Yo! You’re welcome to our first Meet-a-Curalyte blog series for the year - 2022. On Meet-a-Curalytes, we sit down with our amazing employees at Curacel, who share all things about what it's like to work here, what's happening behind the scenes and their honest experiences. This week we spoke with our Partnership and Growth Lead, Samuel Akpaniko. 

Let’s dive in!

Hi Samuel, could you tell us what excited you about joining Curacel?

INSURTECH! GROWTH!! CREATIVITY!!!

The whole idea of being part of a fast-moving train that will change the trajectory of insurance. And positively impacting the lives of Africans by making insurance easily accessible was as good as a cold glass of white wine.

Is working here different to what you expected?

Not at all, I expected to work with a motivated, high-performance team and the experience thus far has not disappointed me.

Apart from driving growth efforts, what else are you working on right now?

Learning, learning, and learning. I am always seeking opportunities to learn new things, broaden my horizons, and that's what I'm doing aside from work.

How has working for Curacel enabled you to chase your passion for broadening your horizon?

One of Curacel's core values is “continuous growth and learning”, and that culture encourages me to push my learning boundaries more.

What makes Curacel unique?

I’d say the team. It’s an ‘A’ team - you snooze and you might just miss out on something.

The team is full of positive, proactive, innovative thinkers and doers, dedicated to 'set goals', a flexible yet focused team.

How has working at Curacel changed your work and life?

Working 100% remote - It’s a new experience. This has really helped in balancing my work and personal life, increase productivity and provided a healthy balance 

What is your favourite thing about working at CURACEL?

The people, the team, whatever word you want to use. It’s a happy, positive place to be.

How would you describe CURACEL’s culture?

I‘d use three words to describe Curacel’s culture: engaging, nurturing and collaboration. 

What are you so excited about in life? What is that one thing you will do even if no monetary reward is involved?

Helping people, the less privileged, working with the elderly and children. I love that space, and seeing people smile because of your help or effort is golden.

Working remote, what country would you like to work from? And why?

Mauritius.

Getting a long-term remote work visa in Mauritius is completely free. It’s a beautiful country, has great scenery and nature.

What’s so beautiful about life that keeps you awake every hour of the day?

The potential of man to be good, kind and loving.

With everything happening in the world today, it’s easy to give up on mankind but those little sparks of kindness from a stranger, that harmless giggle of a baby and that idea/startup seeking to make life better for the less privileged is enough to want to be a part of a better tomorrow.

If you could switch job roles with someone for a day, who would it be and why?

My answer has nothing to do with my work directly.

I'd like to switch places with my mother; to experience what it feels like to care for, nurture, guide, love a son unconditionally and the emotions that come with it. Being a mother isn’t an easy job. A mother gets to wear many hats, it’s more like combining the roles of a CEO, CTO, CFO, COO, CSO and any other C’s out there.

I’m in awe of all the excellent mothers raising their kids right and all the hardworking single mothers doing all they can to keep things together. Not forgetting about the fathers of course.

Who do you think should answer these questions for our next publication?

Temi “Ayo Balogun” Jay

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