Stephen Olusegun Akinfemi, a former Chief Information Officer in a leading Telecom company based out of the Republic of Benin, is our guest in this episode. He had a burning desire to expand his horizon and experience more of what life had to offer than what Nigeria, his country of birth seemed to offer him so he decided to leave the country. His first move towards making that decision a reality was to go for his higher education in the United Kingdom. However, after that attempt did not lead him there, he changed his mind and opted to instead move to Canada.
Off to Canada he went and life restarted beautifully well. Unfortunately, that was not the case because he was again denied permanent residency visa to Canada. Stephen was not a person to give up once his mind is made up so he fought the rejection. He hired a Canadian lawyer and eventually won the case but was given less than two months to land in Canada! What a bitter-sweet situation!
When life throws lemon at you, you make lemonade out of it. He strategized and decided to work it out. Due to the importance and sensitive nature of his expatriate role at the time, he could only afford seven days to travel, complete his initial paperwork with his family and return to his work base in Sierra Leone. Amazingly, he did it.
I could continue this story but you are better of, listening to him yourself. So, find a comfortable place, put on your headphone and listen to this inspiring interview!
Come with me!
ILP-0135: Stephen Akinfemi - My Immigration and Integration Journey