The success story of Abiola, the Chief Executive Officer of Gamsole, a mobile game apps development company that currently develops games for Windows phone mobile and Windows 8 PC must be interesting to any start-up in the technology ecosystem.
The software code warrior whose games has over 9 million downloads around the world linked his story to the support and mentorship of Microsoft Nigeria.
Recalled that Gamsole added 19 games from creativity to casual games to its inventions and has on its stable, 36 apps.
Abiola who has won several recognitions, including the 2010 winner of the Microsoft Imagine Cup software competition in Nigeria while narrating his success story said that, “I started coding at age 15 and later went to the University to study Computer Science.
Abiola Olaniran
Abiola Olaniran
“With my mentorship by one of Microsoft’s finest developer platform evangelists as one of Microsoft Student Partners, in 2010 together with my team, we won the Imagine Cup national finals in Nigeria and went on to represent Nigeria at the Microsoft Imagine Cup Finals in Poland. From then, I have been able to develop myself to become an entrepreneur to reckon with in the technology space.
“Growing up in Nigeria, I was always going to the Microsoft office to get support from the evangelist. This is something you don’t see on other platforms. I got involved with Microsoft when a couple of technology evangelists came to my school, and the interaction with them led me into taking technology and software programming seriously.
“First of all, Microsoft developer tools have the best support and online developer community. Hence, learning any of these tools is very easy compared to other platforms. As a student, I was very surprised at how fast I was able to learn frameworks like XNA game studio and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF).
“In this age of rapid innovations, a developer must go with a technology that is not just fantastic but also easy to learn in order to move ahead of competition.Upon graduation from the university, I founded Gamsole and I have been developing games solely for the Windows Phone store since April, 2013.
In his message to upcoming developers, he said that, “Have a good understanding of what gaming is about. Master the code properly, master data sketching, then everything will be in place because as soon as you imagine a particular scenario, it makes it very easy for you to tackle the problem and then solve it.”
The Managing Director, Microsoft Nigeria, Kabelo Makwane, who was tickled with success story of the celebrated Nigerian entrepreneur said that, “In Abiola’s case, if we can inspire, if we can enable, if we can support more of this kind, I see we can begin to make meaningful impact.”
For his mentor at Microsoft Nigeria, Shina Oyetosho, now Director, Developer Platform who is passionate about start-ups has this to say: “I discovered Abiola and his innovation at a very early stage and I figured that this is someone I can help grow. With good mentorship, I imagined what he would be in two years. The two years is now.”
Dele Akinsade, Server & Tool BG Lead, Microsoft WECA, Microsoft Nigeria added that “the fact that a story like this could come out very quickly from a student to a business owner is something that we are proud of collectively as a company. I am also very proud of the fact that he is now seen as a mentor to others as well.”
“Abiola is an amazing example of the Africa that we want the world to know about. He is young, he is creative, he is ambitious and he is very, very hardworking. Abiola is Africa.” Ali Faramawy, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft MEA said.

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Nice.

Lord knows the number of people with same level of intelligence and motivation, just waiting for an opportunity like Abiola had.

That's why we just want the government to at least provide the environment for us to grow, a chance to test our speed, our hunger to be the best, to stretch our imagination; and see if we won't run ahead of our peers elsewhere...

semitunde:
Nice.

Lord knows the number of people with same level of intelligence and motivation, just waiting for an opportunity like Abiola had.

That's why we just want the government to at least provide the environment for us to grow, a chance to test our speed, our hunger to be the best, to stretch our imagination; and see if we won't run ahead of our peers elsewhere...

Why wait on the government?