Cryptocurrencies are being embraced across the world, and Africa is not left out. We take an in-depth look at the largest cryptocurrency exchange on our continent, its founding story, the founder, and how it managed to climb to the top of the food chain.
Hanu Fejiro is the man behind the innovation that is today known as PATRICIA.
Speaking on his journey into entrepreneurship, Hanu highlighted how he had dabbled into running a noodles fast-food spot, a popcorn stand, and eleven other businesses —all of which failed woefully. Hanu was, however, determined to succeed.
The encounter with cryptocurrencies did not happen until sometime in 2015 when an Uncle of his, who was staying in London, sent him some BTC.
Just like the average young adult at that time, Hanu sought to trade his BTC for Fiat. Unfortunately, he could not find any locally-hosted platform that dealt in crypto exchange. So, he ended up on a P2P platform and sadly, got ripped off. It was at this point that Hanu realized that he possibly was not the only one with this problem.
And so in 2017, Hanu hired the first two employees of Patricia technologies —one of whom is now Patricia’s Chief Operating Officer.
Speaking on how he was able to build his staff strength to a global scale, Hanu says in an interview with Peace Itimi of #FoundersConnect: “I’m big on vibes and energy, and so around the time we needed to hire, I went to the bank one day, and I met a lady. It wasn’t what she said, but how she said it. I left the bank around six pm that day, and today she is my Chief People Officer.”
“Patricia Universe is diverse and we try to find the best technology to build and we go ahead to create ideas.” This is how Hanu describes how he comes up with ideas.
According to him, Patricia is currently working on an incubator program that aims to close the gap between developers and startups by churning out a thousand developers a year by the end of 2022.
On the biggest challenge in building Patricia to its current status, Hanu highlights the effects of the CBN regulation as it affects the public’s trust in this new monetary system.
“In the meantime, we are adjusting and innovating around the crypto regulations in the country and making sure that everyone continues to enjoy full-on access to their preferred cryptocurrencies. Because the truth is that everyone has heard about cryptocurrencies, but no one knows how it works or what to do with it in everyday life. This is our sole reason for being in business, that is to become the SI unit of crypto,” Hanu explains.
