29 Jun ‘21 · by Africa Practice
Akiddie Inc, an e-library for African Children’s books that helps families and children connect to creators in their communities. Akiddie is also a digital content marketplace where creators can create for their communities in text, audio and video. Akiddie promotes African representation in the Global Children’s books industry.
Can you tell us about yourself?
I am an entrepreneur from Nigeria and I’m an information and communications engineer by training. I’m the Co-founder and CEO of Akiddie Inc, and when I’m not battling start-up demons, I like to take some time off with friends. I also like to read. I think that humanity is full of beautiful (and not so beautiful) stories and that we should always try to see the world from another person’s eyes.
What inspired you to create Akiddie?
Akiddie helps families and children connect to creators in their communities. Originally an e-library of African Children’s books, I started Akiddie because an incident with my niece led me to discover that there wasn’t a lot of African representation in the Global Children’s books industry. I was asked to read a story for my niece then I realised that her personal library did not have any African books. When I tried to buy African books online, I found out that African books were not that easy to find- even in Africa. We decided to change that by building a web platform where anyone anywhere in the world could access African Children’s books. When we realised that this was a problem faced by many other ethnicities, we decided to extend the platform to being a digital content marketplace where creators could create for their communities in text, audio and video.
What has been the Impact so far?
I think in our short time in existence, the biggest impact will be on how our 4000 users may grow up to see the world. For the African children on the platform, they would grow to see a world that recognises their gifts, culture and encourages them to aim for the skies. For the non African children using the platform, they would grow to see the world for the beautifully diverse place it is and hopefully would be more welcoming of other cultures and identities. For the creators I think the biggest impact would be empowering them to tell their stories to the world, both within and outside their communities.
What do you think is the importance of Leadership?
Building Akiddie with my college friends, what I can say about leadership right now is that it goes beyond seeing where you want to go and getting people to get the organisation there. People have to see their journeys in your journey as an organisation and you have to do everything to ensure that people aren’t taking a step back in their personal journeys to contribute to your journey as an organisation. It’s about listening more than it is about saying, it’s about a fanatical belief in your team and their ability to get things done and done right. Leadership is more of the heart in the action than the action itself. For myself and my team, I think Akiddie has transformed us all for the better.
