“I had always been different and eager to explore new opportunities, so when the chance came…I grabbed it and never let go!”– Pleasant Balogun
The whole world has entered a new era, an age where the youth are taking over innovation and technological advancement. We see the rise of a generation that is achieving feats that would usually take years of experience and maturity.
Generation Z popularly known as Gen Z is taking over, bringing solutions and meeting the demands of nationwide economies and one of such is Pleasant Balogun.
Pleasant is a 16-year-old student based in Lagos, he is currently the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Zeddpay an online platform where financial transactions can be carried out with airtime. In an interview with Tech Steroid, Pleasant stated that he had always held a fascination for coding and computer programming. This desire was fueled when his computer teacher held a programming class for interested students. He joined and his interest in this field increased. He stated that even when the classes were over, he stuck close to his teacher, who was impressed by his passion and offered to support him fully.
When the pandemic struck in 2020, Pleasant spent most of his time watching YouTube tutorials on coding and tech using his mom’s phone. Soon, he created a Facebook and YouTube account where he posted content on software/gadget reviews. His love and passion for coding grew so much that he found himself writing codes on paper.
He confesses that it was quite difficult treading the path of his passion as there were very few people who shared similar interests with him. He didn’t even have a device of his own and used his mom’s phone to watch tutorials on YouTube, but he kept at it.
As his journey into the tech space progressed, he started taking significant steps in making his presence known. He stated that he found using Facebook boring because the platform had a limited amount of stickers that GIF users could access which wasn’t very exciting. In response to this, he built a platform where people could download GIFs and stickers for use on Facebook.
Schooling
Pleasant says he never really loved the school environment, although he has plans later on in life to attend schools that offer full remote study options. He feels traditional schooling limits him from exploring the world of programming.
Early Success
Pleasant developed a tool for developers when he was 15 years old, this tool called buck was placed on the GitHub opensource repository and is been used by over 30,000 developers worldwide, this got him the desired attention from a major software development firm where he met someone who will later acquire ownership of the tool for $5,000 [Five Thousand Dollars], and also give him a job as a developer advocate.
ZEDDPAY
Zeddpay was born out of Pleasant’s desire for young people who weren’t old enough to have bank accounts to have access to funds and financial transactions. This was because though he was earning a lot from his skills as a young techie, but he couldn’t access his funds to pay for necessary subscriptions. He couldn’t even open an account that allowed him access to financial transactions, local and international due to age restrictions.
Pleasant founded Zeddpay, to solve this problem and ensure convenient, secure, and easy payments of subscriptions or products and services. This makes online purchases as easy as possible and the company consists of eight young entrepreneurs who seek to revolutionize the African fintech and e-commerce industries.
AEROSEED
Pleasant’s most recent and upcoming project Aeroseed is set to change the African ecosystem and environment for good. Aeroseed is a Nigerian-based reforestation company that makes use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology, automation, and ecological science.
In Africa and even major parts of Nigeria, there is little or no awareness of the impact of man’s activity on the environment, such negligence has made environmental hazards prevalent in third-world countries, thereby leading to a degenerated ecosystem.
Aeroseed aims to solve this by ensuring effective reforestation through the cheapest and fastest means possible. Using state-of-the-art drones and technologies to plant and replant trees. This will not only improve the ecosystem but will also generate major revenue for tourism in Nigeria and Africa at large.
Though the project is still in its early stages, there is room for people to make donations and support the project.
Beyond these projects, the 16-year-old claims to have big plans for the future which includes later venturing into Quantum computing, and he also aims at training many young techpreneurs who have similar passions.
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