Tunde Kehinde is one of Nigeria’s most respected tech entrepreneurs, a builder whose career reflects Africa’s journey from early digital experiments to scalable, impact-driven platforms. Born and raised in Nigeria, Tunde showed strong academic discipline early on, which took him to Europe for higher education. He studied Business and Economics at the University of Applied Sciences in Berlin, where he developed a deep interest in entrepreneurship, operations, and how technology could solve large-scale market inefficiencies. His exposure to global business systems, combined with a strong understanding of African realities, positioned him perfectly for the wave of digital transformation that was about to begin on the continent.
That moment came in 2012 when Tunde co-founded Jumia, alongside Raphael Afaedor and Sacha Poignonnec. At the time, e-commerce in Nigeria was largely untested; internet penetration was limited, logistics infrastructure was weak, and consumer trust in online payments was low. Yet Tunde and his team believed Africans were ready to shop online if the experience was built around local realities. As Co-founder and CEO of Jumia Nigeria, Tunde played a key role in building operations, logistics, and market strategy from the ground up. Jumia went on to become Africa’s largest e-commerce platform, expanding across multiple countries and eventually listing on the New York Stock Exchange, a historic milestone for African tech.
After stepping away from Jumia, Tunde turned his focus to a new but equally critical challenge: access to finance for small and medium-sized businesses. In 2016, he founded Lidya, a data-driven fintech company designed to provide fast, flexible loans to SMEs using alternative data and technology. Lidya addressed a major gap in Africa’s economy; millions of businesses had strong cash flows but no access to traditional bank credit. Under Tunde’s leadership, Lidya expanded beyond Nigeria into Europe, proving that African-built financial models could compete globally. His work with Lidya showed that entrepreneurship is not just about disruption, but about deep understanding of real problems and building sustainable solutions.
Yet Tunde Kehinde’s story is bigger than Jumia or Lidya. It is a story of timing, courage, and the willingness to start again after success. He represents a generation of African founders who helped lay the groundwork for today’s tech ecosystem, proving that large-scale companies can be built from Africa, for Africa, and beyond. His journey reminds young entrepreneurs that impact often comes in chapters: build, learn, evolve, and build again. Through e-commerce and fintech, Tunde Kehinde has helped shape how Africans buy, sell, and grow, leaving a lasting imprint on the continent’s digital economy.