Power of dreams is not measured by the frequency of dreaming, but by speed of actions to make them come true.” ... This is the story of Jerry Mallo, a young Nigerian who got caught in the limbo between the uncertainty of attaining future dreams and wasting talent. 

The weather was clement in the city of Abuja when Jerry Mallo walked into the Jabi office of LoftyInc to tell his  story to Michael Oluwagbemi, a US trained Engineer who after 15 years of practice in the US is back to the country to proffer solutions to some problems in his country.

The chat between these great minds promises to be an interesting read. 

CHAT BETWEEN MICHEAL OLUWAGBEMI AND CEO BENNIE AGRO TECHNOLOGY - JERRY MALLO

At school then, everybody knew I was the first, who is in the second they don't want to know this person, I was very old and I was the only one doing Engineering drawing, that was the annoying thing. Everybody was doing Building Engineering because we had teachers teaching Building Drawing, but all the teachers didn't understand Engineering Drawing. 

I knew that was want I wanted, so I was always learning by myself, studying big textbooks, training myself, going online, learning from YouTube. From ss2 I knew the value of internet, from then everything I studied was from the  internet. I was studying books far ahead of me. So I actually manage to finish secondary school, I was not finding it easy, to be in science class you have to pass chemistry on average, you have to pass physics, you have to pass mathematics and I was failing in those courses, it's just technical drawing I was good at, yes Biology, biology, geography they where not hard for me, I don't see anything difficult, I was passing those ones. But I don't have chemistry, no physics, those where the major things. I can't be in science class, I was in art class and I kept asking myself what will I become in art class, they was nothing, I didn't see anything. So I went to art class and I spent the night learning science then in day time I will be sleeping in class. 

So far I will still write exam and pass not repeat, I was comfortable with that. So it got to a point our Dean was concerned about my issue, so he just ask me to go back to science class, even failing, I should just go back to science class, I had the chance to be attending chemistry, but I was still failing though in my WAEC I registered all science courses, it was surprising I wrote it once and passed, even in Bs. I was surprised at my own result. I got a B in physics, physics that I don't understand. Yes. I got credit in couple of them, geography, biology those ones where B. The remaining was just credit. I think that was OK for the Nigeria standard. The next thing was University, in the process of all these science competition I attended, I kept meeting like minds, I kept meeting people who had similar passion with me, so we became friends and I kept learning from them, and I became exposed to what's really the challenges in Nigeria and I just know that I'm passionate about Nigeria, anything I want to do should be in Nigeria in that young age.

 After school, I needed somewhere I will learn how to make cars, my focus was to learn how to manufacture a car. And I start googling for the best University in Nigeria, my dad is a farmer, my mum is a farmer in a village in Plateau state. The best University I saw so far was, at the moment University of Nssuka, best in Nigeria. I applied and I went there for my post UME, I was privileged to see the Engineering Lab, it was discouraging for me, till today I have not even check if my name was out in the admission list or not. 

I just forgot. I didn't see anything I was learning there, all I was seeing was diesel engine, that was what there where teaching them. I learnt diesel engine since my Jss 1 or jss 2. I was learning, at that time I think I was learning about 'Duhc' engines. Most of the lectures till today don't even know what Duhc engine is, Duhc engine is one kind of combustion engine, it's a circular, and then it has basically 3 carburetor, 5 pistols so it has a way it's recombusting the smoke and, that's what I was learning in fuel efficiency. So, I was discouraged and I said to myself that if I will school it will be outside Nigeria and if it is not outside Nigeria then I am done with school. My parents said do you want to give me heart attack and I just need them to pray for me and their blessings. But we don’t have money to pay for your fees and I said I know.

 Somehow, I kept grinding and the first year after my secondary school in 2012/2013, I made the first prototype car that I was able to sit on. I forced myself to learn welding, got a gear box from a motorcycle and then I used a petrol engine from a grinding machine and used a starting rope like a generator 

Engr Mike: So you were able to convert a generator into a car, going to the fact that you started from a generator engine.

Jerry Mallo: It was funny and I just wanted to see the maximum people that will be able to stand on the car because there was no body, it was practically just a frame. So I would get my friends to stand and be running after me and I’ll be the one driving and ill tell one person, I just wanted to see how it will work. 15 of us were on it and it was still moving, so I felt this is nice and I was understanding the basics of cars. And that when you turn on the engine, it allows power to flow to parts and this ignites this and I just wanted to learn the practical of this. The next thing is I need to learn what it takes to build a car that can be sold like this. Next, I started look for admission abroad, I fell in the hand of scammers, a lot of times paying them to get me admission and nothing will come out. I was still focused, all I wanted was to get admission. Somehow, I managed to get admission at London, University of Hertfordshire. I didn’t know how it happened but I just got admission, so I was always moving with it in my bag everywhere. It was my biggest asset even though there was no money. A week to resumption and there was still no money. I just showed my parents and it was like they didn’t take it serious because they didn’t know anything there and there was no money.

So one day I was driving a truck with fertilizer on it to a farm and one man in a big car (Jeep) just saw it and the first thing he said even before greeting is “Sorry, don’t think I stopped to give you money because I don’t have money to give you” He asked if I made the car and I said Yes. He said why was I driving the car in the village where nobody will appreciate it. Why not go to the city where people will see it and appreciate it, that was all he wanted to say and he drove off.

I kept thinking about it but I didn’t know anybody in the city, then I remembered I had a friend in the city. I called him and he took permission from his mum and I came and spent two weeks in their house. The whole aim was just to be driving the car around and before we know it one morning NTA officials came asking about the boys driving something around. They came with big cameras to take videos for the network news. Other TV stations started coming, newspapers too. I got a call and they said “Do you know Abuja?” and I said no I have never been to Abuja and they asked me to come and I came with my admission in my bag. They asked me what I wanted and I said I wanted to study abroad. They asked where and I immediately brought out my admission and gave them. 

Engr Mike: You gave them the letter, that the deadline had already passed?

Jerry Mallo: It was two days to resumption and they said but its just two days to resumption, how do you intend to go? I said I don’t know and the man was touched and his eyes filled with tears. He said he will support but he does not have the capacity to finance the whole education just the first year. The issue is he doesn't have the capacity to finance the whole education, just the next step he can support, so if I go ahead any thing can happen it meant to happen like that.. it's better than leaving things like that.. and to leave Nigeria now will not be the option cause when you think of just flight ticket... so in London I went ahead to face those challenges I was running away from.. those X and Y calculation, it was funny self, there was nothing like chemistry, all they taught us was mathematics, statistics, and engineering mathematics, and you know all of them are maths, and I was not so good at it.. so my focus was on that was always studying but I was always the last. I was always the last, I was always the last! So I gave up and I started reading alot, I read about people like Ahmed and I got to understand that what gave people what they want is not in the class room, it was in the field, and what they were doing, the Time deposited in passion, so I decided I was going to put my time to make school secondary and the field primary, I started looking for field to make connects, I was always in a racing track just to see what engineer's do and to linkup and then my focus started diverting  from class and I was getting more audience there then I wanted to