Black Excellence: Meet 19-Year-Old Blockchain Engineer With A Startup After Dropping Out Of School

by Duke Magazine

In October 2021, Njoku Emmanuel, a 19-year-old Nigerian, co-founded Lazerpay, a crypto payment gateway firm. His path as an entrepreneur began seven years ago when his aunt taught him and his brother how to program computers.

Emmanuel’s aunt, a robotic engineer, believed it was vital to expose him to code, and he began coding immediately and has never looked back. On the other side, his father is an engineer and his mother is a schoolteacher.

Emmanuel began displaying indicators of exceptional promise in academics and skill acquisition at a young age. When he represented his school in the Maths Olympiad, he received honors. His feat was unsurprising, given that his classmates were still learning fundamental math while he was studying sophisticated mathematic issues.
Emmanuel’s foray into cryptocurrency began with a study of game creation and the use of C++ to create games. His parents encouraged him to pursue a career in medicine, but he chose to forge his path.

He chose to pursue electrical engineering at Enugu State University of Science and Technology instead of medicine (ESUT). He worked as an intern at Quiva Games, a game firm based in Enugu State, while at university.

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After a few classes in Enugu, though, he felt that what he was learning was a “waste of time.” Whatever he was taught in school fell short of his expectations. To put it another way, he was ahead of his peers.

“…And the math they were taught at the 100 level was similar to the math I learned in JSS 3/SS 1.” As a result, it became a waste of time for him,” he explained.

Later on, Emmanuel grew hooked on coding and lost interest in his studies. “Whenever I went to school, I would charge my laptop and code.” I kept it a secret from my folks. “I utilized the money they gave me to buy textbooks to buy coding courses on Udemy,” he explained.

When COVID-19 struck, closing schools all around Nigeria, Emmanuel saw it as an opportunity to focus on coding. He was hired as a mobile application developer at Kwivar, a buy-now-pay-later startup situated in Port Harcourt, in March 2020.

His parents couldn’t believe he could acquire a job during the epidemic, when firms were laying people off, for $70,000 (now $170). “They finally saw what I had seen since 2015,” he remarked, “yet the money isn’t enough motivation to not study medicine.”

He was offered a job as a blockchain developer at Project Hydro, a blockchain firm situated in the British Virgin Islands, a month later. For Emmanuel, this offer was a game-changer. He was given $700 a month and chose to drop out of school as a result of the offer.

He relocated to Enugu State to join a new firm, Xend Finance, decentralized finance (DeFi) network for credit unions, cooperatives, and people, after his term with the blockchain company.

He left Xend Finance subtly to pursue his route in the global blockchain ecosystem. Later, he moved to Dubai, which became his passport to the rest of the globe. He was awarded several contracts to construct cryptocurrency platforms. Later, he launched Lazerpay to compete with the industry’s major competitors.

He chose to pursue electrical engineering at Enugu State University of Science and Technology instead of medicine (ESUT). He worked as an intern at Quiva Games, a game firm based in Enugu State, while at university.

After a few classes in Enugu, though, he felt that what he was learning was a “waste of time.” Whatever he was taught in school fell short of his expectations. To put it another way, he was ahead of his peers.

“…And the math they were taught at the 100 level was similar to the math I learned in JSS 3/SS 1.” As a result, it became a waste of time for him,” he explained.

Later on, Emmanuel grew hooked on coding and lost interest in his studies. “Whenever I went to school, I would charge my laptop and code.” I kept it a secret from my folks. “I utilized the money they gave me to buy textbooks to buy coding courses on Udemy,” he explained.

When COVID-19 struck, closing schools all around Nigeria, Emmanuel saw it as an opportunity to focus on coding. He was hired as a mobile application developer at Kwivar, a buy-now-pay-later startup situated in Port Harcourt, in March 2020.

His parents couldn’t believe he could acquire a job during the epidemic, when firms were laying people off, for $70,000 (now $170). “They finally saw what I had seen since 2015,” he remarked, “yet the money isn’t enough motivation to not study medicine.”

He was offered a job as a blockchain developer at Project Hydro, a blockchain firm situated in the British Virgin Islands, a month later. For Emmanuel, this offer was a game-changer. He was given $700 a month and chose to drop out of school as a result of the offer.

He relocated to Enugu State to join a new firm, Xend Finance, decentralized finance (DeFi) network for credit unions, cooperatives, and people, after his term with the blockchain company.

He left Xend Finance subtly to pursue his route in the global blockchain ecosystem. Later, he moved to Dubai, which became his passport to the rest of the globe. He was awarded several contracts to construct cryptocurrency platforms. Later, he launched Lazerpay to compete with the industry’s major competitors.

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