Felix Fomengia is one of those 21st century geeks whom you will definitely not want to associate with if you are among those kids with doubtful priorities who spend the better part of their time trying to look cool and as such mostly miss out on the more critical and intriguing things of life and youth, mostly casting them of as boring. But if you are an ambitious person with a game plan who craves impact and longs to make a difference then you already have an instant connection with this guy.
Felix Fomengia took interest in computer programming in his first cycle days, but before that his love for computers and everything digital has always stood out clearly. As a lot of his classmates can testify Felix was always the fastest at typing, this skill became handier than he had ever expected it to be given that it was his sole ticket to consolidating the attention of the pretty girls of his class, I mean what could a teen in his puberty days want more than that.
His interest in the digital world grew wildly in his freshman year in the University of Buea and he decided to drift from being a consumer to be amongst the pacesetters in the digital world. With this resolve he decided to begin coding. His admiration for inventors in the domain of high-tech such as Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Jack Dorsey of Twitter, Larry Page and Sergei Brin of Google led him to self-teach himself the dynamics of the various programming languages permitting him to be able to build blogs for a start, then he went ahead to learn how to build websites and he arrived a significant milestone in his art when he learned how to develop Android apps.
The word “app” is actually a short form for application which in the world of high-tech refers to computer software or programme which is mostly small and written for mobile devices. The term was originally used for any software that could feature on a desktop or mobile device but with time and the coming of more mobile app stores, the term is now mostly used to describe small programmes that can be downloaded and installed all at once. And Felix taught himself how to build such programmes from scratch using content from Youtube and other online learning platforms. Remarkable, isn’t it?
Ever since Felix learned how to build Android apps he has been living his best life. Before we continue I willlike to precise that the person we are talking about here is a resident of the war-torn South West region of Cameroon, he has spent his entire university life amidst the ongoing conflicts that keep ravaging the South West region for 2years already as he got into the University in 2016. So the crisis seems to have really worked well for him because while the rest of the youthful populations of the affected regions seem to be crumbling with some taking up arms to fight the government , Felix invested his free time, of course he had a lot of it then, to feed his passion and grow his competency.
That said, Felix did not just want to build apps. He wanted to identify a problem, attack it and be able to bring the solution to your mobile device. As such one of his first apps which was launched on the Google play store was “Coder’s Motivation”. This app provides motivational quotes, the theories and profiles of people who revolutionized the way the computer is being used and the way coding is done. It is aimed at boosting up the morale of those learning how to code and those who can already code. He developed this app to help people who are in the same field as he is because he understands the pains and difficulties that come with sleepless nights of coding; as such he decided to do an app to motivate coders.
He also developed two apps C code tutor and C++ code tutor which help train other coders on how to use some specific kinds of programming languages so they can step up their game. Later on, he decided to do an app which will save all of us the stress of memorizing allMTN USSD codes, he called the app MTN All codes. This app proved it was worth its salt so much so that the users of the other mobile networks started asking for their own version. That is how Orange All codes, Nextel All codes, CAMTEL All codes, Yoomee All codes and even MTN Nigeria All codes came about.
He is also the development of Cameroon’s number one educational app which is dubbed “Cameroon GCE Guide App” and a host of others which include games and other brain bursting apps. This education app comprises GCE past questions and their answers; it was with this app that 20year old techie Felix Fomengia won the University of Buea Premium Awards. Felix emphasizes that he wouldn’t build apps for the sake of building them, he is very much obsessed about creating value that will be of real benefit to the users of his apps.
Felix took it upon himself to delve into the monetization of his skill, hence the creation of Light Gate Solutions which is a high tech startup which has interest in helping individuals and groups embrace and explore the advantage the digital age gives us. He already has developed websites and applications for several firms and he looks forward to creating a kind of Cameroonian Silicon Valley which will be a melting pot of all tech enthusiasts in Cameroon.
So far he counts more than 15 apps to his names on the Google app store with a cumulative number of downloads which is somewhere above 50,000 with a total of about $3000 in earnings from the download of his apps. He is currently working on some updates in order to improve the user experience of his customers. He is one of those who received the Google Africa Scholarship for this year, permitting him to access a Google android developer nanodegree course at no cost at all. I hear his GCE guide app has been nominated at the Bonteh Digital Awards scheduled to hold in December, I don’t know how true that is!
All in all, it is quite clear that now more than before many more Cameroonian youths are taking their destinies into their hands, refusing to abide by preset standards and status quo in a bid to find their way. And they are doing so despite the many odds being born in Paul Biya’s Cameroon comes with and in Felix’s case, despite an already two-year long crisis, which isn’t showing any signs of ending any time soon which has reduced the economy of the two English speaking regions of Cameroon to near nothingness.
That said, what did you give as excuse for not executing that plan or idea? You too can be featured here on PoiseSocial’sYouth Entrepreneurship, all you need to do is go out there like Randalls Ndobegang, Bryan Fai Yengo, Ayuk Nicole and Felix Fomengia, find what works for you and put in your all. You really could be better than what you are now! There’s a Chinese proverb I like which puts the whole thing so well “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a step”
- Emmanuel Asafor