Olugbenga Agboola is one of Africa’s most successful tech entrepreneurs. Flutterwave, one of Africa’s most prominent tech products, is used by many people in Nigeria and throughout Africa. However, little is known about his private life.
Olugbenga Agboola is a billionaire in the technology industry. He reportedly paid $7.1 million for a luxurious high-end residential property in Miami from Boschetti Group, a renowned Florida-based real estate development firm that specializes in luxurious high-end properties.
In this article, we will discuss five facts about Flutterwave’s founder and CEO.
His background is as follows: Olugbenga Agboola was born in Lagos State in 1985. He is a serial entrepreneur who co-founded Flutterwave with Iyinoluwa Aboji in 2016. They are commonly referred to as GBs in the tech industry.
When his business partner stepped down to focus on assisting other entrepreneurs in growing their startups and giving back to the community, GB took over as CEO of Flutterwave and has been instrumental in its growth ever since.
His Education:Â
Gbenga is a man with a wealth of knowledge and more skills than you can count. He received his primary and secondary education in Nigeria before moving on to further his education abroad. Gbenga has more academic credentials than you can shake a stick at.
He earned a master’s degree in business administration from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management in Cambridge. In addition, Olugbenga Agboola holds a master’s degree in behavioural engineering and information technology security.
EC-Council University in Albuquerque, New Mexico provided him with standard IT security certifications. Following that, he earned a degree in advanced computing and project management from the University of Westminster in London, UK.
In November 2012, he began and completed Fundamentals of Finance for Technical Executive, which advanced his academic career. In April 2013, Gbenga developed a Leading Edge Operations Plan.
In November 2014, he attended the Essential IT and Supply Chain Strategy and Management programme for non-IT executives. He learned how to use development tools during this training.
Olugbenga Egbula also studied Server Administration, Agent Management Systems, Ethical Hacking, JavaScript, PHP, PHP Apps, Product Lifecycle Management, Product Management, and Retail Banking.
How he started:Â
Prior to founding Flutterwave, Agboola worked for financial institutions such as the Royal Bank of Scotland, Standard Bank Nigeria, and Sterling Bank, as well as tech behemoths such as Google and PayPal. After creating several payment solutions that had been successfully implemented in various parts of the world, they began to consider how they could implement the same type of payment solutions in Africa.
There were few payment systems in use at the time, but because they were so disconnected, consumers had few options for sending money across borders or platforms. Their dedication to finding solutions resulted in the creation of Flutterwave.
Agboola founded Flutterwave in 2016 to fill a market void. They hoped that by developing a single-use payment solution that would allow any merchant or small business to accept payments without having to deal with the issues associated with using multiple payment providers, they would be able to significantly improve Africa’s payments infrastructure. Nature is fragmented. It quickly became popular. Flutterwave’s impact has already reached over 15 countries four years after its launch.
His achievements:Â
Agboola was part of the Young African Leaders Initiative in the Young African Leaders Initiative network from May 2014 to June 2015.
- They announced on 21 January 2020 that they managed to raise $35 million to facilitate more payments in Flutterwave. The company will use the funds to expand its operations in other countries.
- Under Agboola’s leadership, Flutterwave has been able to complete a Series B expansion round of funding. Their latest round of funding includes investments from Mastercard, CRE Ventures, Fintech Collective, 4DX Ventures, and Raba Capital.
- He is part of the Board of Directors for the Corporate Council on Africa.
- He is the chairman of the board of directors at the Great If Alumni Association Inc., formed from graduates and associates of Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria.
- Agboola became a member of the Impact Council, Fast Company, a monthly American business magazine comprised of entrepreneurs, technologists, corporate leaders, and designers, in 2019.
His Awards and Recognition:
Agboola was listed as one of the Quartz Africa Innovators 2019 on 19 September 2019.
- Agboola was part of a panel at the US Africa Business Summit in Maputo, Mozambique, and spoke during a session on Transforming African Economies through Digitization on 20 June 2019.[15]
- In May 2019, Agboola was selected as one of six African entrepreneurs to join Endeavor, a non-profit organization that supports high-impact entrepreneurs around the world. It took place at Endeavour’s 87th International Selection Panel in Madrid, Spain from 24 April 2019 to 26 April 2019
