If you ask my colleagues what they know about me, many would say I am an “Ajala”. This stems from my adventurous spirit and my love for travel, especially since I have been to almost all countries in Europe. Now that I think about it, is there any place in Europe that I haven’t visited? Oh well, let me finish writing this story and think about it. 

My name is John, and I work as an enterprise architect for Moniepoint. I’ve been at Moniepoint cumulatively for 6 years, but in that time I've left the team and returned. Beyond travelling, I love getting positive reviews about products and features from users, which serves as fuel for the work I do. 

Let’s get into the story…

PS: Ajala means someone who loves to travel a lot.

Away from travel, how I got started with tech 

I’ve gotten a bit of a reputation with our team internally for always being someone who travels, but way before that, I had very different ideas for what I wanted to do with my life while growing up. 

I always thought I was going to study medicine and become a medical doctor. But right before I filled out my exam form, I thought to myself, studying to be a medical doctor means having to sit down in a place and read for a very long time. At that point in time, I was not ready for that as I prefer to read in batches. So, I registered myself for Computer Science at the University of Ibadan. 

I started trying to build stuff during my first year at the university. I quickly found a mentor at that time because that’s one thing that would really help anyone who wants to grow.  By the time I was in my 300 level, I was working for a company and even used to go to the office once a week. Everything just blew up from then. 

The journey before Moniepoint 

One of the best decisions I’ve made was to start working while still in school. So by the time I was done schooling, I would say I was fairly grounded and had the confidence to shoot for the stars. 

With this conviction, I relocated from Ibadan to Lagos in pursuit of better opportunities. Shortly after, I went to Ghana to work as a software developer. 

Relocating to Ghana was quite exciting as someone who loves being in new places and learning about new cultures. While at my company in Ghana, I kept doing stuff they told me not to do. Don’t get me wrong, the reason why I continued doing stuff they told me not to do was because whatever I was doing kept working. So, I didn’t see any reason to stop doing what I was doing. 

That part of my career reminds me of the movie Three Idiots. In fact, at that time, I had to do a lot of things that my then boss did not agree with and they wanted me to keep doing things manually. At a point, we were almost always at loggerheads as I would do things alternatively, and they would still turn out good. 

Eventually, I had to leave that company as I didn’t see the opportunity for growth. It seemed like my creativity was constantly going to be suppressed, and I didn’t want that to be my reality. 

My first stop at Moniepoint 

After leaving the company in Ghana, I came back to Lagos and continued applying to other places. Soon, I found myself at Moniepoint in 2018, and almost immediately, it felt like home working at this company. 

At that time in Moniepoint, everyone had to take ownership of a lot of things which is something that didn’t really happen at my previous company. Then, Moniepoint had solutions that we had to customise and deploy to banks. This means that as a developer, you have to act as a product manager, tester and user. You also have to go to the bank to get the solution working. I was appreciative of this as it meant I had to push myself beyond my limits. 

So of course, if you are interested in growth like me, it was a very good opportunity for me.  During that period, we were working on a product called Moneytor. Moneytor managed the merchants and POS acquiring process end to end and enabled businesses/merchants to track incoming payments and make outgoing payments. This part of my career also resonates with maybe 007 or even Blade, which is like that guy that comes to save the day, especially when you have production issues then you just sit down day by day, and you're just killing stuff.

TeamApt Days

The crossroad 

In 2019, I got the opportunity to relocate from Nigeria, and it was something I could not turn down. Sadly, there was no opportunity of working from outside Nigeria for Moniepoint at the time,

It was a tough decision to make, but speaking to Felix made everything better. Felix encouraged those of us who wanted to leave that we could but that he would come back for us at the right time. 

As of when I left Moniepoint in 2019, I was already an enterprise architect. After leaving, I did a couple of certification exams and worked with a few companies, including a UK company.

Then, something happened…

Guess who called?

If you guessed Felix already, you’re right! 

In 2021, Felix called, saying it was time to return to Moniepoint, and who can say no to Felix?

I’ve been with Moniepoint since then, and I currently work as an Enterprise Architect. This means that my primary job is to unblock anybody in the team. It includes Quality Assurance engineers, Technical Product Managers, Product Managers, etc.

Another responsibility I carry out is engineering management. I’m also the first person who should have a holistic view of our infrastructure and whatever the team is building. I also have to think of how we can integrate with other teams and how we can reuse what other teams have done. 

As an enterprise architect, I also get to teach. This is important because one day, you would want other people to be able to do some of the things you’ve done. 

I like that the work I do is very rewarding, especially as I work as an enterprise architect with the Point-of-Sale (POS) channel at Moniepoint, and you can feel the impact of my role internally and externally.  

The role of an enterprise architect in this case is very integral as we work to ensure that there is no downtime on the POS. When there is no downtime, there is increased customer satisfaction, leading to the success of the organisation. 

As an organisation focused on helping businesses and individuals power their dreams, being able to provide business owners with our point-of-sale device is bringing business owners several steps closer to fulfilling their dreams. We have made it possible for the business owner to make requests for POS devices easily & securely, without leaving their homes, shops, or offices. 

Beyond providing the POS device, we have also made sure that it is reliable as we don’t want business owners having difficulty receiving payments from customers because the POS device is down. We have made our transfer feature on the POS very fast to ensure reliability. 

When you transfer to a Moniepoint POS, there is an instant notification that happens on the POS, and you are good to go. This means you can even go cashless if you wish. For users, this brings them happiness that they can transfer and don’t have to wait for any rigorous form of confirmation. 

How I have succeeded in my role as an enterprise architect 

In my role, I have had to work on my technical skills to increase technical depth as you need to be technically sound to succeed as an enterprise architect. This involves knowing how to resolve issues in a way that they are permanently resolved, leaving no chance for them to reoccur. 

As an enterprise architect, you also need to have soft skills. Most times, you are not writing code, you are managing people. You need to know how to motivate people in a way that they push themselves even beyond their limits.  It helps knowing how to inspire people who work with you in the team. 

It is also helpful to have a sense of humility - NO Ego. People should know that you don’t know it all. This gives room for you to learn more.

Respect is also very important. You need to be humble and create an atmosphere where your team members will be able to talk and relate with you. They need to see that you are also human like them.

The other side of me 

No, this isn’t the part where I talk about the book or the movie. However, aside being an Enterprise Architect, I also do a lot of coaching and mentorship. 

There’s really a part of my career that is just solely based on academics, which is teaching. During COVID, I was part of a training school for Latvian and Polish women who wanted to switch to tech, and there was also this partnership with Accenture.

So, I taught there for some months. It was delightful that about 80% of them got internship positions in Accenture and they’re doing great now. 

I believe that the only way you can know if you are well grounded in a field is when you can teach it very well. While teaching, you will probably see the gap in your knowledge through questions and the like.

I’m very passionate about imparting knowledge as I believe it is a chain reaction. If a senior engineer can take up one person and mentor them, you are increasing the quality of your team altogether. That person would teach another person, and the chain continues. This means you are increasing the quality of engineers in the tech industry at large. 

I always tell my teammates, I don’t want you to be a senior engineer in just Moniepoint. I want you to be a senior engineer anywhere you are in the world. My goal is to make you a better person while doing your job. 

At Moniepoint, I think we have successfully done mentorship through the Women in Tech program and internship opportunities. I recommend that every organization should be passionate about teaching and mentorship. However, it is easier when you find people who want to learn as it is difficult to teach people who do not want to grow. 

I am very passionate about teaching. Maybe someday in the future, I will have an academy.

If you’ve enjoyed my story and you would love to work with me at Moniepoint, I’m sure there’s an opening for you! Head on to our careers page now and apply!