About Ridwan Olalere

Ridwan Olalere has worked in various roles in the tech industry since 2011. Ridwan began their career as a Product Engineer at NextMynds in 2011. Ridwan then worked as a Software Developer at NextStep Systems, Inc. in 2012, followed by a Software Developer role at Novatia Ltd. in 2013. In 2015, they founded bestprices.ng, a price comparison website in Nigeria, and also held a Software Developer role at Hotels.ng. From 2016 to 2018, they worked as a Senior Software Developer at Flutterwave INC, Founder at forLoop Africa, and Director of Payment Product, Senior Director of Operations (ORide), and Director of Operations (ORide) at OPay. In 2020, they were appointed as Country Manager | Nigeria at Uber and Chief Executive Officer at Lemonade Finance. Ridwan Olalere has a comprehensive educational background. From 2001 to 2007, they attended Federal Government Academy Suleja. From 2007 to 2008, they attended Bells University of Technology, where they earned a Bsc in Physics and Electronics. From 2008 to 2012, they attended Aeronautical Engineering Jobs, where they earned a Bsc in Aeronautics Engineering, as well as a Bachelor of Engineering (B.Eng.) in Aeronautics Engineering. In addition, Olalere has obtained multiple certifications from Coursera Course Certificates, including Reviews & Metrics for Software Improvements (September 2016), Agile Planning for Software Products (May 2016), Client Needs and Software Requirements (March 2016), Software Processes and Agile Practices (January 2016), and Introduction to Software Product Management (December 2015). He began his career as a WordPress theme developer for MyChinaals (BuddyPress) and ShenyangOnline, working from his dorm room at Shenyang Aerospace University. Transitioning to CodeIgniter development using PHP, he also wrote small C and Java modules for the aircraft industry, assisting colleagues during his studies. In his final year as an aircraft major, he developed a CATIA-based software to automate airplane model development, utilizing CATIA macros with VB6. Currently, he works at Novatia Limited, a company he co-founded, focused on developing mobile and web software solutions to address challenges faced by companies in Nigeria. Specialties include Java, Android, Python, Django, Javascript, ReactJs, Node, and XMPP.