George Badejo-Adegbenga: Connecting Africa’s talent to global opportunity

Africa has no shortage of talent, but too much of it remains disconnected from opportunity.

George Badejo-Adegbenga, founder of Ethica Resolve CC, a business process outsourcing company, is working to change the narrative by building pathways that help African professionals compete, grow, and succeed in a rapidly changing world.

George, who is a lawyer by training and an entrepreneur by instinct, was inspired into the business by the gap in affordable talent, and what closing it could do for unemployment and poverty in Africa.

“Many of our best youth are leaving. The ‘japa’ wave is a rational individual decision, and I don’t criticise anyone for that, but it is a haemorrhage the continent cannot afford.

“If we can create work here that pays in foreign currency, meets global standards and offers a genuine career, we give people a real reason to build their lives at home. That is what motivates me,” he said.

The serial entrepreneur and his team established Ethica Resolve CC in 2023 with approximately $100,000 from his personal savings, together with contributions from business associates.

According to George, since starting the business, it has grown at a slow but steady pace, with over 100 employees, though he would not trade the steadiness for speed.

“The biggest obstacle has been persuading an international market that carries a general bias against Nigeria that this is a serious place to outsource critical business functions.

“Buyers arrive with a fixed set of concerns about power, connectivity, security and reliability, and no argument shifts that. Only evidence does. Over three years of live delivery for UK and US clients, we have proven that the infrastructure challenges are manageable and quality is not merely acceptable but competitive,” he noted.

He said the firm’s values make it different from others in the business space.  “Values are the one thing a competitor cannot copy quickly, because they are demonstrated over years rather than declared in a brochure.

“In our UK business, we work with people in financial distress, an industry with a poor historical record, and we built it on the principle that you can treat people fairly and still run a sound commercial operation,” he explained.

In addition, he said the firm’s ability to earn substantially in foreign currency and spend substantially in Naira protects it from surging inflation.

George maintains that Nigeria offers great opportunity for his business. “We’ve the youngest large population on earth, a median age of around 18, an enormous cohort of English-speaking graduates, and a cultural affinity with the UK and US markets that’s difficult to manufacture elsewhere.

“Remote work has been normalised globally. Our cost base, in dollars, is highly competitive. Every element required for Nigeria to become a major global services destination is present,” he stressed.

According to the Ijebu Ode, Ogun State-born entrepreneur, the company’s headline plan is to build its first permanent BPO headquarters, with capacity for over 5,000 staff.

“That is a commitment and a deliberate statement of intent, both to the market and to the youngsters we’re recruiting. A permanent facility of that scale says that this is an industry here to stay, not a series of temporary arrangements.

“Alongside it, we are scaling Ethica Academy substantially. Through the iDICE BPO Training-to-Jobs Programme we are working across the six South-West states to train young people to an internationally employable standard and place them into work,” he said.

Moreover, the firm intends to extend its model to other regions of Nigeria and to deepen its presence in Kenya and Ghana, and expand its clientele base in the UK and US.

Despite these audacious goals, the firm has hurdles to scale, such as perception, talent readiness, infrastructure, retention, and capital.

To mitigate the challenges, George said, “We stopped arguing and started proving; took on early engagements, delivered them properly, and let the references do the work.

“We invested in the governance, data protection and information security standards that international buyers require, so that the due diligence conversation ends in confidence.”

He encourages young entrepreneurs to learn to solve a problem that actually exists, and build the thing competitors cannot copy quickly.