Ekeh: Africa’s Tech Identity Built on ‘Corporate Suicide’

Chairman of Zinox Group, Leo Stan Ekeh, has told an international gathering of women leaders that his decision to build a technology company in Africa, at a time when the sector was virtually non-existent on the continent, amounted to what he described as ‘corporate suicide’.

Speaking on the theme: ‘Losing the Fear’, at The International Women Leadership Conference (TIWLC) in Dubai, organised by the Ibukun Awosika of Leadership Foundation, Ekeh, who was a keynote speaker on the final day of this year’s conference, addressed over 600 women industry leaders from different countries across the globe.

Ekeh encouraged the women to recognise their capacity to shape industries, create opportunities and influence the future. His message resonated with the wider conversation around women’s leadership, economic participation and the need for greater representation in sectors traditionally dominated by men.

He said he returned from his studies abroad to a Nigeria where his peers were filing into banking, oil and gas, and where technology was largely seen as a foreign game.

“I chose the road not taken,” he told the conference. “It was corporate suicide in the eyes of my parents and many others. I lost the fear because I believed technology was the master key that would unlock possibilities for Nigeria and Africa,” Ekeh further said.

He said the journey came with considerable hardship, including living on one meal a day for over three years and sleeping in a very small room in his office.

According to him, his vision was to create a Nigerian and, by extension, an African IT identity.

Recalling the launch of his first company, Task Systems Ltd, over 35 years ago, the company that pioneered desktop publishing and computer graphics in Nigeria.