Coming from a science background, not many people would have expected Blessing Abeng to become a force in the marketing and communications industry. Yet, she has been a part of building successful companies like Disha and Ingressive for Good (I4G) from the ground up.

Coming from a science background, not many people would have expected Blessing Abeng to become a force in the marketing and communications industry. Yet, she has been a part of building successful companies like Disha and Ingressive for Good (I4G) from the ground up.

How did Ingressive for Good start?

Ingressive for Good launched July 1, 2020, in the peak of the COVID lockdown. Before this, Ingressive Capital, a venture firm led by Maya Horgan, had a small-scale CSR project that involved connecting student communities with global tech companies like Github and Figma.

We also randomly paid for students’ school fees and bought them laptops. After a while, we paused our approach and interviewed some of our beneficiaries and tech stakeholders. This interview revealed that in addition to getting training and tools, people wanted jobs too.

On Ingressive Capital’s side, they realised that finding the right talent is one of the biggest challenges startups face. This is why we thought of creating Ingressive for Good, a nonprofit dedicated to helping young Africans increase their earning power by developing tech skills and landing jobs.

Since Ingressive for Good was an off-shoot of Ingressive Capital, you must have had enough resources to kickstart operations, correct?

Years ago, I met Maya Horgan, the founder of Ingressive Capital, while I and my partner were running Startup Grind Lagos. We invited her to speak at our monthly event, and we connected from there. She loved my work, followed me on social media and we got acquainted. One time, she tried getting me to run communications at Ingressive Capital, but I declined because I had other commitments.

But when she told me about Ingressive for Good in 2020, I was excited to join her and Sean Burrowes as a founding member. I’m great at being creative and analytical, so this came in handy when Ingressive for Good began operations. I took ownership of my communications role and got involved in important conversations like I was a co-founder.

One time, we were at a donor meeting, and I answered most of the questions the donors threw at us. Right after that call, Maya and Sean invited me to be a co-founder. According to them, I was already handling the nonprofit like it was mine. So why not?

Given how Disha and I4G weren’t exactly profitable when you first joined them, did stopping your agency affect your finances?

Not at all. I had saved and invested enough money to sustain me for years while running my agency, and I had digital content raking in passive income. I also occasionally freelanced as a branding consultant. Overall, I had sufficient funds to live comfortably.