What are the motives behind Yomi Denzel Foundation? Why did you venture into this programme?
My aim is to give many Nigerian youths access to all the tools and knowledge including the resources they need. I want to find motivated people and give them the same opportunity I had, which they don’t have. Thanks to my parents and the country I was born in. This is the reason I want to give a chance to people who are motivated.
Who are your targets and why did you choose Nigeria as your base?
For now, my goal is to help more people every year. So basically, I want to grow the Foundation as much as I can and my long-term goal is to help thousands of young adults get better professional life through the Foundation. I chose Nigeria as my centre because I’m from Nigeria, the country I love, and I think this is one of the countries in the world where there is the most determined people. Every Nigerian wants to have a better life, everyone is hardworking, and I think just with giving access to tools and education, we can make a huge difference, because a lot of people already have the right mentality.
We have one centre in Lagos and another in Ibadan. So, if you live in these cities, then we are happy to welcome you into the Foundation.
The minister for digital media has also begun to do some work in ICT in the last one year or so, your Foundation has, however, been on ground for over two years now. What’s your plan for collaboration with the government?
I think that the government can have a huge impact on what we are trying to do because they have resources and they also can distribute knowledge to a wider population.
There are three things: first I’m happy that they also invested in this mission. I am glad it is something important to the government as well. The second thing is that if we can provide government with any help whatsoever, we are happy to do so. So if we have experience from years of doing this, that will be useful to the programme they are trying to implement, we are happy to help. The third thing is that we would love to partner in order to help more people. So maybe they can help us and give us some resources and publicity. Yes, if they can shine the light on us or give us access to resources, then we would greatly appreciate it because we are working a lot for this mission and we are certain that they can help us in doing it.
How would you assess the government youth programme?
I think it’s the start obviously, but I am impressed and happy that they also think this is important and are investing resources into it. Because when we started, I was surprised that there were not a lot of other organisations doing the same thing because I think that it can really help people’s lives.
When I see the money that people are making in Europe working with computers, the internet, coding, AI, with all of these things that we are teaching, and I see young talented people that are capable of doing it, I think it is a huge waste of resource that people are not learning this. So I think this is a huge opportunity and I’m happy that the government is seeing it and I think that we should do even more so that we can help so many people.
What impact do you think the programme will have on the youth?
I think the impact is tremendous, in a few months we can change somebody’s entire future. For somebody who is ready for this, you need the motivation, the will, and the knowledge. We have people with the motivation, we just need to give them just the tools and then we can have some incredible success stories. I think in Europe, there are all the tools you need, all the knowledge you need, but they are not motivated. But I think in Nigeria, it’s the opposite, you have people that are amazingly motivated, but sometimes they just need a little push, and that’s why the Foundation is so important.
The Foundation is training the third set of young people right now, how would you rate the impact you have had with the last two sets?
Honestly, it has surpassed my expectation. Every year I go to see the project or the work that the students have done, and I see that they learned and they also did a lot of things. They were able to create some websites, some apps, some algorithm, that were working, and I am impressed with the result. But the most impressive things were the success stories they already had.
We have several students that are admitted into schools, universities, or got admitted into internships. We have one student who won a golden competition. He beat people that actually studied in the university for a few years, only with the training he got in a few month with the YDF Foundation. He actually beat them and he came first. We have a lot of students reporting that they made great connections, they found friends for life, and they got skills that they know will help them in the future.
So I’m really happy with the result we’ve got so far. But I know that this is not enough. I know that we can do even better on a larger scale, and that is what I am looking for, for the future of the Foundation.
Participants have been coming for this programme, what is the selection criteria and process of admission for the YDF programme?
The main thing we look for is motivation, so we have actually a few tests that students need to pass to get into the Foundation. The tests are not difficult. The most important thing is the effort that will be put into the tests which help us to see who is really motivated, and who is going to take the Foundation seriously. So this is the main criteria we use and this is how we select those we admit.
Since you are not based in Nigeria do you have any foreign or local partner support?
We do not have any. What we’ve done for the past two years is that we give computers to the best students, So they have like a tool to keep practicing what they learned, and keep progressing with the skills that they have been trained in. So basically, after the programme we don’t have any financial support for the students. After the training, it’s on them to monetise and make the best out of the skills they learned during their stay at the Foundation. And as mentioned before, we already have great successes with these students getting internships, education and jobs.
What is the duration of the programme and who provides all the academic tools like professional exam fees, internet facilities, computer systems, etc. to facilitate the training?
The programme runs for nine months. Six months of training and three months for projects development. Regarding the tools, we partner with a company who provides teachers in specific skills. We also have people on ground helping us with the facilities and the management of the students.
We also invested in computers, the classrooms equipment and we also ensure that the students have a good environment to learn. The programme starts on the 1st of August every year, where we begin the orientation process, and then on the 5th of August, they start lectures. We first have Python, then we train them in Data Science and then Machine Learning and we go on to Block Chain. After that, the students sit for the exams to get their certification in Python from the Python Institute. Finally, we have the graduation in April where we celebrate the success of different students and we reward them with surprises of gifts.
We also get to meet the parents of the students. It is always a very nice way to finish the academic year.
What is your long term plan for the Foundation and the graduates?
There are three things I want to improve during the next few years. First, the number of students. We doubled the number in the Foundation last year when we opened the new centre in Ibadan. We are basically looking to continue scaling up that way every year. Secondly, we want to get partnerships to improve the number of people that we help and also the quality of the help.
If we get a partnership like maybe more computers, maybe being able to invest in more teachers, maybe also get a free space to rent or at a discounted rate, because we spend so much on rent, especially in Lagos.
So, we are looking for partners. Lastly, I would love to see during the next few years partnerships with companies or institutions for the best students to get either jobs or internships or scholarships. That is also something we can welcome in the future, maybe the top five students could get maybe a space in a company or an internship or they get a scholarship, or maybe the top 10, the top 20. This is the kind of thing we can put in place to help further the different people in the Foundation.
So who is Yomi Denzel? What do you do?
Basically, since I was a child, I always followed the road to succeed, and I was always ready to do anything that I could do to make my dreams a reality. At first, I wanted to become a professional football player, then I went into the military. I wanted to join the Special Forces, then I knew that it wasn’t a good way to make a living. So, I went to the university. I was a broke student living in a very small apartment and I was studying so much for the exams and at some point, I stumbled upon a way to launch a business online. I started doing it and I made my first sale and from then on, I found a way to make money on my own, from my computer. I discovered the power of the internet and technology and I worked day and night as a student. My business took off, I became a millionaire in about one year. So, I started as a broke student, and in one year, I was a millionaire from my bedroom as a student.
I got accepted into university for further studies after my first degree. I kept on building my business as I was studying. I then launched other businesses. Now I run like four different businesses. I work with over 100 people all over the world in my companies. I documented all of that in my YouTube channel that has over one million subscribers. Every week I share my learnings with hundreds of thousands of people from my YouTube channel on how to live a better life, make more money and do sustainable businesses. Doing so, I reached a point where I was like okay I’m lucky, I made all my dreams a reality, and I thought about the fact that a lot of people don’t have the same opportunities that I had, and that’s why I started the Foundation.
So, I invested tens of thousands of dollars every year from my own pocket without any help from any company or government, just because this is very important to me and I want to keep doing it on a bigger scale every year because of the amazing results we have had so far with the Foundation.
What did you study and where? Are you married or single or engaged?
I studied in HEC Lausanne, Switzerland, where I had a degree in Business Economics, where I graduated top five in my class and I got a chance to go and study MIT at Harvard. I proceeded for my Masters in Harvard but stopped to go and manage my businesses.
To your second question, I am in a relationship since four years but not engaged yet.
