strategy for you?

Oswald Osaretin Guobadia:  Nigeria is home. Nigeria is overly blessed and full of potential. I love Nigeria, and her love does not come easy. I moved back to Nigeria because I love her as my motherland and wanted to contribute to turning all that potential into value.  You see, I have always been a project manager so my move to Nigeria had an extensive business project plan with targets. My backup plan had alternative plans in place as needed with key failsafe indicators to wake me up if it all went to heck. However, a few of those alarms have long gone off and my reaction was to stick to it as patriotism can be an insane adventure. 

 Buzz Times: Tell us about your experience working for the United Bank for Africa (UBA). How did it differ from your American banking experience?

Oswald Osaretin Guobadia:  It was very different, primarily because it was commercial banking VS Investment banking as well as the escalated level of responsibility I took on at UBA.  I learnt a valuable lesson about overall responsibility versus partial responsibility in a larger endeavour. 

Buzz Times: You became entrepreneurial by co-founding 3infiniti technology solutions company which offered IT and project management solutions to an avalanche of clients. Tell us the raison d’etre behind its formation, your clientele, its achievements, and the reason for its exit to DBH. 

Oswald Osaretin Guobadia: I saw an opportunity in the market while I was abroad. I came home, took a job, and then started a company that would address IT consultancy and execution. We got a lot of clients with whom we did business; we saw an opportunity which was advisory work, outsourcing the knowledge part of technology. Our achievement is that we executed a lot of projects and expanded to merge forces with DBH. 

Buzz Times: You were appointed as the Senior Special Assistant to the then President Muhammadu Buhari on Digital Transformation in August 2020. How did you get the appointment? What were the key performance indicators used to assess your success? Was Buhari a listening leader? Was he easily accessible to you? 

Oswald Osaretin Guobadia: Most times political appointments are just that–political. Sometimes, it is based solely on merit and sheer competence. The Nigeria Start-Up Act of 2022 has been one of the biggest developments to happen to the tech ecosystem in Nigeria. Just a little over a year after the first draft was produced, President Buhari assented to it. We are talking about an Act that will automatically eradicate the legal uncertainties that trailed the startup industry in the past. It also established the National Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship Council. Overall, this Act excites everyone in Nigeria’s tech ecosystem, not just because of the limitless growth potential of the tech ecosystem, but the potential of the country’s digital economy through co-created regulations. There is so much more. There was and still is a lot of advisory work and policymaking involved and all of these are to provide an enabling environment for our young people to thrive not just now, but in the future. This is Legacy work; we now need the new government to drive the implementation. So, moving forward, the advocacy for digital transformation continues. To move Nigeria in the right direction, we need to digitise public services en masse. We need to reduce our reliance on paper drastically. Embracing digital processes and services puts us on a path to increased productivity across the board.

Another essential component of this discourse is the heavy incorporation of digital literacy as part of our Universal Basic Education goals. We must also expand our investment in digital skills. We must support the numerous initiatives that exist and integrate them. Next, we must ensure that they reach every corner of the country. To realise our digital economy potential, digital skills need to scale. And we need to find a systematic way of ensuring that upon gaining these skills they can be put to immediate use. I could go on and on. There is still a lot of work to do, and we need to get on it, so our young people are empowered enough and provided with an enabling environment to play side-by-side with their peers all over the world. We can’t have them playing catchup with the rest of the world.      I will remain committed to   advisory, policymaking, and execution of digital projects in Africa.

Buzz Times: Tell us how you conceived the idea of the Nigeria Startup Act. How did you get the buy-in from the stakeholders to ensure that it became law? How will it put food on the tables of jobless Nigerian youths by massively creating jobs for them?

Oswald Osaretin Guobadia: When I was appointed the SSA on Digital Transformation, I felt it critical to return to the ecosystem practitioners to present myself as the servant leader. Just kidding!   On a serious note, we had a meeting where we discussed key issues and formed an impactful delivery plan.       My title was great, but in government years, the time was short. Most of the issues brought us all to the idea that a start-up Act would be impactful. 

The Nigeria Startup Act will aid the jobless Nigerian youth to create jobs that will solve hard problems that will impact the world and ultimately feed the nation. 

Buzz Times: There is a global shift from certificates to skills. India was visionary enough to realize it long before it became internationally evident as far back as the 1980s when its public policy ensured that it became the IT outsourcing centre of the world earning billions of dollars in revenue as a result. The world of remote work has come to stay which undoubtedly was accentuated by covid-19. What public policy can the President Bola Tinubu-led administration pursue to ensure that Nigeria becomes a global hub of remote work for Western companies who want premium value at cheaper costs?

Oswald Osaretin Guobadia:  This is an awesome question. I will stay within the auspices of your question, and not go off to discuss the broader issues.   What should be the focus is a comprehensive digital transformation plan that understands that digital literacy, infrastructure, and cross-sector policies are crucial. So, imagine policies that introduce primary school education or convert the NYSC year to a digital skill finishing program. I see that our NYSC members are learning karate in a semi-militant program whilst the owners of karate are now focused on digital literacy with the common knowledge that the next battlefront will be digitally executed.  What India did was focus on education, and they eventually outpaced their immigration problem, converting them into ambassadors.  That is primarily what led to India becoming the outsourcing hub and global tech leadership.  Nigeria has all the ingredients to take a leading position in the global digital economy.  We just need to execute.  

Buzz Times: Tell us about your work as a board member of Edoinnovates.

Oswald Osaretin Guobadia:  I love it, and my membership speaks to my passion for Edo State. Some of our key initiatives are a testament to this. The program has focused on training digital skills across various core technology areas. We are currently working on designing an initiative to make Edo state the destination for all marketing-creating innovations by providing infrastructure and enabling policies i.e., NSA adoption. In essence, if you want to build a start-up and see it thrive, come do it in Edo state. I encourage all states to catch up.    

Buzz Times: The Guobadia family is an extremely influential one in Edo State. Do you want to leverage the name to go into partisan politics in the future or are you satisfied with being a technocrat and entrepreneur?

Oswald Osaretin Guobadia: My mother would giggle at this question and settle into her classic grin, then say, “May God’s will be done”  I defer to my mum. 

Buzz Times: Thank you for taking out time out of your hectic schedule to speak with us. We are indeed most grateful!

Oswald Osaretin Guobadia: Thank you for having me.  Dear Nigerian youths let's engage and participate in the way forward of our great nation.