Few stories capture the theme of resilience better than that of Sim Shagaya.
Triumph Against Odds is a podcast where Africa’s toughest business leaders share how they’ve weathered failure, disruption, and uncertainty.
From advertising to e-commerce and now education, Shagaya has built ventures that tested both his vision and his resilience. Konga, once Nigeria’s flagship e-commerce platform, was a casualty of the 2015 currency crisis. uLesson, his edtech startup, was rattled by the 2023 reforms that shrank family incomes. Both moments threatened collapse. Yet each time, Shagaya rebounded, a spirit he credits to his military upbringing, where discipline and stamina were forged early.
That resilience now fuels Miva University, one of Nigeria’s fastest-growing tertiary institutions. For Shagaya, entrepreneurship is about more than profit: it is about shaping an ascendant Nigeria. At 50, he sees the country entering a new phase of growth, and his own journey moving toward new frontiers in education, industry, and service.
In this first episode of Triumph Against Odds, Shagaya reflects on setbacks, pivots, and why building in Nigeria is to bet on its future.
People often describe you as someone who, no matter how many times you fall, you get back up. Where does that resilience come from?
The closest thing I can think of is my military background. My father was a career officer, and I attended Nigerian Military School, Zaria. It was tough, regimented, and very disciplined. We were running cross-country races, spending days in the bush. Looking back, those experiences really instilled resilience in me.
You’ve built in tech, advertising, and now education. What really drives you?
A deep desire to see Nigeria move forward. It’s not only about financial independence or family pride. At some point, it becomes about building this country. That’s what keeps me going.
What moments stand out when it felt like the dream was slipping away?
The first was at Konga. We were doing well until 2015’s devaluation hit. It was a macroeconomic earthquake. The version I ran couldn’t survive, and it took me years to regroup.
The second was in 2023. After reforms, family incomes shrank and demand for uLesson slowed.
For a while, I thought: this is happening again. But that same year we received our licence to launch Miva. Education proved far more resilient. So while uLesson slowed, Miva took off.
Did you ever think of walking away from entrepreneurship?
Yes. But what kept me here is a thesis I hold deeply: I believe Nigeria will be ascendant in my lifetime. Culturally, militarily, economically, it will rise. To be from here is a privilege. I refuse to not participate in that story.
uLesson was founded just before COVID. How did you survive?
COVID became a tailwind. Schools shut down and demand for digital learning exploded. On the operations side, we innovated: renting houses in Jos as mini studios so work continued despite lockdowns. That creativity paid off.
What unique challenges came with launching Miva?
Trust. Choosing a university is a life-changing decision. We invested heavily in community, success advisors, peer networks, structures that keep students engaged. We admitted our first students just six months after securing our license. Today, we’re approaching 20,000 students, and our aspiration is to build a million-person institution.
If the next five years of your life were a book, what would the title be?
Either Heavy Industry or Public Service. I feel there are other ways to contribute to Nigeria’s growth beyond technology. Think about industrialists who built banks or projects like the Dangote Refinery, those are also acts of service.
And what do you see ahead for Nigeria?
I think Nigeria is entering a period of long-term growth. Inflation is trending down, the stock market is strong. Of course, daily realities are still tough, but if you study other countries, growth often shows up in corporations first before trickling down.
I believe bigger companies will emerge here, especially in agriculture and heavy industry. These are capital-intensive but transformative. That’s the type of arc I see in Nigeria’s next chapter.
Looking back at your early startups and where you are now, what’s one piece of advice you wish someone had whispered in your ear at the beginning?
Do not second-guess your instincts. Especially don’t let others, who may not have the same information you do, cause you to second-guess them.
Take Konga as an example. It was growing fast, but we held too much infrastructure ourselves, warehouses, inventory, logistics. My instinct was to build an asset-light, digital infrastructure platform, like Alibaba. They don’t own bikes, warehouses, or inventory; they simply provide the software and coordination.
I had that instinct, but out of respect for the board, whose experience was grounded in Western markets, I set it aside. In hindsight, if we had focused only on digital infrastructure, the story would have been very different. We would have weathered 2015 better, margins would have been stronger, and the burn rate lower.
To get the full (and unedited) episode one with Sim Shagaya you can listen on Spotify or watch on Youtube
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