COVER STORY
Connecting
the dots
From Kisoro village boy
to California tech star
“
By Denise M. Tuyisenge
You can’t connect the dots
looking forward; you can only
connect them looking backwards. So, you have to trust
that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to
trust in something — your gut,
destiny, life, karma, whatever.
This approach has never let me
down, and it has made all the
difference in my life.
”
That is an excerpt from Steve Jobs’
2005 Stanford University commencement speech, one of the
greatest reflections on life. The tech
icon’s point was that you should always trust that you know where you
are going, that it’s only after you get
there that you can connect the dots.
This quote sums up the life of Davis
Nteziryayo, co-founder and CEO of
Pesa Choice, a California-based tech
company that offers money transfer
services targeting mainly the African diaspora.
12 - CHIEF EXECUTIVE
THE BEGINNING
When I meet him for this interview
at a cafe in Gishushu, I am introduced to a humble, unassuming and
soft-spoken 37-year-old man. For
this meeting, Nteziryayo is wearing
nothing dapper-looking like most
businessmen do, simply opting for
an ordinary-looking T-shirt that
bears his company logo.
He starts his story from his humble
beginnings, which didn’t suggest
greatness. Or, at least, nothing in his
early life suggested that he would
become the tech star he is today.
Growing up in exile in Kisoro district in neighbouring Uganda, Nteziryayo went to poor schools with
little money and less hope.
He started his formal education
at Kisoro Primary School before
moving to Kisoro Demonstration
School, from where he completed
Primary Level. Even for his O’Levels,
Nteziryayo attended a village school
in Kabale district called St Paul’s
Seminary Rushoroza and completed his A’Levels at St Mary’s College
Rushoroza, still in Kabale, western
Uganda.
After high school, Nteziryayo lost
his father and moved to Rwanda, the
country of his ancestors, to stay with
his relatives. After his father’s death,
he was not sure what to do next, not
sure what the future held for him.
Yet, it was his moving to Rwanda that
would shape his destiny.
While in Rwanda, Nteziryayo and
59 other top students landed scholarships to the United States, from
where he pursued a bachelors degree
in Mathematics and Information
Technology at the Laroche College in
Pennsylvania.
The youngster would later graduate
with a master’s degree in Information Systems from the University of
Phoenix in California, and it’s California where he has since lived.
But even though he does not regret pursuing a career in ICT, Nteziryayo’s childhood dream was to
become an architect. And, to his
admission, he would have gone for
architecture had he not been offered
mathematics and information technology at the Laroche College.
But it was a scholarship, so he had no
choice.