Joseph Chimezie, a 20-year-old software engineer, focuses on solving problems in health, fintech, and other industries. We had an interview with him and he spoke about his experience, learning and challenges. Excerpts…

Can we know you?

My name is Joseph Chimezie, a backend software engineer and support engineer. I’m from Abia but stayed in Lagos most of my life. I attended Millennium Secondary School in Lagos. I specialize in building tools for developers and solutions for businesses, and that’s what I do mostly as a backend engineer and a software engineer. As a support engineer, I provide support for engineering teams, developers, designers, and anyone on the engineering team that’s in need of support.

Can we know about your tech journey? 

I have a WAEC certificate, and my journey into programming started in secondary school. There was a point where we were introduced to Scratch programming in SSS1. Scratch is a software you use blocks to make things come alive. So I picked interest, coupled with a friend who introduced me to programming. I wasn’t able to continue until late 2020 when I was able to get a mobile phone, and I started learning how to use HTML, learning CSS and JavaScript. I wasn’t really consistent; I was trying to balance work as a mobile engineer at that time. I had to balance work and learning. I was actually doing WordPress in 2020. Then in 2023, I decided to move on to my developer journey, where I had to learn more about HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, then I started to specialize in the backend, and I’ve been writing backend applications and building solutions. That’s how I landed myself here.

What motivates you into tech?

I just love to see things come alive. So what made me interested in it is the ability for you to write code or just writing commands and see things working; it was interesting. On Scratch, I just put in two blocks, and I saw the sprites running up and down, and I was like, wow, this is cool. And also, I saw websites; I was wondering how people were able to build this up. That was one of the reasons I had to go to the backend. I wanted to know deeply what happened behind the scenes and not just the fancy stuff to see. I want to know and see how those things were put together to interact, and that’s why I had to keep diving and diving. I’m in the backend now, and I’m seeing how the stuff works there.

Can you tell us some of the projects that you’ve actually worked on, and what were the problems that you are trying to solve with the project?

I’ve already done a couple of projects, but the recent one I did is a tool; it’s called StartEase. So when developers want to start off a project, you see, most of them tend to copy files and tend to look into files and copy things from one place to another, and most of them don’t even know what kind of files they are to use. So, I also had that challenge when I was starting out, and sometime this year, I started thinking, what if I could create something to ease that process, and I decided to create StartEase. StartEase is a CLI; you run it on the command, and it can help you to create your project easily. StartEase helps you create the project, and we just have to focus on the building. It’s an open-source and currently getting developed and getting feedback from users on how we can improve it.

Other Projects I’m building cut across the health industry. One of which is an App which you can use to keep records of your medical lifestyle. You can use it to keep record of your blood pressure; you can use it as a reminder, maybe you need to take your medication. So when you get that app, you can set alarms based on your medication, and you can also chat with people. For example, you want to send the results of your medical test to someone, you can just from the app share the result with anyone, and they can see your it. We are also looking at expanding it further whereby we can integrate it into hospitals, whereby create an entire dataset for users to be able to have their hospital records.

I’m also working on fintech solutions, streamlining payments, and revolutionizing e-commerce.

What are the programming languages you understand?

I understand JavaScript, TypeScript, PHP, Python, and Golang. CSS was challenging at first, but I overcame it with dedication. I was learning myself, and that was why CSS had to deal with me so much. I wasn’t so exposed to a community where they can tell you things, and I had limited access to YouTube in terms of not having enough internet subscription, and I never knew of stack overflow. I only knew of few sites, but last year I joined a bootcamp, and that was where I started to find myself for up-to-date learning.

What were your parents’ reactions seeing you dedicating your time to coding?

Actually, my dad encouraged me to learn coding. He’s so caring and didn’t want me to spend my time on the street so it doesn’t affect me. But, I seem to put all my focus on that by spending 90% of the time to learn coding. I used his phone, and he was complaining that I’m doing this stuff too much, and sometimes he would just collect his phone thinking I’m doing something else. For me, I remained dedicated to learning, spending entire days immersed in it.

When did you get your first laptop?

I can’t really remember. I think it’s between 2020 and 2021.

What problem is Nigeria facing that you can use your tech knowledge to solve?

Well, the first problem I think we have in Nigeria is data. Solving the issue of data inconsistency, in my opinion, would address most of the problems in Nigeria. If you look at most things happening in Nigeria, there is no proper record of citizens, so there are loopholes in our data system. If given the opportunity, it’s to create a data house that is going to solve the issue of data inconsistency because if you’re able to do that, the transparency of the system and every other solution will depend on the data. Look at the issue of the election; if we have good data, I don’t see how someone would vote two times with the use of biometric scanning and the rest of them.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

In the next 5 years, I see myself making a significant impact and “saving the world” through various endeavors.

Do you think young people are not given a chance to operate in the tech space?

I believe it’s true from one perspective and false from another. I have seen a lot of young persons doing great themselves; the opportunity they are not given is the access to basic stuff that can facilitate their journey in Nigeria. A lot of persons don’t have access to basic good mobile devices due to the economic situation of the country, and those are the basic things they need. When someone tries to come up, he may face such challenges and unable to continue. Why at the other aspect, if you’re able to scale up and get to a level you get the attention and opportunity. It’s about consistency and hard work and sometimes grace.

What advice would you give young people trying to get career out of tech?

I would say if you want to get a career out of tech because it’s getting competitive, you have to be the best. Be good that they would never want to lose you. Put lots of hard work , spend time, your energy and invest anything you have to Standout

Advice to parents

I would say if your child is going to tech and you don’t know much about it, you can talk to someone who is a senior or has more knowledge to enlighten your child and that person would be able to inform you of what your child is really doing so you as parents would be enlightened. As parent you don’t have to necessarily make your child do what you want them to do but give them reasons why you want them to it. Also give them privilege to do other things they want to do, just have to monitor them