Sim Shagaya is a

Nigerian Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jour ...

media and technology entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of uLesson Education Limited - an app built to make education available to learners across Africa. He is the founder and former C.E.O of one of West Africa's largest

electronic commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manageme ...

website Konga.com and founder of E-Motion Advertising - a leading out-of-home media company acquired in 2019 by Loadstad Media. In 2014, he was named in

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

' list of "10 Most Powerful Men in Africa". In August 2019, Sim Shagaya was invited to and accepted to serve as a member of the Economic Advisory Council of the Executive Governor of his home town, Plateau State, Samuel Lalong.

Early life and education

Sim Shagaya was born in

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

where he served in the

Nigerian Army The Nigerian Army (NA) is the land force of the Nigerian Armed Forces. It is governed by the Nigerian Army Council (NAC). The Chief of Army Staff is the highest ranking military officer of the Nigerian Army. History Formation The Nigerian ...

after completing the Nigerian Military School. He completed most of his education in the US. He is a graduate of

George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , preside ...

and holds a Masters of Engineering degree from

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...

. He also graduated with an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

in 2003.

Career

Early career

Prior to the establishment of DealDey and

Konga.com Konga.com is a Nigerian e-commerce company founded in July 2012 with headquarters in Gbagada, Lagos State. It offers a third-party online marketplace, as well as first-party direct retail spanning various categories including consumer electronics ...

, Sim worked as a banker in South Africa under

Rand Merchant Bank FirstRand Limited, also referred to as FirstRand Group is the holding company of FirstRand Bank, and is a financial services provider in South Africa. It is one of the financial services providers licensed by the Reserve Bank of South Africa, ...

. He later moved to Nigeria where he became Google's head for Africa and went on to found a

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...

-based billboard advertising business called E-Motion in November 2005. Sim sits on the Economic Advisory Council of Plateau State, Nigeria. He cites

Hakeem Belo-Osagie Hakeem Belo-Osagie is a Nigerian businessman. He is chair of Metis Capital Partners an organisation focused on brokering and delivering attractive, large-ticket transactions in Africa to select blue chip international investment partners. He was ...

as the "biggest impact" in his career.

DealDey and Konga.com

Before Sim started DealDey and Konga.com, he created several websites like ''Alarena'', ''Jobclan'', ''Gbogbo'' and ''iNollyWood'' which were relatively unsuccessful. In March 2011, DealDey was launched after he convinced the board of the billboard company he owned to invest in DealDey. On 3 July 2012, he founded Konga.com with a capital from Swedish investment firm Kinnevik. According to Sim Shagaya, the primary aim of Konga.com is to ''"aggregate the youngest and fastest-growing market that was dispersed, under-served and that traditional retailers were simply failing to reach"''.

uLesson Education Limited

He founded the uLesson educational platform in 2020.

Awards and recognition

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shagaya, Sim 1976 births Living people 20th-century Nigerian businesspeople 21st-century Nigerian businesspeople Harvard Business School alumni George Washington University alumni Dartmouth College alumni Nigerian chief executives