You know how they say money, power and fame go together? Well, you can’t be too sure again. Everyone knows his Nairaland forum but not many know he is the brain behind it. Pull a seat and listen carefully. The story of Oluwaseun Osewa is a very interesting one.
We are not thrilled when we see a rich kid make it big in life – it is expected. The stories that thrill us the most is hearing the grass to grace stories and that exactly is our Oluwaseun’s story. We are so proud to call him “ours” because he has done so well for himself.
Starting Nairaland
It wasn’t an easy road for him, you see. He had started with a web-hosting business. It failed three months just after start-up, leaving him with just one client and forcing him to close down. He could have folded the cards then but he persisted and went on researching creative business ideas.
With a good knowledge of how the internet works, Oluwaseun could have gone into internet scams like most of his mate, but he didn’t. He created 3 forums: one for higher institution students, one for IT discussions, and one to cover the emerging GSM industry. All this happened sometime around 2003, when he was barely 23 years old.
In March two years later, from the experience he had gathered from these sites, he started Nairaland. It was and still is a platform for the Nigerian online community to discuss various topics of interests.
Nairaland he hoped would fetch him about N60,ooo a month now has over 1.4 million registered users and ranks as the 8th most visited site in Nigeria on Alexa. It is even said that Nairaland has a larger percent of internet users than Facebook in Nigeria.
Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg?
Some have named him the Mark Zuckerberg of Nigeria, only starting Nairaland a few months after Facebook and being one of Nigeria’s richest young entrepreneurs. Others have tagged him the Bill Gates of Nigeria, not because of his wealth (he isn’t that rich – yet), because he dropped out of his school to pursue his dream.
This indigene of Ogun state who has refused to move to Lagos, “the business capital of Nigeria, had enrolled to study Electrical Engineering in Obafemi Awolowo University before he dropped out in 1998.
He may not be a billionaire yet, but he has not failed to give to youths and people who are dreaming the life he is living. He has organized several entrepreneurship competitions on Nairaland and given exposure to some upcoming Nigerian internet entrepreneurs and designers.
On Forbes
He was ranked by Forbes as one of the 30 people under 30 who are Africa’s best young entrepreneurs. Even with his wealth and potential power in Nairaland, Oluwaseun “runs” from fame. He is not your regular rich-boy socialite you find on red carpets. He likes to be simply dressed in his traditional outfit.
He has his Nairaland office situated in Ota, Ogun state.
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