Like Father, Like Son: Inspiring story of the Ekehs and digital sector

Victor-Marie Hugo, a French poet, novelist, and essayist, died more than two centuries ago, but some of his immortal thoughts still resonate today. In 1885, he postulated, and I quote: “There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world, and that is an idea whose time has come.”

Hugo’s thoughts bear a striking similarity to the vitality of fresh ideas, vision, and drive that the Ekehs have injected into the digital sector.

Recognizing their superlative and unprecedented achievements, which culminated in what many have described as a rare feat, Thisday and Arise Television honoured Mr. Stan Leo Ekeh and his very innovative son, Prince Nnamdi Ekeh, on Monday, January 27, 2025, in Lagos.

The colourful ceremony saw the serial digital entrepreneur share the same podium with his son, Prince Ekeh, as winners in different categories of the much-coveted awards.

The top-rated awards commemorated the 30th and 12th anniversaries of Thisday Newspapers and Arise News, respectively.

While the father, Leo Stan Ekeh, Chairman of Zinox Group, was honoured with the CEO of the Year award, his Oxford-trained son, Prince Nnamdi Ekeh, CEO of Konga Group, was bestowed with the Young Global Leader Award for his transformative role in navigating Konga as a foremost composite e-commerce giant in Nigeria and Africa.

It was indeed a splendid sight to behold, being the first time ever that a father and his son would be honoured on the same night in the nation’s Infotech ecosystem.

Unknown to many, debonair and handsome Prince Ekeh was 19 and a student at the University of Lancaster, United Kingdom, when he birthed the idea of Yudala, a brutally ambitious e-commerce outpost.

The silent and reclusive brilliant bloke has remained consistent like the shining star since he came up with Yudala.

His record speaks volumes and is humongous beyond imagination.

That the younger Ekeh has gone this far is not far-fetched, as he majored in Economics/Politics with a minor in Entrepreneurship, which apparently motivated him to take Yudala to the pinnacle.

Prince Ekeh returned home to serve his fatherland through the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

He nurtured Yudala to its peak, employing over 250 staff at that time. Ever since, he has navigated the company to the crest of e-commerce players in Africa.

He would later top up his academic kit with an MBA from Oxford and numerous entrepreneurial certifications from Lagos Business School, Leysin American School, Switzerland, and Harvard, among others.

Yudala was the first composite e-commerce outpost in Nigeria (a hybrid of the online-offline one-stop-shop). This idea has caught global attention and is now being replicated across the continent.

In 2018, Prince Ekeh achieved what many thought impossible. His start-up, Yudala, acquired Konga, a top player in Nigeria’s e-commerce space, in a landmark merger that became effective May 1, 2018. The whizz-kid has since expanded Konga to a leading e-commerce house in Africa, retaining the composite character of Yudala. He has creatively expanded the market share value and net worth of Konga by building its business verticals to include logistics, fintech, travel, and leisure.

Young Prince Ekeh is not new to awards. He had been nominated for the prestigious Future Awards for Business Excellence, featured as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People of African Descent (MIPAD) in response to the proclamation by the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 68/237, and awarded Icon of Human Transformation by the National Association of Nigerian Students. The Thisday award is, therefore, another feather in the decorated cap of this result-oriented entrepreneur.

So also for the digital mogul, Leo Stan, who was honoured with the CEO of the Year Award in the private sector, becoming the only CEO in the highly competitive and sometimes treacherous private sector to be so honoured. The historical and symbolic moment was not lost on him. He recognised the honour of sharing the same platform with his son, both being rewarded for their peerless contribution to Nigeria and, by extension, Africa’s digital economy. It was a rarity, more so, as they shared the same podium with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was voted Thisday Man of the Year for his bold reforms and exemplary leadership on the African continent.

Leo Stan is not keen on competition but rather on extending and expanding the frontiers of the digital sector.

He is not new to awards, having bagged numerous prestigious accolades in the past.

Among the top-rated awards bestowed on the astute businessman are:
– Personality of the Year Award by the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS)
– Fellow, Nigeria Computer Society
– Fellow, Nigeria Law School
– Forbes Best of Africa Leading Tech Icon
– National Award of Officer of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, OFR (2004)

On October 1st, 2001, Ekeh was honoured as Icon of Hope by former President Chief Olusegun Obasanjo for his sustained pioneering efforts in deepening Information Technology in Africa and as a pride to modern Nigeria.
Mr. Ekeh’s ceaseless zeal for productivity and excellence was rewarded by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari with the National Productivity Merit Award (NPOM) in November 2019.

A distinguished member of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group and Fellow of the Nigeria Computer Society, Ekeh is a recipient of one of the country’s highest National Honours – the Order of The Federal Republic (OFR).
He is rated by professionals as a global digital giant and a man whose vision and performance have bolstered integrity of indigenous players in the ICT sector. His unmatched interventions have seen him receive over 60 local and international awards. He has also served on numerous Federal Government Committees, including the Presidential Committee for Job Creation, Nigeria Thinkers, and the ICT Roadmap, among many others.

Other awards won by Ekeh include:
– National Productivity Order of Merit Award, 2019
– Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa), University of Jos
– Doctor of Business Administration (Honoris Causa), Imo State University
– Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa), Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi
– Doctor of Technology (Honoris Causa), Federal University of Technology, Owerri
– Doctor of Business Administration (Honoris Causa), Federal University Birnin Kebbi

He has over 15 Honorary Fellowship Awards from Nigerian Federal and State Polytechnics.

The older Ekeh is academically sound. He bagged a B.Sc. (Hons.) in Economics from Punjab University, India, a Post Graduate Diploma in Risk Management from Nottingham University, England, and is a pioneer ICT specialist.

Leo Stan Ekeh is Africa’s foremost innovative serial digital entrepreneur. He is a living legend, an exemplar of visionary leadership and integrity, a serial disruptor endowed with uncommon courage to dare and a knack for anticipating the future. He does not only anticipate the future; he creates the future.

An outlier and first-rate India-trained economist and former Global Advisor to Microsoft, Mr. Ekeh holds a Post Graduate Degree in Risk Management from Nottingham University, England, in addition to several honorary doctorate degrees from highly respected universities for his impactful entrepreneurship and pioneering efforts in the field of Information Technology.

A Forbes Best of Africa Leading Tech Icon, Ekeh is currently the Chairman of Zinox Group, Sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest integrated technology conglomerate, with its businesses spanning Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.
With a mindset to disrupt and transition Nigeria from an analogue to a digital economy, he started out as a desktop publishing company in a flat at Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos. He has scaled up the startup into a global enterprise comprising Zinox Technologies Limited, Zinox Telecoms Ltd, Task Systems Ltd., TD Africa, Ashour Corporation FZE, Dubai, Infotech UK, among others. Over time, the conglomerate has invested in oil and gas, real estate, composite e-commerce, fintech, and still counting.

A gifted and futuristic risk-taker, Ekeh runs one of the most structured and tech-driven conglomerates in Africa. He has inspired several generations of budding entrepreneurs and startups, many of whom are currently disrupting the technology space in Nigeria and beyond.

His business odyssey is a journey of many firsts and pioneering feats. He pioneered e-commerce in Nigeria with BuyRight Africa Dotcom and made a remarkable rebound in 2018 with the acquisition of Konga from its previous majority investors, Naspers and AB Kinnevik, in what is regarded as one of the most ambitious, seamless, and discreetly managed corporate acquisitions in Africa.
He pioneered Desktop Publishing and Computer Graphics in Nigeria in 1987 with his first company, Task Systems Ltd. He launched the first ICT support company in Nigeria, ITEC Solutions Ltd. He pioneered the deployment of digital dispensing pumps for petrol and gas stations in Nigeria in partnership with Elf Oil (now Total Plc.) after he was cheated by an attendant at a fuel station in Lagos. He pioneered ICT distribution in West Africa with the launch of Technology Distributions Limited (today known as TD Africa), which has remained the biggest technology, lifestyle, and cutting-edge solution distributor in the West African sub-region.
Zinox was the first internationally certified indigenous computer brand in West Africa and the first computer brand in the world to incorporate the Naira sign (₦) on its keyboard. It was the first Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) in Sub-Saharan Africa to receive Microsoft Windows Hardware Quality Lab Certification (WHQL); first Microsoft Prime Production Online Automation Partner in Sub-Saharan Africa with the OA Version 3.0; first Intel Premium Partner; first OEM in West Africa to attain the ISO 9001-2015 Certification; first to acquire the Google Mobile Application Distribution Agreement (MADA) in West Africa; first OEM in Nigeria to introduce renewable energy and lifestyle products and attain the status of Intel Platinum Partner in sub-Saharan Africa, among others.

With Ekeh’s supervision, his company Zinox Technologies delivered integrated digital equipment worth over $370 million that altered, for good, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) voters’ registration in 2006 and 2010 when foreign contractors could not deliver after months of promises. He also supervised the digital registration of voters in Guinea Bissau, where Zinox deployed the tech equipment.

These were rated the largest ICT rollouts in Africa. Under his leadership, Zinox Technologies and Zinox Telecoms pioneered and delivered the largest single e-library and wireless cloud rollout project on the continent.

Enyeh, a renowned Journalist wrote in from Abuja