One Friday night in 2016, Godswill Adie, a second-year computer science student at the University of Calabar, slipped off-campus to attend a friend’s girlfriend’s birthday party. The night was a blur of laughter and celebration. The next morning, another friend’s call jolted Adie awake with an unexpected opportunity: an internship interview at Nugi Technologies.
With only ₦100 for the ₦150 bus trip, the two walked half the distance and then boarded a bus midway to the office. Adie, still in his party clothes, arrived to find the office buzzing with young people on their laptops, coding, surprised by the hive of activity for a Saturday. He interviewed with the chief technology officer, presenting a rudimentary chat app inspired by Facebook and an incomplete logistics platform as proof of his skills. The CTO was impressed and offered Adie an unpaid internship on the spot. He started work immediately.
Today, at 27, Adie is not only Nugi’s CTO but also a shareholder, steering a company that has evolved from creating white-label software for educational clients to serving government agencies and launching subsidiaries including Nugi Farms, O2 Constructions, and TerraGrid, under the Nugi Group.
In an industry where developers switch jobs every two years for better pay or quicker career growth, Adie’s seven-year tenure is rare, especially for a high-performing talent who has climbed from intern to C-suite. He acknowledges this anomaly but recalls a pivotal moment early in his career that has anchored his seven-year journey: “Whatever I want to achieve in this world, I can do it right in this company.”
Following his curiosity
Adie’s ambition began modestly, rooted in curiosity. As a child, he dismantled radios and fans to unravel their mechanics, earning scoldings from his parents but fueling a lifelong inquisitiveness. In secondary school, he launched a football news blog on Blogger and grew fascinated by how text fields transformed into web pages. This sparked his self-taught journey into HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP—web development languages. By graduation, he had built his first webpage, a basic replica of his blog. “It was probably terrible by today’s standards,” he says with a smile, “but it was a great start.”
In 2015, Adie enrolled at the University of Calabar to study computer science, but during a chaotic hostel move his laptop fell, its screen detaching from the keyboard, rendering it useless. For a month, he was frustrated, fearing he’d lose his coding skills. Like any software engineer with no money to buy a computer, he began writing code by hand in an exercise book, testing it in the university’s computer lab or a friend’s PC when possible. “My cousin thought I was crazy,” he told me during a virtual call, chuckling. “The book was filled with code that made no sense to him. Sometimes, I didn’t even know what I was writing. I’d copy snippets from online tutorials to run later.”
Eventually, his three older brothers, who had taken on caregiving roles after their father died in 2009, pooled their money to buy him a better laptop. Adie keeps it in his office at Nugi today, a relic of their belief in him.
Image Source: Godswill Adie
Rapid career growth
When Adie joined Nugi Technologies in 2016 as an intern, the company was a “software shop,” building client-driven solutions. It provided universities with tools for payment portals, hostel applications, and admission processing. Its own product, Cloud School, aimed to manage primary and secondary school operations: admissions, e-learning, accommodations, medical records, and PTA meetings— the product has since been shelved due to partnership issues. Adie joined mid-development of the CloudSchool. Working with a team in a corporate setting, a jarring shift for a coder who was used to working independently.
“It was very challenging,” he admitted. He struggled with a codebase written by three to four engineers using a PHP framework, unlike the raw PHP he’d mastered. “I couldn’t understand what the previous developers did,” he said. The framework—a standardised coding package—required learning its structure. The documentation proved very useful in mapping the project’s logic. He worked on CloudSkul for two months before moving to client-facing applications.
Three months into his internship, Adie’s dedication caught his boss’s eye, Adie recalls. One random day that year, at age 19, he was summoned to the CEO’s office, his heart pounding with fear of reprimand. Instead, the CEO said, “I’ve been watching you. You’re a good fit for what we do here.” The CTO formalised a full-time offer, handing him a contract. “I wanted to sign it right away,” Adie laughed, “but they told me to take it home, read it with someone senior, and return a photocopy.”
Adie had already made up his mind to accept the position no matter the conditions or proposed pay. Work was all he cared about; he even eschewed an active social life, and he credits this hyperfocus for his growth in the company.
Balancing school and work was gruelling; he prioritised work, seeing it as a practical extension of his studies. “I’d apply work lessons in school, and work taught me things I’d later understand in theory,” he said. He skipped classes but studied for exams, relying on colleagues for updates. The office became home; he’d crash on a couch or stay weeks in a room where senior developers lived.
Image Source: Godswill Adie
The office’s youthful energy and visionary leadership cemented Adie’s loyalty. “It was filled with young people I could relate to, excelling at what they did,” he said. His boss articulated a clear mission—automating client processes—inspiring him even during lean times when salaries lagged. “It wasn’t about the money,” Adie said. “I saw myself as part of the company.” He felt at peace, discussing life challenges with his mentor-boss. Seeing peers rise to bigger roles, he envisioned his own leadership path.
“The environment was conducive for growth,” he said. In 2019, he became lead developer, and about a year later, rose to become deputy chief technology officer. He now leads the company’s technology strategy and development. .
From coder to strategic leader
Leading a team of 40 engineers, Adie navigates diverse personalities to align with Nugi’s vision. He nurtures driven individuals, some of whom remind him of his early hustle of prioritising work above all else. But some of them, he notes, have completely different life philosophies, especially the Gen Z developers, who prioritise work-life balance.
“It’s not bad,” he notes, “but to move beyond the middle class—unless you’re wealthy—you can’t work nine-to-five.” Unlike his era’s midnight grinds, some today disconnect after hours, unreachable for urgent fixes.
Adie says his workaround is to invest in those who excel, offering raises and project ownership, while respecting others’ minimal effort. “Everyone has their goals,” he says. “When you see those making incredible effort, you bring them closer, align them with goals.”
As CTO, Adie’s role transcends coding; he is now involved in shaping Nugi Group’s strategy, turning products into standalone companies. He oversees product development, project management, client engagement, and deal-making. “It’s like nurturing a baby from infancy to independence,” he says, his excitement palpable. He says he sees himself growing with the company. “I want to take it [Nugi] to the next level,” he says.
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