Secured $12.9m (N9.9b) of foreign scholarships for Africans in 4 years. She just turned 34.

Tell us a little about yourself. What were your growing up years like?

So I am the founder of Edward consulting. I’m also a co-founder of Kinnect. Regarding my growing up days, I was the last child of four. Both my parents were in academia. My dad and mum met at the University of Ife, now renamed Olabisi Onabanjo University. My mum studied pharmacy while my dad studied medicine and they both went on to do their PhD at Manchester University. They later came back to Ife to teach medicine and pharmacy before we moved to Lagos because my dad was made the medical director of Pfizer in Nigeria.

So, I was actually born in Ile-Ife. I’m an Ife baby. I grew up in a family that loved education and amongst people that were very excellent. They were always like, what’s worth doing is worth doing well. They were very passionate. They were always publishing, writing, doing research and different presentations. And you know, there wasn’t any expectation for us to go into sciences but thankfully my oldest brother is a doctor, so he would have fulfilled their secret desire, I hope. And then being the last born, I didn’t feel pressure at all. And I think that something that was very formative of who I am today was losing my dad. I lost my dad when I was 6 years old. He was assassinated on Christmas day in Ikeja, around Oba Akran. And it’s one of those things which though it happened 28 years ago in 1995, still doesn’t seem real. So as a single mum, my mum raised me and my 3 siblings all by herself and she really did an amazing job. Honestly, one thing that I have learned from her is that there’s absolutely nothing that one cannot achieve. Suddenly having to raise 4 kids ages 6 to 16 and still being able to climb up the career ladder like she has successfully done just proves that. She became the first female Dean of pharmacy in Nigeria. That was at Olabisi Onabanjo University where she later also became a Deputy Vice Chancellor. She is a recipient of a national honour being made a Member of the Order of the Federal Republic. She accomplished all this while single handedly raising 4 children. And so when you’ve seen that kind of strength, commitment to excellence in her career and how she still manages to be a loving and supportive mum, it does something to you. She went all out to make sure we never felt the void of not having our dad around or fear that because of his absence, we would not get the best. When it came to me going to university, she made up her mind that I would go abroad. There wasn’t much discussion over it so I just took it that she was going to figure it out. So you know, when you’ve been raised with that kind of attitude and mentality, it motivates you to be excellent and to do your best wherever you find yourself. So it’s either you show up or you don’t show up. But if you’re there, you have to give it a hundred percent. So yes, that was my childhood.