Tech expert, Emmanuel Aina, has always been passionate about building and creating. In this interview with SEGUN ADEBAYO, Aina who is a co-founder of Frain Technologies speaks on how his technology contribution spanning across several sectors earned him a distinguished award from the Lagos State Government recently.
How do you feel being recognized by the government for your technology contributions so far in your career?
It feels good. It is definitely still day one, there is still a lot more to be done. But for most of this, I believe this is a step in the right direction to encourage my peers to keep pushing the boundary of what is possible.
You’ve been able to do so much from a very young age. What can you say is your driving force?
So many things; if I’m being honest. I did not grow up in a wealthy environment; I grew up in an environment where everything about life was calculated. I have a lot of uncles and aunties whom I could learn from their mistakes and successes. One was common in the stories that led to comfort and peace of mind, hard work. Every success story I learnt about always emphasised on hard work and risks. I can say that I grew up very fast, due to the kind of environment I was raised in. I knew I wanted much more than what I had, I knew I couldn’t afford to continue the circle. I basically wanted more, and the peace of mind that comes with it. The only way I know to achieve that is hard work and God’s grace. Thankfully, I was able to make a career from what I love doing.
.
In the space of six years, you’ve worked across over four technology industries, how did you come across these opportunities?
I guess the great job that I’ve done speaks for itself. Like we typically say here in Lagos, na them dey rush us. Taking out time to write and publish articles on my blog and giving talks about my learnings as I grew was definitely an advantage for me. With that coming across opportunities for me was a walk in the park.
Â
You were recognised by the government based on your impact on the tech field as a young adult, I noticed you worked at United Capital at the same time they rebranded as a tech driving investment firm and got awarded for that.
Yes. Trust me I was quite shocked myself when I got the communication about being considered for the role. Prior to working at United Capital, I mostly worked at startups, growing to the level of working at a large scale enterprise company was huge for me. I’ve always been the youngest in every team I worked with, and that was the same case there. I believe whoever introduced me there did a good job of expressing good words about me, so I got the amount of respect I needed to be confident enough to get my job done. I felt like working at United Capital was a great opportunity so I made sure I was always at my 101 percent. I rebuilt their entire mobile application which their customers were using to manage their billions of naira in investment. I couldn’t afford anything going wrong. It was a hybrid mobile application, so I delivered an Android and iOS app for them. They were going through a digital overhaul in the entire company at the time, so it made my work a lot easier considering the number of legacy systems a company like that is bound to have.
Thankfully the hard work paid off, United Capital was awarded based on their customer platform which I built since 2019 a number of times, proud moments. I was invited by every CEO in the business at every point of recognition the company got that was as a result of the platform. Seeing that they are still growing based on that foundation still feels very rewarding till today.
Looks like you were behind most of the biggest technology growth in Nigeria in the past few years.
Funny enough, I wouldn’t argue that if you say so. From building the tech that made LifeBank the first and number health technology company in Nigeria, to building the first Peer to Peer crypto exchange platform in Nigeria, enabling United Capital to become the fastest growing investment company in Africa, and building the first fintech super app in Nigeria at Tangerine Africa. I’m thankful for the opportunities.
Yes, you were a lead engineer at Tangerine Africa. Looks like you basically replicated your work from United Capital there.
I wish it was that easy though. While you can regard the United Capital investment app as a super app, it is focused on investment, while Tangerine Africa has grown into an all in one financial platform giving you almost every financial service you might need.
You held a leadership role at Tangerine Africa. That’s another large enterprise group of companies.
They say a job well done means more work. I think of myself as a very thoughtful and considerate person. Considering I’m a very hands-on technical person, I think it gave me an advantage while hiring and working with my peers as a lead engineer. At this point I’ve built a whole lot of systems and platforms, my experience was evident in my service delivery, so my suggestions and directions were always taken seriously, even though I was still the youngest on the team. Although, I did not start at Tangerine as a lead engineer, I was hired as the only frontend engineer when the company put together its first tech team, so my first hand experience building the first versions of the company’s products was respected considering the huge positive business impact and accolades I received on them.
As a technical lead, what was your responsibility?
For me it was simple, make sure we shipped products and updates that have a cumulative positive business impact, make sure we shipped something I’ll (consumers) love to use and help my engineers become a better version of me.
Yes, adapting to this role wasn’t the easiest for me. Letting go and trusting people to do something I can easily do in a shorter time span needed some getting used to. Soon enough, we all got used to ourselves and picked up on the standard and example I layed down.
Yes, finally this brings me to Frain Technologies and Convoy. Are these two different things?
No, Frain Technologies is the company name and Convoy is the product name. We intend to build more tools beyond just Convoy. Fun fact, our first product was called Frain, hence the company name. Frain was a third party monitoring app. We built it so that engineers can monitor the status of every platform they use to power their infrastructure so that they can know when a platform is down as soon as it happens before customers start figuring out. It was quite a huge one when we launched. Emmanuel Aina’s diverse work experience across various technology sectors underscores his exceptional talent and versatility. My career has spanned health technology startups, blockchain and cryptocurrency technology companies, one of Africa’s largest investment firms, United Capital, and finally, Tangerine Africa, the fastest-growing financial technology company in Africa. However, I decided to pursue his true calling by focusing on what I do best—building developer tools. I launched Convoy internationally, expanding its reach beyond Nigeria’s borders. This is not My first foray into building such tools. In the past, I developed an AI developer tool for CI/CD systems, showcasing his innovative prowess.
READ ALSO:Â Hausa communities in Ibadan express commitment to orderliness at Sabo
and then