One Friday night time in 2016, Godswill Adie, a second-year pc science scholar on the College of Calabar, slipped off-campus to attend a good friend’s girlfriend’s birthday celebration. The night time was a blur of laughter and celebration. The following morning, one other good friend’s name jolted Adie awake with an sudden alternative: an internship interview at Nugi Applied sciences.
With solely ₦100 for the ₦150 bus journey, the 2 walked half the space after which boarded a bus halfway to the workplace. Adie, nonetheless in his social gathering garments, arrived to seek out the workplace buzzing with younger individuals on their laptops, coding, stunned by the hive of exercise for a Saturday. He interviewed with the chief know-how officer, presenting a rudimentary chat app impressed by Fb and an incomplete logistics platform as proof of his abilities. The CTO was impressed and supplied Adie an unpaid internship on the spot. He began work instantly.
In the present day, at 27, Adie shouldn’t be solely Nugi’s CTO but additionally a shareholder, steering an organization that has advanced from creating white-label software program for instructional shoppers to serving authorities companies and launching subsidiaries together with Nugi Farms, O2 Constructions, and TerraGrid, below the Nugdi Group.
In an business the place builders swap jobs each two years for higher pay or faster profession progress, Adie’s seven-year tenure is uncommon, particularly for a high-performing expertise who has climbed from intern to C-suite. He acknowledges this anomaly however remembers a pivotal second early in his profession that has anchored his seven-year journey: “No matter I need to obtain on this world, I can do it proper on this firm.”
Following his curiosity
Adie’s ambition started modestly, rooted in curiosity. As a toddler, he dismantled radios and followers to unravel their mechanics, incomes scoldings from his mother and father however fueling a lifelong inquisitiveness. In secondary faculty, he launched a soccer information weblog on Blogger and grew fascinated by how textual content fields reworked into net pages. This sparked his self-taught journey into HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP—net improvement languages. By commencement, he had constructed his first webpage, a fundamental reproduction of his weblog. “It was most likely horrible by immediately’s requirements,” he says with a smile, “however it was an incredible begin.”
In 2015, Adie enrolled on the College of Calabar to check pc science, however throughout a chaotic hostel transfer his laptop computer fell, its display screen detaching from the keyboard, rendering it ineffective. For a month, he was pissed off, fearing he’d lose his coding abilities. Like all software program engineer with no cash to purchase a pc, he started writing code by hand in an train e book, testing it within the college’s pc lab or a good friend’s PC when attainable. “My cousin thought I used to be loopy,” he informed me throughout a digital name, chuckling. “The e book was stuffed with code that made no sense to him. Typically, I didn’t even know what I used to be writing. I’d copy snippets from on-line tutorials to run later.”
Finally, his three older brothers, who had taken on caregiving roles after their father died in 2009, pooled their cash to purchase him a greater laptop computer. Adie retains it in his workplace at Nugi immediately, a relic of their perception in him.
Fast profession progress
When Adie joined Nugi Applied sciences in 2016 as an intern, the corporate was a “software program store,” constructing client-driven options. It supplied universities with instruments for fee portals, hostel purposes, and admission processing. Its personal product, Cloud College, aimed to handle major and secondary faculty operations: admissions, e-learning, lodging, medical data, and PTA conferences— the product has since been shelved because of partnership points. Adie joined mid-development of the CloudSchool. Working with a group in a company setting, a jarring shift for a coder who was used to working independently.
“It was very difficult,” he admitted. He struggled with a codebase written by three to 4 engineers utilizing a PHP framework, in contrast to the uncooked PHP he’d mastered. “I couldn’t perceive what the earlier builders did,” he mentioned. The framework—a standardised coding package deal—required studying its construction. The documentation proved very helpful in mapping the mission’s logic. He labored on Cloud College for 2 months earlier than shifting to client-facing purposes.
Three months into his internship, Adie’s dedication caught his boss’s eye, Adie remembers. One random day that 12 months, at age 19, he was summoned to the CEO’s workplace, his coronary heart pounding with concern of reprimand. As an alternative, the CEO mentioned, “I’ve been watching you. You’re an excellent match for what we do right here.” The CTO formalised a full-time provide, handing him a contract. “I needed to signal it immediately,” Adie laughed, “however they informed me to take it house, learn it with somebody senior, and return a photocopy.”
Adie had already made up his thoughts to just accept the place irrespective of the circumstances or proposed pay. Work was all he cared about; he even eschewed an energetic social life, and he credit this hyperfocus for his progress within the firm.
Balancing faculty and work was grueling; he prioritised work, seeing it as a sensible extension of his research. “I’d apply work classes in class, and work taught me issues I’d later perceive in idea,” he mentioned. He skipped lessons however studied for exams, counting on colleagues for updates. The workplace grew to become house; he’d crash on a sofa or keep weeks in a room the place senior builders lived.
The workplace’s youthful vitality and visionary management cemented Adie’s loyalty. “It was stuffed with younger individuals I might relate to, excelling at what they did,” he mentioned. His boss articulated a transparent mission—automating consumer processes—inspiring him even throughout lean occasions when salaries lagged. “It wasn’t concerning the cash,” Adie mentioned. “I noticed myself as a part of the corporate.” He felt at peace, discussing life challenges together with his mentor-boss. Seeing friends rise to greater roles, he envisioned his personal management path.
“The setting was conducive for progress,” he mentioned. In 2019, he grew to become lead developer, and a few 12 months later, rose to develop into deputy chief know-how officer. He now leads the corporate’s know-how technique and improvement. .
From coder to strategic chief
Main a group of 40 engineers, Adie navigates numerous personalities to align with Nugi’s imaginative and prescient. He nurtures pushed people, a few of whom remind him of his early hustle of prioritising work above all else. However a few of them, he notes, have fully totally different life philosophies, particularly the Gen Z builders, who prioritise work-life stability.
“It’s not unhealthy,” he notes, “however to maneuver past the center class—except you’re rich—you possibly can’t work nine-to-five.” In contrast to his period’s midnight grinds, some immediately disconnect after hours, unreachable for pressing fixes.
Adie says his workaround is to spend money on those that excel, providing raises and mission possession, whereas respecting others’ minimal effort. “Everybody has their targets,” he says. “Whenever you see these making unbelievable effort, you deliver them nearer, align them with targets.”
As CTO, Adie’s position transcends coding; he’s now concerned in shaping Nugi Group’s technique, turning merchandise into standalone corporations. He oversees product improvement, mission administration, consumer engagement, and deal-making. “It’s like nurturing a child from infancy to independence,” he says, his pleasure palpable. He says he sees himself rising with the corporate. “I need to take it [Nugi] to the subsequent stage,” he says.
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