Photos: Meet this 23 year old Nigerian graduate who refused to work for Bill Gates in Microsoft

When, in August, 23-year-old Nigerian college graduate Chris Kwekowe met Bill Gates, he didn’t press the founder of Microsoft Inc. for business advice or a possible job offer. The meeting took place at a forum for Africa’s brightest young entrepreneurs.

Rather Chris told Bill Gates during the forum that  featured some of Africa’s brightest young entrepreneurs, how he had turned down a software engineer role at Microsoft.

“[Gates] was really intrigued, and he smiled,” says Kwekowe, “After the program, all the directors were like, ‘Dude, you mean you actually turned down a job at Microsoft and had the guts to tell Bill Gates?”

The young entrepreneur was extremely confident in his abilities and had a great reason to decline the job offer.

Chris was creating his own startup company, Slatecube, which helps other young Nigerians who graduated college find jobs. Slatecube seeks to solve that problem by nurturing the graduates through digital internships.

The company is expecting to open offices in Kenya, Ghana, and South Africa in 2017.

When asked where his tenacious spirit to compete in the business world comes from, Chris said, “If you can do business in Lagos, you can do business anywhere in the world.