From a cushy KPMG role to starting afresh in a new country

As a child, it was not unusual for Wilson Dike’s friends to travel outside the state, moving in and out of the neighbourhood for one reason or another. Separated, they developed a “pen pal” culture, writing letters to one another to stay in touch. But letters took weeks to deliver, and replies came back even slower. 

Then came the email. He remembers the thrill of sitting in a cybercafé, sending a message to a friend, and seeing their response appear instantly on his screen. 

That moment, small as it seemed, opened his eyes to what technology could do. He graduated from college with a degree in information technology but went into consulting.

“I started as a consultant in one of the top 4 firms [at KPMG] in the world,” said Dike. “I worked at a Lagos office, but I always knew I was going to eventually work in IT.”

Even in his early career, he had a clear sense of where the future was headed. He saw how businesses were shifting from owning entire operating systems to subscribing to services. He saw how the cloud was emerging as the next great platform for companies everywhere.

“I knew that cloud was going to be a big thing in the future where people had full-on control of their security and access,” he said.

Consulting days

Dike spent a little over two years at KPMG, where he worked on tax automations and computations for corporations in Nigeria. His work exposed him to the challenges of multinational companies, mid-sized firms, and indigenous businesses trying to operate across multiple tax regimes. 

It gave him perspective on how businesses function in different environments. That experience would later prove valuable.

In 2015, he quit consulting and joined a software company with operations across Africa as a sales lead. Here, Dike’s consulting experience in multi-legislative contexts became invaluable.

Soon, he was on planes across the continent: Ghana, Togo, Benin, Kenya, South Africa. He spent long stretches attending Big Tech events, onboarding clients, running demos, and putting out fires in markets where his company’s products were in use.

But consulting knowledge alone could not carry him. Moving into sales meant starting again. He went through company-sponsored training, shadowed senior colleagues, and picked up experience directly in the field. 

At times, he was sent outside Africa to countries like the UAE and Kuwait, where he assisted with product training and supported local teams. It was at this company that Dike began to find his feet as a tech salesperson. 

Pulling weight in tech sales  

After a few years, Dike joined a UK-based cloud infrastructure company, his first role outside Nigeria. The firm was small—barely two years old—and was looking for ways to expand into Africa. Dike understood what they wanted to achieve, and he knew the market well.

“Being Nigerian, I had a fair knowledge of the market,” he said. “And I already had relationships that could be leveraged.”

He built a sales playbook to capture the strategy. Soon, the company secured its first multi-million-dollar deal in Sub-Saharan Africa. With that, the floodgates opened. Contracts, new clients, and expansion into new markets. Before long, Dike was leading the company’s sales and country expansion across Africa.

Yet, as the business grew, he was planning his next move. 

Big Tech experience

“I had to move to the UK due to personal reasons and other challenges,” he said.

In 2022, he relocated to the UK and joined Siemens, the global technology firm, where he led customer discovery. His role focused on creating awareness around a blockchain-based financial product. 

“Global tier-1 banks have built layers,” he explained. “These banks were building systems that allowed them to process transactions faster and more securely using blockchain, while reducing reliance on traditional channels.” 

Dike’s job was to convince financial institutions and insurers to take notice and embrace what was being built.

Alongside this, Siemens also had IoT-based—internet of things—emission sensors for manufacturers, which helped them monitor output and calculate hydrocarbon taxes. Dike was responsible for introducing these solutions to clients as well. 

With Siemens, his work often crisscrossed Europe. He frequently travelled across cities in the UK and other countries in Europe, where cultural lessons often mattered as much as technical skills. In one country, he learned quickly never to turn down a client’s invitation to dinner; respect for culture was as crucial as closing the sale.

Early this year, Dike left Siemens to build his venture. With partners, he is developing a regulatory technology (RegTech) product that simplifies legislative language for companies expanding into new markets, helping them remain compliant while growing.