The esteemed founder Adeniyi Abiodun and his wife Gloria Abiodun are enabling economic growth and opportunity in Africa through a landmark endowment fund.
Abiodun is co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Mysten Labs, a company building critical infrastructure to enable a more decentralized internet and creators of Sui Blockchain. This endowment will enable African youth to access globally competitive skills and rewarding careers.
By 2040, Africa will be home to half of the world’s working-age population. Companies globally are looking for skilled talent, and African youth are seeking opportunities. However, many cannot afford to pay upfront for the quality training required to secure good jobs.
Financing approaches such as student loans help by enabling learners to repay once they have secured in-demand skills – and the jobs that come with them. Endowments enable access to affordable student loans, especially in markets with high interest rates (for example, commercial loans currently exceed 35% in Nigeria). Compared with scholarships, endowment funds can create access for more students, as funds repaid can be re-allocated to new sets of learners.
The Abioduns’ endowment of $1.3 million has been facilitated via a donation to Inurere Foundation, and will be administered via the inclusive financing platform Meedl. The endowment will address a critical skills gap in Africa by funding student loans for software engineers in Semicolon’s Techpreneurship program, including supporting future software engineers to learn smart contract programming languages such as Move. Semicolon, a workforce development company, has trained hundreds of software engineers, with graduates found in companies ranging from African banks and fintechs to global tech giants.
“Gloria and I are honored to support Semicolon’s mission,” said Adeniyi Abiodun, Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder of Mysten Labs. “With access to better education, organizations like Semicolon are helping students not only invest in their own future, but supporting them as they work toward building our collective future. Supporting Nigerian students in their educational journey while simultaneously inviting more builders to learn the programming language that has defined my career is immensely rewarding. With the rise of AI and blockchain, we are deeply committed to ensuring African students are high echelon contributors to this new workforce.”
“We can’t address the skills gap in Africa without addressing the education financing gap,” says Sam Immanuel, CEO of Semicolon Africa. “Many want to give back, to create opportunities for the next generation. We hope that more individuals – and companies – will follow in the Abioduns’ footsteps and invest in funds, like this endowment, that will engender sustainable talent development across the continent.”
