This is 30, Tobechukwu.
Thank you, God, for this journey called life. I wouldn’t change any experience — they’ve shaped the man I’ve become.
Here are ten lessons I’ve learned over the last 29 years:
1. Diligence
In everything you do, take pride, give it 100%, and strive for excellence. Be faithful in the little things, because that’s the foundation for being entrusted with more.
“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.” — Luke 16:10 NIV
2. Growth Mindset
Believe in your process. Growth is a journey, and everything compounds over time. Build your roadmap but remain flexible and focused, refusing to be pressured by external influences. Confidence comes from knowing you’re no longer where you used to be, and tomorrow, with effort, you’ll be even better. I recommend books such as A Love Affair with Failure & HBR’s Mental Toughness.
““Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.”
Isaiah 60:1, 3 NIV
3. Love & Loss
Love is one of life’s greatest emotions, but it comes hand in hand with loss. I’ve been fortunate to experience love in its many forms — romantic, platonic, and familial. With love, there’s vulnerability, but also immense joy. People often believe they can enjoy the greatest rewards life offers, like love, without making sacrifices such as trust or the risk of being vulnerable to disappointment. Love is a two-edged sword with its other end being loss. Loss can come in many forms (Death of a loved one or an unforeseen breakup) however it’s important to deal with loss gracefully. Love has been a profound teacher; this will be a chapter in my book someday. I will recommend two books— HBR’s Emotional Intelligence & Dating Intelligently by Laju Iren.
“So don’t allow your hearts to grow dull or lose your enthusiasm, but follow the example of those who fully received what God has promised because of their strong faith and patient endurance.” Hebrews 6:12 TPT
4. Embrace Challenges
People are both your greatest assets and, at times, your biggest challenges. Building and maintaining relationships requires patience and understanding. It’s essential to acknowledge someone’s pain, empathize, and apologize when needed, without minimizing their feelings. Avoid holding grudges—none of us are perfect. When wronged, reflect on the positive moments and let those memories guide your healing.
Two thoughts — winning an argument with someone important to you is shortsighted and the need to be right is Ego-driven. Holding onto unforgiveness fosters resentment and blinds you to the good, focusing instead on what went wrong. I recommend the series Enemies of the Heart link, & Signs of Incompatibility link by “Mel Robbins”. These two have offered me valuable insights over the past month. Challenges in relationships, though difficult, often lead to unexpected growth.
“Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”
Colossians 3:13-14 NIV
5. Cherish Genuine Connections
Some connections are rare and precious. Over the years, I’ve watched friends grow into the dreams they once shared. It’s been a joy to journey alongside them. Never underestimate the potential of those around you. Grow together, support one another, and never let status or titles cloud your judgment. Leave people better than you met them, a good name is better than gold. As you grow older let this be etched in your heart as relationships become more meaningful. The image below will help you critique, restructure, and refine your personal network.
Your Personal Network
6. Faith, Belief, and God
My faith is my anchor, my guide, and my strength. Without God, I am nothing. I pray about everything, and He never fails to respond. Believe in the life you desire — it will manifest with time. Trust in God, the creator of every good thing, and in yourself as His creation.
“Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”” Isaiah 30:21 NIV
7. Block Out the Noise, Dream Audaciously
Dare to dream, and don’t let fear or doubt silence you, whatever you cannot conceive in your heart, it’s impossible to actualize. Block out the noise of naysayers and take calculated steps toward your goals. The worst that can happen is someone says no — and no has never killed anyone. Remember, people often advise from their experiences, but only you know the God-sized vision within you. Be brazen, fuel your vision, read books, pray but most importantly don’t disappoint yourself. Be Great !!!
“I will give him the key to the house of David — the highest position in the royal court. When he opens doors, no one will be able to close them; when he closes doors, no one will be able to open them. He will bring honor to his family name, for I will drive him firmly in place like a nail in the wall.” Isaiah 22:22-23 NLT
8. Family & Friendships
Family dynamics can be complex. As an only child who grew up with cousins, I’ve seen how roles shift over time. Count it all joy. If we knew tomorrow, we’d make fewer mistakes today. Keep good relationships, forgive quickly, and heal often. Love your people deeply.
“How wonderful, how beautiful, when brothers and sisters get along! It’s like costly anointing oil flowing down head and beard, Flowing down Aaron’s beard, flowing down the collar of his priestly robes. It’s like the dew on Mount Hermon flowing down the slopes of Zion. Yes, that’s where God commands the blessing, ordains eternal life.”
Psalms 133:1-3 MSG
9. Confidence
Nothing great comes from fear. Approach life with confidence and conviction. Be bold, even if it means being a little delusional, and always show up as your greatest self. If you need to start over, do so as often as possible. Never compare your life or experiences with another, believe in yourself, pride is a deep illusion, as you become, stay humble. If anyone believes they are better than you, let them think what they want. Every new beginning is a chance to shape your future. Remember, the future starts now. Don’t take life too seriously—share laughter with your best mates. Hold onto your enthusiasm for life, and learn to embrace both the wins and the losses with grace.
“Remember: The duller the ax the harder the work; Use your head: The more brains, the less muscle.”
Ecclesiastes 10:10 MSG
10. The God Factor
In everything, put God first. My life isn’t perfect, but in Christ, it is complete. This is the confidence I carry into each day: that God is with me. Therefore, I believe that the best of God is never in the past but always in the future.
“In you, Lord my God, I put my trust.” Psalms 25:1 NIV
To my friends and family, thank you for your incredible support and encouragement. You are truly God’s blessings to me.
Here’s to 30 — filled with faith, love, and dreams yet to be realized.
The power of dreams
One year post moving to London.
Firstly, shoutout to every kid without siblings or parents. I understand your loneliness and how much you desire to trust and be in an enabling environment that fosters your growth. I never had my mom or dad, and neither did I have siblings but I'm here to tell you, it's not the end of the world. Your dreams are valid !!
“Mbelede ka eji ama Dike” — Ndidi Nwuneli.
New Year's Day ‘23
Throughout the course of my life, I have experienced God’s grace in every facet of my life. In this article, I will be writing about his grace over my professional life and how “one thing happened fast on the heels of the other” as promised in the Bible passage, “Amos 9:13–15 MSG”.
Catalysts
It was 2019 and I had a burning desire to be the greatest at everything I did but the problem was I wasn’t doing much. So I knew I had to start doing more to enable me to become the greatest at what I did. Essentially, solve problems.
Connecting the dots: Traveler, there is no road; you make your own part as you walk. As you walk, you make your own road, and when you look back, you see the path. — Antonio Machado
Enablers
As they say, the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step and this for me was applying to a digital technology company for an unpaid intern position. I got the role and was offered a NGN 50,000 salary. Three months later, I was offered a permanent role as an Analyst and double my first salary. Till today, I remain thankful to Esigie Aguele & Angie for taking a chance on me ❤.
My vision was more significant than this, so I didn’t stop there, I searched for more knowledge and found Edubridge Academy. I joined a cohort and learned a lot from the incredible minds there. Shoutout to Funmi who taught me a bit of Consulting and Samuel for being dogged about my use of excel.
The size of your ambition positively correlates with the pain you will experience.
Faith is the engine room of dreams.
One of my many attributes is my desire and hunger to build technology that works and improves our way of life. This led me to seek more knowledge and do more work. I took a six-week course on Product Management at ProductDive which is where I met Tobi Otokiti who is now a mentor.
Curiosity is a strong counterpoint to fear. Fear impedes your drive or desire to try. Curiosity releases it
My newly attained knowledge in product management and leadership capacity impacted my work, and within the year, I got a second promotion with double my previous salary.
“’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. ‘” — “Jeremiah 29:11".
The impact of some of my work has led to the second largest Fintech acquisition in Africa. MFS acquisition of Baxibox (Capricorn Digital)
I built Baxibox 2.0 with the Capricorn digital team as a product consultant between August 2020 & November 2020. Following this success, I was offered the role of a product owner at Interswitch on 20th October 2020. Like almost every other Nigerian youth, that day is etched in my memory as it marked such a grim landmark in our recent history.
I officially commenced my role in November, months into the pandemic which left many nations in economic ruins. Where I joined as a Product owner and six months later got promoted to lead API products across the entire organization, Interswitch is Nigeria’s first digital technology unicorn who paved the way for others.
Above all things, seek ye first the kingdom and all things will be added to you. “Matthew 6:33”.
I was progressing in leaps, but I still wanted more for myself. I prayed about it as I typically do, and the opportunities abounded, however, I opted to go about the UK Global Talent route.
Our God the enabler of destinies
God’s best is never in the past but always in the future.
I moved to London on April 7th, 2022 as a Global Talent in digital technology. I joined RedCloud Technology shortly after as a Product Owner for API products.
RedCloud Technologies’ vision is to enable Open Commerce, this is simply restructuring the supply chain to democratize the way in which business is being conducted today.
Currently, I am the Head of Platform Services & Integrations at RedCloud. Sounds loaded but in simpler terms, I can describe my role as a hybrid between core technology and product management. I really enjoy my job and the impact I am able to make across the organization in terms of integrations, architecture designs, patterns, and structures. Operating in a role where I can apply my core strengths gives me great joy.
“Know thyself,” When you do, no contrary label will fit you.
When I look back on my journey over the past 4 years, I am astounded by how much and how quickly things have happened. I am blessed to have had people placed on my path that have held my hands and made my journey a bit smoother and even less lonely.
To every dreamer, know that your dreams are valid and God the maker of all good things will guide you. As Psalms 32:8 says “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you [who are willing to learn] with My eye upon you.”
Some of the books I have read within the past few years include, Fundamental of software architecture, system design 1 & 2 by Alex xu, A personal favorite is A Love Affair with failure when hitting rock bottom becomes a launchpad to success by Olakunle Soriyan and Dr. Akintoye. Amongst many other youtube channels, short courses, and developed relationships with people in positions I aspired to be in to gain knowledge of what it takes to get to where they are and avoid the pitfalls.
Kobe Bryant: “Once you know what failure feels like, determination chases success.”
accepting payments as an African business.
Over the years, Africa has evolved in terms of payments and how businesses accept payments in exchange for the value they create for their customers.
In this article, I will try to break down a few payment instruments and how they work. The goal is to aid businesses to make informed decisions as to how they operate in terms of receiving money for the value they create.
USSD - Unstructured Supplementary Service Data, is the cheapest and most accessible means of making electronic payments available. e.g 737 by Gtbank or 723 by Interswitch.
Cards - examples are Verve, Mastercard, Visa, this is the most adopted means of making the payment today in the world
POS - works with cards for physical locations and now it is being used as a ‘Bank’ for the unbanked.
Instant Transfers - Using Nigeria as a case study, you will find that Nibbss & Interswitch have built a network that enables fast and seamless p2p transfer of funds.
USSD - Unstructured Supplementary Service Data
Businesses today can accept payments seamlessly leveraging USSD payment channels, the good thing is SMEs/MSMEs do not need to own or build the technology that powers this service. However, businesses can subscribe to these services provided by trusted financial service partners E.g Interswitch *723#, Qrios, etc
For a typical business, all they need do to accept USSD payments is either one of two things, set up with a preferred service partner on how they want to collect payments or ask the provider to build the capacity for their business to accept payments leveraging their technology.
What do you need to have to set up? well, you need to have a website where the service calls (Please read my article on APIs to understand the different types of API calls ) for each transaction to be completed.
However, if you do not have one, then your chosen provider could build you a USSD string with your requirements, these may include:-
The type of payments you will like to collect
Your settlement bank, where your profit goes to
An example of this string would be *723*12# or *723*42#, it could be any number convention depending on what options are available, the first part 723 speaks to the service you are leveraging for your payment in this instance I used Interswitch’s 723 services, which could also be called Quickteller 723 service and the second is yours mostly called a subcode.
A typical example is *723# i.e Quickteller (*723#) is for making various types of payments leveraging the Quickteller service. However, a menu like the one below can be configured for any business that will like to collect payments via USSD.
Cards - Simple examples of card providers are Mastercard, Visa, or the Nigerian brand Verve owned by Interswitch Group.
As Africans, we should take great pride in the feat Verve has achieved, gaining the largest chunk of the market share in Nigeria over Visa and Mastercard.
Cards are often used to complete, web /online transactions however how does this work?
For every card transaction, there is an acquirer, issuer, merchant, bank, aggregator sometimes an acquirer and aggregator could be the same entity.
An acquirer is simply an entity that accepts the transaction from the user, this could be the owner of the technology being used to process the transaction. For example, Paystack, (a payment processor) or a POS, or an ATM.
The merchant is simply the owner of the transaction or the entity collecting the payment.
The issuer is the card provider that is Visa, Verve, Mastercard, discovery, AMEX, etc.
The aggregator is where the transactions are passed to be completed, such as Interswitch in Nigeria, an example of Interswitch being an aggregator and payment processor is the Interswitch payment gateway (aggregator) and Quickteller business or previously known as webpay (payment processor).
This means as a user, your transaction on Paystack or Quickteller business (payment processor) goes to an aggregator like Interswitch to be completed and then comes back to your dashboard as a successful transaction, this may seem like a lot however I assure you it all happens within those few seconds your browser loads or reloads after you must have entered card details and pin.
The bank is the entity that issues these cards to its users or customers e.g Access bank issues a verve or visa card.
What this means is for every transaction done, every one of these entities gets paid an agreed amount. Now let’s introduce a Point of Sale (POS) device to drive home the point.
POS is primarily a device used at physical locations by businesses to accept payments. However, there are more use cases now like Agency banking but for the sake of the topic above, let’s stick to how it is used as a method for accepting payments.
Reckon, I mentioned an Acquirer could be the aggregator as well, yes. for example, Interswitch is an African unicorn with various businesses positioned in different levels of the value chain of a card transaction or any electronic transaction hence could be the owner of a POS device, could own the card (verve), also aggregate the transaction as the Interswitch payment gateway.
Interswitch has a merchant acquiring business called Quickteller business, this aids business owners to create websites or storefronts, collect payments, manage transactions, etc for Free.
Instant Transfers - powered mostly by NIBBSS and Interswitch
For every transfer done from a bank account to another, there is a middle man who facilitates this, the service or middleman is called “Transfer Service” primarily started by NIBBSS along the way Interswitch also came into this space, this enables instant transfer across all banks.
All settlements are typically done (T +1), which means your bank will receive settlement a day later, essentially all banks typically have accounts or positions with each other where money moves whenever a customer transaction triggers it which is why you receive instant credit. The settlement happens later behind the scenes and this speaks to how far we have gone in terms of our payment infrastructure in Nigeria.
This type of payment is widely adopted by various small businesses as it has less cost to the business, customers tend to always want to use this method as well as it is also convenient for them. However, businesses must beware of bad actors and begin to adopt tools that mitigate these like payment links, you can create these for free on Quickteller business, Prospa, flutter wave, or paystack.
In Conclusion, every business has its model, and its business plan captures a target market, find a method of collecting payments that is simple & easy. As a merchant, it is also important to select what payment method is affordable and has low risk to your business efficiency, also mitigate the risk of doing business with bad actors.
So what is an API and how can this 10x your business revenue ?
We hear a lot about partnerships in our ecosystem, one Fintech is partnering with the other to provide a new solution and have you ever asked how ? Or maybe why ?
In this article, we will discuss “how” partnerships between two totally different companies come to be beyond documents being signed, hand shakes and pictures posted.
API
The full meaning of an API is Application programmable interface, these are a set of clearly defined methods of communication between various software components. Most tech companies build API’s for internal use and for external consumers. A typical example is your Uber application where you have google maps for navigation, Uber and google are two different companies however Uber is leveraging google map API’s to service their customers.
There are various types of API’s which every company who leverages technology release. Below are categories of API’s,
For this article, we will be focusing on API’s for external customers. There are governances, securities and authentications around these API’s as businesses do not want to expose their services to bad actors or targeted malicious agents. Also, API’s power a front-end (user interface) however it doesn’t necessarily need an interface. There are various platforms for testing and documenting API’s, a simple example is Swagger ui, Postman these can be used to display documentation and test API’s.
For public API’s, they must be
1. Well documented
2. Secure
3. Functional
Documentation
All of these will be useless if there is no proper documentation on how a service or an API works. This documentation includes a quick start guide, authentication information, Api request types, sample code for popular programming languages, Tutorials, SDK examples (if available).
Documentation may be static and interactive. The latter allows for trying out APIs and see return results and usually consists of two columns: human and machine. The human column contains API descriptions, and the machine one has a console to make calls and contains info that clients and servers will be interested in when testing the API.
Mode of Authentications
Publicly available API’s usually have some form of Authentication or Authorization. In most cases, Authenticated requests are differentiated from regular requests via special Http header(s) or cookies. These headers or cookies are mostly identifiers that are tied to a particular customer. For example:- A company “A” wants to use the API of another company “B”. Company B then goes ahead to create an identifier for company A. The possible ways company A can choose to implement this “identifier” varies as different technologies exist for solving such problems like HMAC, JWT , uuid each with its own different way of implementation.
HTTPS
It’s the transport protocol ( how data is transferred over the internet ) with an extra layer of security ( SSL ). This layer makes data transferred encrypted in a way that only the client and server can understand.
URL
Stands for a Uniform resource locator. It refers to a unique address that is used to locate resources over the internet. Resources could be images, https etc. In this context URL is the address for the API server and would mostly be called “endpoint”
API request types
We use HTTP verbs, to perform CRUD operations e.g create , read , update and delete.
GET request
An HTTP method that’s principally used for fetching data. Data can be added to GET request parameters
POST request
An HTTP method that’s principally used for sending data to the server. For POST requests a “request body” is required.
PUT OR PATCH request
An HTTP methods that’s used for updating data on the server. For PUT requests a “request body” is required. N.B:- this request completely replaces the resource.
DELETE request
An HTTP method that’s principally used for deleting data on the server.
For every request, there is a response and in API calls there are various types of response formats. We will be looking at the JSON (JavaScript object notation) response structure which is supported by Rest API’s. REST is the most popular however there are others like SOAP.
REST is considered a simpler alternative to SOAP, which many developers find difficult to use because it requires writing a lot of code to complete every task and following the XML structure for every message sent. REST follows another logic since it makes data available as resources. Each resource is represented by a unique URL, and one can request this resource by providing its URL.
Web APIs that comply with REST architectural constraints are called RESTful APIs. These APIs use HTTP requests (AKA methods or verbs) to work with resources: GET, PUT, HEAD, POST, PATCH, CONNECT, TRACE, OPTIONS and DELETE.
RESTful systems support messaging in different formats, such as plain text, HTML, YAML, XML, and JSON, while SOAP only allows XML. The ability to support multiple formats for storing and exchanging data is one of the reasons REST is a prevailing choice for building public APIs these days.
JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is a lightweight and easy-to-parse text format for data exchange. Each JSON file contains collections of name or value pairs and ordered lists of values. Since these are universal data structures, the format can be used with any programming language.
A simple Get request and response below:-
Base URL
This refers to the URL from which other endpoints on an API can be derived from. E.g
Considering the url “https://findme.com/10001” , the base url is “https://findme.com” as other endpoints like “https://findme.com/user/profile”, “https://findme.com/all” can be derived from it. For the endpoints, described “/user/profile” and “/all” are said to be paths
HTTP Status codes
These are standard numbers that are generally used to know the nature of the response returned from the server. E.g A response returned from an API with status “400” means that the data sent to the server was bad i.e “Bad Request”, “200" means request sent was ok i.e “ OK” See more http codes here.
For businesses who aim to grow, or to 10x your revenue, the most notable path from this article is collaboration, some services would take months or years to build however there are companies who have these today. The onus is on business owners, developers, product managers to think outside the box around various services and confirm that their business licenses are in order to resell those services (if yes, go ahead to request API’s from said company).
In conclusion,
For every partnership, within the Fintech space or between two software companies there are various API’s calls behind the scenes delivering the user experience the end-user consumes and also comes to love, a perfect example is watching YouTube videos on your Twitter timeline or paying your cable tv bills on bank applications or even accessing this medium post from various platforms.
To improve our way of life, we need to build software that makes living easier and collaborate when or where there are opportunities to foster business growth.