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Some founders start with a technology and look for a use. Onyeka Akumah does the opposite. He spots something broken in a traditional industry, such as a clumsy bus ride or a farmer who cannot raise money, and builds a business around fixing it. Over two decades, that habit produced ventures in agriculture, transportation, property technology and e-commerce, including Farmcrowdy and Treepz. In December 2024, he published an autobiography about the journey. This biography covers his age, education, career and the pattern behind his companies.
Who Is Onyeka Akumah?
Onyeka Akumah is a Nigerian technology entrepreneur and the co-founder and CEO of Treepz, a corporate mobility company that operates across several African countries. He also co-founded Farmcrowdy, Nigeria’s first digital agriculture platform, and RentSmallSmall, a property technology company. He founded WO Community, a platform for mentoring and building entrepreneurs, and he mentors startups at Techstars Toronto and the Founders Institute.
Onyeka Akumah’s Age and Early Life
Akumah was born in Lagos on October 21, 1984, which makes him 42 years old. He is the first of five children. Before he turned two, his parents moved the family to Sokoto in northwest Nigeria, where he attended primary and secondary school and spent his first fifteen years. The family later returned to Lagos.
That early life across two very different parts of Nigeria shaped his outlook. In Sokoto, he watched how hard life could be for small farmers. In Lagos, he met the pressures of city life.
First Business at Ajah Bus Stop
His entrepreneurial career started young. After his family moved to Lagos, Akumah opened an airtime recharge card shop at the Ajah bus stop. It was a small, practical business that taught him how to serve customers, manage stock and handle cash.
Onyeka Akumah’s Education
Akumah studied at Sikkim Manipal University in India, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Information Technology, with a focus on software engineering, between 2003 and 2006. He graduated with first class honours and a distinction.
He also started businesses while still a student. His first company built websites, and it earned enough to pay part of his school fees. He later founded ANOZIM Group, a digital media business with three arms focused on internet marketing, online publishing and digital media sales.
Early Career in Corporate Africa and E-commerce
After graduating, Akumah returned to Nigeria and worked as a webmaster at the British Council. He then joined Deloitte as e-marketing coordinator for East, West and Central Africa, which gave him a regional view of digital marketing.
His strongest experience came in e-commerce. He led marketing and commercial activities at Jumia, Konga and Travelbeta, three of Nigeria’s best-known online businesses, and he served as Chief Commercial Officer at Travelbeta, one of the country’s leading online travel agencies. Those jobs taught him how Nigerian consumers shop, pay and complain, and they trained him to turn an idea into a product people use.
Building Farmcrowdy
In 2016, Akumah co-founded Farmcrowdy and served as its CEO until 2021. The company was Nigeria’s first digital agriculture platform. It let ordinary people sponsor farms and gave small-scale farmers access to funding, markets and technical support, which helped them plant and harvest with more confidence.
By January 2021, Farmcrowdy’s network included more than 420,000 farmers across Nigeria. Akumah described the company as his contribution to food security and to getting young people involved in farming. He resigned as CEO in 2021 and moved on to his next idea.
Other Ventures Along the Way
Akumah has also launched other companies that tackle everyday problems. RentSmallSmall helps Nigerians pay rent in smaller instalments, and it applies the same approach to property that Farmcrowdy applied to farming. Qwikgist is a social media business he built early in his career. Each venture reflects the same instinct: find a traditional industry with an obvious pain point and add technology to ease it.
Founding Treepz
In September 2019, a bad experience on a bus gave Akumah the idea for his next company. He co-founded the business, then called Plentywaka, with Johnny Enagwolor, Oluseyi Afolabi and John Shaibu. They aimed to make shared bus travel safer, more reliable and easier to book.
The company began with shared daily rides in Nigeria, Ghana and Uganda and completed close to a million bookings in its first two years. It later became Treepz and shifted its focus toward corporate mobility, which moves employees to and from work for companies.
Treepz Today
Treepz says it is Africa’s largest corporate mobility platform. It operates in six countries and serves about five million customers. The business model suits Africa’s cities, where traffic, unreliable public transport and safety concerns make commuting a daily struggle. A company that solves the journey to work for employers gains steady, repeat customers.
The Pattern Behind His Businesses
Looking across his companies, one approach repeats. Akumah starts with a problem that a traditional industry has accepted for years: farmers who cannot reach capital, tenants who cannot pay a year’s rent at once, commuters who endure unsafe buses. He then builds a digital platform that connects the people who need the service with the people who can provide it, and he sets prices that fit local incomes.
The method also explains his frequent switching of sectors. He does not stay attached to one industry. He stays attached to the habit of looking for broken systems.
Mentoring and Community
Akumah gives back by mentoring startups at Techstars Toronto and the Founders Institute, and through WO Community, which he founded to help entrepreneurs learn from one another. African CEO Magazine included him among its 40 Under 40 CEOs in December 2024.
The Autobiography
On December 22, 2024, Akumah published his autobiography, Zero To Forty: Don’t Stop, Keep Building. The book follows his journey from Jumia and Konga to Farmcrowdy and Treepz, and it presents him as an entrepreneur building for 1.5 billion people across the continent. It focuses on resilience, the hard moments behind each venture and the habit of building the next thing after a setback.
What His Journey Teaches
Three lessons stand out. First, start with a problem you have felt yourself. A bad bus ride led to Treepz, and years among small farmers led to Farmcrowdy. Second, learn how customers behave before you build. His years at Jumia, Konga and Travelbeta taught him how Nigerians shop and pay, and he applied those lessons to every later venture. Third, keep building after you step away. Leaving Farmcrowdy did not end his career, and it freed him to start Treepz.
