Akinmade Akinrinmade: African Tech Must Start With Local Problems

Vanessa Obioha

For over two decades, Akinmade Akinrinmade has worked across various industries where decisions have real consequences. From government and healthcare to telecommunications, higher education and startups, he has helped organisations rethink how they solve problems, design products and embrace technology.

His career has taken him from Nigeria to Canada, where he has led digital transformation projects for organisations across North America while maintaining a growing interest in Africa’s technology ecosystem. Along the way, one belief has remained constant: technology is only as useful as the problem it is designed to solve.

At a time when African startups are increasingly looking to Silicon Valley for inspiration, Akinrinmade believes the continent’s greatest opportunity lies much closer to home. Rather than replicating products built for different markets, he argues that founders should focus on creating solutions rooted in Africa’s own realities.

Born and raised in Nigeria, Akinrinmade began his career in industrial design before relocating to Canada in 2018, where he transitioned into digital product design. Since then, he has worked with organisations across healthcare, telecommunications and the public sector, helping them rethink systems and improve the way they serve people.

At Rogers Communications in Toronto, he led a strategy for cloud-based customer platforms that reduced support demand by 25 per cent while improving customer engagement. At Providence Care in Kingston, Ontario, he oversaw product strategy for a Regional Health Information System built on FHIR interoperability standards, reducing manual data processes by 30 per cent. His experience at Deloitte further exposed him to enterprise-wide transformation projects across healthcare, telecommunications and government, where the effectiveness of technology often has a direct impact on public service delivery.

Alongside his consulting work, Akinrinmade teaches in the Master of Digital Product Management programme at the Smith School of Business, Queen’s University, and mentors young professionals preparing for careers in technology. For him, developing people is as important as developing products.

In recent years, his attention has increasingly turned towards Africa and the question of how the continent can build technology that reflects its own needs instead of adapting solutions created elsewhere.

In this interview, Akinrinmade reflects on why African innovation should begin with African problems. He also shares lessons from two decades of working across continents and industries, and explains why lasting transformation starts long before technology enters the conversation.

You started your career in industrial design. How did that early training change the way you look at tech problems, especially African ones?

I often say that I did not start in technology. I started by trying to understand people.
My background in industrial design shaped the way I approach problems. Design is not just about making things look good. It is about paying attention to how people live, what they need, what frustrates them and why they behave the way they do. That way of thinking has stayed with me throughout my career. Whether I am working with a government agency, a startup or a large company, I do not begin by asking, “What technology should we build?” I begin with, “What problem are we trying to solve, and who are we solving it for?”
Over time, I have learned that many of the problems organisations face are not really technology problems. They may be about trust, access, poor systems, weak processes, leadership, infrastructure or policy. Technology may help, but it is rarely the full solution. My design background taught me to see technology as a tool, not the end goal. What matters most is whether it helps create a better outcome for the people using it.

You’ve worked in government, healthcare, education, telecoms — very different sectors. Is there one mistake you keep seeing African organisations make, no matter the industry?

Absolutely. I have seen the same mistake across different industries. Organisations often rush to adopt new technology before they fully understand what actually needs to change.
Someone says, “Let’s build an app,” or “Let’s use AI,” but the more important question is, “What is stopping us from doing better work right now?”
Technology cannot fix a weak strategy, unclear leadership or a broken process. Sometimes, it only makes those problems more obvious.
The organisations that get it right understand that technology is only one part of the change. It can support transformation, but it cannot create that transformation on its own.

When you say technology alone doesn’t solve real problems, what do you mean by that, and what does it mean for people building technology in Africa today?

Technology on its own does not solve
problems. It can create new possibilities, but people are the ones who turn those possibilities into real impact. Healthcare is a good example. You can build an excellent digital platform, but it will not make much difference if patients do not trust it, healthcare workers are not properly trained to use it, or the system around it remains the same.
I have worked on projects where the software was not the main challenge. The real work was getting people on the same page, improving how things were done and helping leaders make better decisions. That is why I encourage tech founders to spend as much time understanding people, behaviour and systems as they spend building products. The companies that last are not always the ones with the most advanced technology. They are the ones solving real problems in ways that fit into people’s everyday lives.

What are the consequences when founders focus more on technology than on the people and structures needed to make digital transformation succeed?

They often make the mistake of thinking that using more technology automatically means the organisation is transforming. But buying new software or launching an app is not transformation. Real transformation happens when people change how they work, leaders make better decisions and systems begin to work more effectively. Technology can support that change, but it cannot replace it.
The founders who build lasting companies understand this. They pay attention not only to the product, but also to leadership, company culture, governance and the processes that keep the business running.

What, in your view, distinguishes innovation built for Africa from innovation adapted to Africa?

There is nothing wrong with learning from ideas that have worked elsewhere. Every innovation ecosystem does that. The real question is whether we are simply copying products or taking the time to understand the problem.
Real innovation begins with context. It means understanding how people live, work, trade, travel, communicate and make decisions in their own environment. When the problem is different, the solution may need to look completely different too.
I would like to see us move beyond simply adapting other people’s ideas and start creating more of our own. When we build from our own realities, we do not just create better solutions for ourselves. We also create ideas that the rest of the world can learn from.

Do you think African founders are doing enough to solve the problems people here face, or are too many still building products with investors abroad in mind?

I think there are many founders doing incredible work, and I also understand the pressure they’re under. Access to capital is difficult, so naturally founders spend a lot of time thinking about investors. The challenge is making sure you don’t build for investors at the expense of your customers.
The businesses I’ve seen succeed are the ones that become obsessed with creating value for users. When customers believe in what you’re building, investors usually follow.
My advice is always simple: let your customer become your strongest pitch deck.

Your upcoming book asks why good teams still build bad products. In the African tech space, where do you see that happening the most?

Having talented people on a team does not automatically mean they will build a good product. I have seen very skilled teams spend months creating features that customers did not ask for and may never use.
The best product teams do not assume they already have all the answers. They keep testing their ideas, listening to users and making changes based on what they learn. A product is not successful because it has the most features. It succeeds because it solves a real problem in a way that works better for the people using it.

You’ve worked with big institutions abroad and with African ventures too. What’s one lesson from those global projects that African founders should be using?

Systems. That’s the biggest difference I’ve observed.
Successful organisations build systems that allow ordinary people to consistently deliver exceptional outcomes. Clear accountability. Good documentation. Strong decision-making. Knowledge sharing. Founders often believe they need to work harder. Sometimes what they really need is to build better systems.

Where do you see African tech in the next five to ten years?

I’m incredibly optimistic because I think we’re moving into an era where experience matters as much as technology.
We understand challenges around financial inclusion, healthcare, agriculture, education, logistics, and growing cities because we’ve lived them. That’s a strength.
But if we want to lead globally, we have to invest in more than software. We need stronger research, stronger product leadership, stronger design capability, better collaboration between universities and industry, and a greater focus on building intellectual property.
My hope is that the next decade won’t be defined by how quickly we adopt technology from elsewhere, but by how often the world adopts ideas that originated here.