Unveiling Hanu Agbodje, the brain behind multi-billion naira ICT company, Patricia

They say give honour to whom it is due. And if a young man of 24 sits atop a growing empire of multi billion naira venture, especially at the time Nigerian youths are seen as ‘lazy’, then the young man deserves nothing but accolades. That is the story of Fejiro Hanu Agbodje, the man who found a path yet untraveled and left his footprints on it.

When he hit on the idea to start his E-commerce company, Patricia, it was largely a virgin sector. Call it a twist of fate or vision, the Lagos born, Warri, Delta State-bred mathematics and statistics graduate of University of Porthacourt turned an adversity to opportunity.

Recalling how it all started in an interview, Agbodje said, “I had an uncle who visited Nigeria, who used to give me an iTunes gift card. I didn’t own an iPhone, so I laterally had no use for it, so I tried to find where I could exchange this for real money. I couldn’t find any local company doing that and I ended up getting scammed of the card. At that point, I realized I had stumbled on something. I figured if I had this problem, a fleet of other persons would most likely have the same problem and that was the birthplace for Patricia,” he said.

But that experience was more than an accident of fate, because Hanu Agbodje had always had the trait of the relentless entrepreneur in him, that when an opportunity presents itself he perceives it before most of his peers could even see it.

“I have been an entrepreneur since I was 8, it came naturally to me. I am probably one of the most optimistic people you’ll ever meet. A big dreamer, hard-worker and goal-getter. I am the person the quote “If you cannot find the door, create your door” aptly describes.I have started a lot of other businesses before Patricia. I once had a mini restaurant when I was in the university. I sold airtime, I sold popcorn and I got admission through a program called BASIC, kind of like A-Levels today, then I used my house rent to buy a bike and gave it to an indigene who ran away with it. I have done a lot of things to be honest. 

Coming Back to Patricia, I started it sometime in 2017, it actually was supposed to be a side hustle, to earn an extra N30,000 a month but as fate would have it, it blew up. I think all my failures and trials have been preparing me for this.”

The company Patricia, registered with Corporate Affairs Commission (C.A.C) as Patricia Technologies Limited, not only blew beyond Agbodje’s wildest dreams, it became a leader in the E-commerce sector. In 2019 alone, it processed over N10 billion in transaction volume.

Speaking on the feats of his company and the formula he and his team have deployed to stay on top of their game,Fejiro Hanu Agbodje, says is about trust and prompt service.

“We ensure our customers get credited in less than 10 minutes, which has allowed us to boast of over a thousand daily transactions. We are here to usher Africa into digital age. We are the first to let clients withdraw bitcoin from ATM and the Crypto and Gift cards market came alive because of us. By April 2020 we want Nigeria to shop online with bitcoins. Issues of trust have always been the challenge to the Nigerian eCommerce sector and we have taken care of that by being the reliable company our customers desire,” Agbodje proudly affirmed at the launch of the company back in 2017

The eCommerce company, Hanu Agbodje’s Patricia is first of its kind in Nigeria, and arguably the first in Africa involved in the trading and exchange of gift cards, bitcoin, perfect money and the sending of gifts within Nigeria and largely in Europe, America and Asia.

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