Akanno is a Nigerian tech entrepreneur, brand and social media strategist, and tech creative director. He is regarded as “one of the most thriving” young tech entrepreneurs in Nigeria and one of the “5 Africans under 30 who are breaking technology barriers”.
After Akanno graduated from the university in 2010 the ‘design bug caught’ him and inspired him to “venture into graphics as a freelance designer” for almost two years – “creating designs for people who wanted to update their display pictures on the Blackberry Messenger (BBM) and charged as little as ₦400.
He finally landed his “first real job as a brand and social media strategist with Jumia Nigeria” in 2012 and also went to work with Konga.com in 2013 as a “creative strategist” before he finally “left paid employments” to set up his own company: Cregital Agency in 2015.He founded Cregital as a startup through personal savings and bootstrapping with just $1,600, which grew successfully to become a multi-award winning company today.
His company Cregital was awarded “Best Website Development Company of the Year” by the Nigeria Technology Awards in 2016 and 2017; and he was also named the winner of the “Tech Young Achiever of the Year” at the 2018 Nigeria Technology Awards.
Akanno is also a prolific writer and enjoyed combining his “love for design” with his “writing abilities”, which inspired him in 2014 to set up Zegist.com – a lifestyle community online platform. He is also the “Editor of Cregital Writings”, which is an online tech discussion platform where members of his company Cregital share inside stories about their tech business expertise, professional work culture and life experiences.
In 2019, he was named among Forbes Africa 30 Under 30 in the Technology Category.