Nigerian Engineer Built Ticketing Platform From Scratch

Damilola Jerugba started building Jetron Ticket in 2022 because his friend needed a better way to manage party attendees. What began as a coding practice project has grown into a ticketing platform serving events across Lagos, Kaduna, Plateau, and Rivers State.

The first event was rough. Jetron had no system to store customer emails, so Jerugba and his team asked attendees for their information at check-in and typed it into Excel spreadsheets, one by one. Some people paid but didn't get their QR codes right away, and Jerugba handled almost everything himself, from software development to scanning tickets at the door.

But he fixed the problems one by one. The email system got overhauled after that first night. Payment confirmations became reliable. With each new event, the platform got smoother.

The self-taught engineer had learned to code through Udemy courses and YouTube tutorials before working at Reddit, Moniepoint, and Busha. Those jobs taught him how to build systems that work at scale, and he brought those lessons back to Jetron every time.

By day 100, something clicked. Event organizers who attended parties ticketed through Jetron started using the platform for their own events. The platform spread to new cities without any marketing strategy.

Growth brought new challenges. Jerugba and his co-founder funded Jetron with their own salaries, spending over $1,160 monthly on costs. When Jerugba's contract at Reddit ended in 2023, he ran the company on personal savings for three months while keeping his entire team employed.

The timing turned out to be perfect. Nigeria's events industry has exploded, particularly around Detty December, the festive season when Lagos comes alive with concerts and parties. In 2025, Lagos recorded nearly $290 million in consumer spending during that period, with $93 million going to entertainment and nightlife alone.

The Ripple Effect

Jetron now offers features like seat mapping, group tickets, promo codes, and curated guest lists. What started as a basic ticketing tool has evolved into infrastructure that helps organizers run professional events in a market where demand has outpaced the available tools.

The platform operates with a 10-person team, each one Jerugba chose to keep even when money got tight. His bet wasn't on building another Eventbrite but on creating something that could serve Nigeria's booming events scene the way Ticketmaster serves global markets.

From typing emails into spreadsheets to processing events across multiple cities, Jetron proves that the best solutions often start with one person's frustration and another person's willingness to build something better.