Africa’s entrepreneurial ecosystem is filled with innovators, founders, and businesses solving real problems.
However, according to communications strategist and founder of Savvy Media Africa, Tofunmi Akinseye, the continent’s biggest challenge has not been a shortage of entrepreneurs but the absence of structures that connect talent, capital, markets, and opportunities.
Akinseye shared this perspective while reflecting on her experience as communications lead for the Afretrade Entrepreneurs Festival (TAEF), a platform designed to bring together entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, and business leaders to strengthen Africa’s business environment.
Tofunmi Akinseye is a magazine publisher, PR specialist, and founder of Savvy Media Africa, with a strong focus on telling African stories and positioning brands for greater visibility.
As the Founder and Publisher of Savvy Magazine, she has curated 17 editions, creating a platform that celebrates African excellence across entertainment, lifestyle, business, and culture.
In the communications space, she has led high impact campaigns for global productions including Black Panther and Avatar, while working with brands such as MTN and Filmhouse Cinema.
Her work has earned her recognitions including the UN Most Influential People of African Descent, Class 2024 (Media & Culture category), PR Personality of the Year at the African Women Awards, and the Africa Under 40 CEOs Award. Under her leadership, Savvy Media Africa was named Young Agency of the Year at the Edge Awards.
According to Akinseye, TAEF was created to address a fundamental gap within Africa’s business environment.
“Africa has never lacked entrepreneurs. What it has lacked is infrastructure, the kind that connects the right people to the right opportunities at the right time. When I looked at the landscape, I saw brilliant founders building in isolation, investors looking for deal flow with no structured entry point, and diaspora capital sitting on the sidelines simply because the bridge didn’t exist.”
“TAEF was conceived to be that bridge. Not just another conference, but a living ecosystem where trade, talent, trust, and training converge in one space.”
Akinseye explained that one of the biggest lessons from working on the project was the importance of changing perceptions about African expertise.
“What struck me most when I came on board was that Dr. Charly and the Afretrade team had built something genuinely laudable, a bold, well structured initiative with real substance.”
“But there was a deeper issue I observed that went beyond communications. Dr. Charly was coming from California, having coordinated events across different continents, and one of her real concerns coming into Nigeria was whether she would find the right strategic partners, for the event, for communications, for every critical aspect of the festival, who could match the global standard she was working to.”
For Akinseye, that moment represented a larger conversation about how African professionals are perceived globally.
“And I think that is one of the most important gaps TAEF and projects like it have the power to close. Not just connecting entrepreneurs to markets, but changing the narrative about what Nigerian professionals are capable of. When we began working together and she saw the quality of thinking, the strategy, and the execution we brought to the table, that confidence shifted.”
Visibility, Credibility and Business Growth
Speaking on the relationship between visibility and business growth, Akinseye believes many entrepreneurs focus on being seen without paying enough attention to credibility.
“Working on Afretrade reinforced something I’ve always believed, visibility without credibility is noise. You can put someone in front of a crowd, but if the story isn’t anchored in substance, it doesn’t convert.”
“What TAEF taught me is that the most powerful visibility is earned through association. When your name sits alongside Chief Obasanjo, Prince Abimbola Olashore, Toks Omishakin, and leaders of that calibre, the market makes an instant credibility judgment.”
She noted that the challenge extends beyond business visibility to how African professionals are evaluated.
“Charly arrived with a genuine question mark about whether she would find strategic partners locally who could execute at a global standard. That is the visibility problem in its most personal form, not just whether your product is seen, but whether you as a professional are taken seriously before you even walk into the room.”
For Akinseye, projects like TAEF demonstrate that the expertise required for global level execution already exists within Africa.
“What this project proved is that the talent is here. The systems and the structure are what we must continue to build.”
Building a Strategic Communications Framework
As communications lead, Akinseye said one of the biggest challenges was creating a comprehensive strategy within a short timeframe.
“We came on board about three to four weeks before the festival, which meant we had a very compressed window to understand the full scope of the project, identify the gaps, and build a bespoke communications strategy from scratch.”
“We developed a comprehensive strategy document that covered pre-event, during, and post event communications, a holistic guide that the entire team worked from throughout the festival. That document became our north star.”
She explained that the complexity of TAEF required a tailored communications approach.
“There were so many components, keynotes, masterclasses, a gala dinner, media engagements, partner activations, delegate management, and each one had its own identity and its own target audience. Communications could not be one size fits all.”
“We had to unpack every component, define who it was speaking to, and ensure the messaging was tailored accordingly while still sitting cohesively under the TAEF umbrella.”
Creating Lasting Value Beyond Events
With several business platforms emerging across Africa, Akinseye believes longevity depends on what happens after the event ends.
“Three things: community, continuity, and conversion. Any event can fill a room for a day.”
“What separates the ones that last is whether they build a community that stays connected after the lights go off, whether there is a clear roadmap that makes this year’s edition a foundation and not a finale, and whether the conversations in the room actually convert into deals, partnerships, and action.”
She described TAEF as more than an annual gathering.
“The festival is the moment, but Afretrade as a platform is the movement.”
Measuring Real Impact
For Akinseye, impact goes beyond publicity numbers.
“I measure impact by behaviour change. Did an entrepreneur in that room make a decision they wouldn’t have made before? Did an investor place a call they weren’t planning to make? Did a young person watching our content online start building something?”
“Media coverage tells you how loud the message was. Behaviour tells you how deep it landed.”
She added that successful communications begins with authenticity.
“When the event owner delivers on their promise, it makes the communications real. It gives us something authentic to amplify.”
The campaign’s performance reflected that approach, with Brand24 monitoring reports showing over 465,000 reach across 31 days, 183 mentions, zero negative mentions, 161 pieces of user generated content, and $65,000 in earned media value.
“That doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when the event owner delivers on their promise and the communications strategy is built to amplify authenticity rather than manufacture noise.”
The Future of PR
Having expanded Savvy Media Africa from entertainment communications into corporate storytelling, Akinseye believes the future of PR is changing.
“Afretrade reminded me that the future of PR is not about press releases. It is about positioning. The most powerful communications work today sits at the intersection of strategy, storytelling, and business development.”
She believes organisations must begin to see communications as a strategic business function.
“The communications function should never be an afterthought for any serious organisation. When we arrived, the bones of something extraordinary were already there. Our job was to give it the language, the structure, and the visibility it deserved.”
“That shift, from publicist to strategic architect, is where I see Savvy Media Africa going. And Afretrade, in many ways, was the project that accelerated that evolution.”
As Africa competes for global relevance, Akinseye argues that the next advantage will not come from discovering talent, but from building the systems that allow talent to scale.
The continent does not need to prove that capability exists; it needs stronger structures that convert capability into influence, investment, and sustainable growth.
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