#BellaNaijaMCM Ugonna Ginigeme of Vasiti.com is Helping Student Entrepreneurs Succeed

For our #BellaNaijaMCM this week, we celebrate Ugonna Ginigeme, the founder/CEO of Vasiti.com, a platform leveraging on technology and social innovation to help student entrepreneurs build successful businesses as well as enable students access needs around campus.

Ugonna had always wanted to be an entrepreneur, and he began exploring this while studying for his Engineering degree at the University of Ibadan. Ugonna launched two fashion businesses, an entertainment and event management business, a snack (shawarma) business, a gadget trading business as well as sales of educational materials. Unfortunately, all these businesses failed. Ugonna investigated the reason for his failures and found out that though many students were interested in entrepreneurship, they usually failed because there were no easy and effective way for them to sell their products or services.

He decided to do something about it and that was how Vasiti.com was born. He started Vasiti.com while in the university as a part-time project and Vasiti.com’s website is structured as marketplace with an online magazine. Student entrepreneurs are able to advertise their products or services for free. Students can trade used items and also get instant access to vendors around campus for products or services they need. The online magazine provides information on scholarship and internship opportunities, campus gist, entrepreneurial articles, student hacks and much more.

Vasiti.com also organises events regularly to arm students with tools to succeed in school and businesses as well as prepare them for life after school.

Ugonna is the Country Head (Nigeria) for Studysey, an applicant-experience platform that leverages technology (including Artificial Intelligence) to guide prospective students through a personalised study journey which includes study choices, applications, and enrolment into Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).

Ugonna is a 2018/2019 fellow of LEAP Africa’s Social Innovators Programme, one of the 200 startups selected for Forbes’ first Digital Startup Accelerator in Nigeria (2020) and a graduate of Y Combinator’s Startup School.

We celebrate Ugonna for inspiring and promoting students and student entrepreneurs and connecting them to opportunities for success. We’re rooting for him and his team.