TechnesstivityTaxiPark Developers Drop Out Of Uni, Return To Lagos To “Focus”
In March this year, we covered “TaxiPark” – an app from Interactive Shack that lets you view and call cabs from Taxi companies in Lagos. By June, TaxiPark had added cabs in Abuja as well as integrated Google Maps into its application.
Fast-forward into August and I’m talking to Interactive Shack’s co-founder Rodney Jackson-Cole and he tells me he’s back in Lagos. So I thought “Oh yeah. Everyone’s back to Lagos for the holiday.” Turns out Rodney and his other co-founder, Timi Omai have decided to drop out of their university education and return home to work on their app.
Rodney says he’s realised TaxiPark could replace the entire point of physical Taxi Parks. The Interactive Shack team has been building TaxiPark as a system that will give taxi companies the power to monitor their drivers and manage transactions on the go. Within the last few months they’ve found an investor, and they’re hoping to sign a deal with Metro Taxi soon.
Rodney Jackson-Cole, Co-founder Interactive Shack
Born of a Nigerian Yoruba father and Sierra-Leonian mother, 23 year-old Rodney Jackson-Cole used to be a 2nd year student of Information and Communications Technology at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, Accra. He began programming after an Aptech course in 2009 by starting a Twitter clone called “Mimze”. Mimze never went mainstream but Rodney got a lot of experience while running it.
Like almost all Nigerian parents, Rodney’s family wasn’t initially in support of him dropping out. They’re still pleading with him to get back to school. Rodney currently stays at his co-founder, Timi Omai’s house with support from Timi’s mum. Although she still wants them both back in school.
Timi Omai, Co-founder Interactive Shack
Timi Omai on the other hand finished his secondary school education at Ronik Comprehensive School, Lagos. He then took part in a professional course at Aptech where he obtained an Advanced Diploma in Software Engineering.
Ugochi Ugbomeh, third Co-founder, Interactive Shack. Currently in Scotland
The third co-founder of Interactive Shack is Ugochi Ugbomeh. Ugochi studied Geology at the University of Ghana because they didn’t have a computer science course at the time. However, she still had a passion for computers so she got an MSc in Information Technology from the University of Glasgow, Scotland. Ugochi currently lives and works as a Realtime-Analyst at Teleperformance in Glasgow .
Timi and Rodney aren’t the first students to drop out of school to focus on programming applications. We’ve seen it happen time and time again from Bill Gates to Mark Zuckerberg and recently, in Africa with the Zambian developer of FistDrive, Daryl Lukas.
Will dropping out of university and focusing on technology startups be a trend in Africa? What do you think?
Please leave us a comment.
its a great idea and worth dropping out for esp as they have an investor…no competition….they need to move fast