Evans Akanno is a dreamer who leveraged his talent and incredible audacity to become a force in business.
The 28-year-old is the founder of Cregital, Nigeria’s leading creative and digital agency, offering services that range from web design to graphics design.
Evans is the designer of Jumia and Konga logos. He also has as clients notable names like Google, Zenith Bank, Multichoice and such other high net worth brands.
A few months ago, he announced that Cregital has a new co-founder.
As a dreamer, Evans Akanno’s burning desire became a reality because he had the courage to pursue it. We followed him in a carefully charted course as his imagination and dreams resulted in creating a fairytale destination, and now an inspiration to many young people in Nigeria and beyond.
His ascendancy as a titan in his chosen industry is perhaps a reflection of his early years, especially his phenomenal background in the college, where he won many academic laurels.
At Innocent Comprehensive High School, Surulere, Lagos, Evans did not only win awards for the best results in Mathematics, Biology, Physics, Further Mathematics and Agricultural Science, he came tops as the best graduating student in 2015 and equally left Imo State University, where he later studied Industrial Chemistry, in flying colours in 2010.
Since leaving the classroom to face the nitty-gritty of life, Evans acknowledged that it had been a rollercoaster before success came his way.
He never had formal schooling in graphics design but had to learn it all via videos and articles on the internet, which he leveraged on to hone his skill, and to perfect his subsequent foray into freelancing.
A major thing in the 30-year-old successful business trajectory, however, is his passion for what he loved to do, stretching from his internship at the Nigerian Petroleum Exchange (NNPC—Nipex) in 2008, where the design bug was actually consummated. Thereafter, the journey has been fast and steady, freelancing for two years before becoming a brand and social media strategist for Jumia Nigeria and later as a creative strategist at Konga.com in 2013.
Evan’s Cregital has since grown as a foremost brand and creative startup in Nigeria, winning professional awards as The Best Website Development Company in October 2016 by the Nigeria Technology Awards. He also won the Future Awards Young Creative Professional category and Creative Professional of the Year, both in 2016.
This highly focused, hardworking and enterprising executive is clearly a success story worthy of emulation. He’s adept at convincing young people to believe in themselves and more importantly that success is possible. The CEO has also emphasised the need to strike a balance between attitude and skill in order to make a success of any business endeavour.
Besides Cregital, Evans also runs Zegist, a lifestyle community and Farmkart Foods.
For his outstanding success at a relatively young age, Forbes Africa in 2019 recognised Evans Akanno in the 30 under 30 category. And he continues to inspire.