The Africa Product Marketing Pioneers (APMP) has released its first-ever comprehensive ranking of the continent’s most impactful growth strategists, the APMP Top 20 Product Marketing Leaders Index in Africa, with Nigerian professionals securing three of the top slots. This recognition underscores the nation’s pivotal role not just as a source of innovation, but as a continental wellspring of the elite operator talent required to scale businesses efficiently and profitably.
The Index, which rigorously evaluates Product Marketing Leaders (PMMs) across Africa’s most competitive industries, spotlights the shift in African tech from a focus on ‘raising capital’ to an intensified drive for ‘generating revenue’ and ‘sustainable profitability.’ PMMs are the core C-suite-adjacent function responsible for this transition, owning the intersection of product development, sales enablement, and customer retention.
The Economic Imperative of Product Marketing
In a challenging macroeconomic climate, where customer acquisition cost (CAC) is scrutinised, and runway is tight, the role of a top-tier Product Marketing Leader becomes a strategic advantage. The APMP’s research indicates that companies with a dedicated, senior PMM function experienced, on average, a 25% faster time-to-market for new products and a 15% higher customer lifetime value (CLV) than their peers in 2025.
“This is fundamentally an economic story,” stated Omolara Sanni, Founder of APMP. “The inclusion of Everest Nwagwu, Israel Ogunseye, Precious O’Dahunsi and Elizabeth Ogunseye in this inaugural Top 20 is not arbitrary; it’s a validation of the sheer market complexity and consumer sophistication that Nigerian businesses have had to master. These leaders have successfully designed GTM strategies that can navigate currency volatility, infrastructure gaps, and deep cultural fragmentation, skills that are now globally sought after.”
The recognition of the three Nigerian leaders is particularly significant:
● Elizabeth Ogunseye‘s work is celebrated as a case study in operational efficiency. Her focus on leveraging data to refine messaging has directly led to a measurable reduction in sales cycles, a key driver of quarterly performance with products like OneBank, Switch, Zabira, Grip, etc. “Product Marketing is the most commercially-minded function in a tech business outside of the CEO’s office,” Elizabeth Ogunseye commented. “We don’t just tell the story; we write the revenue numbers.”
● Everest Nwagwu, a Product Marketing Manager and data-driven marketing technology expert, stands among leading technology professionals of African origin in the United Kingdom. His expertise in aligning sales, product, and marketing functions for large-scale corporate adoption demonstrates the strategic depth now available within the global Nigerian talent pool, while his UK-based experience brings an international perspective to African markets.
● Adedamola Adeloye’s inclusion is due to the few product marketers who shape fintech adoption as he does. His frameworks bridge the gap between product design and real-world usage, driving clarity and trust in a sector where confusion often blocks access. He has helped launch major financial products, including Nigeria’s first fully digital private bank, ensuring they resonate with emerging-market users.
● Israel Ogunseye is noted for technology campaigns that achieved high penetration rates in mass-market segments, turning complex financial products into accessible consumer solutions. His success demonstrates the skills required to achieve the kind of financial inclusion that major banks and regulators are pushing for.
● Bolaji Anifowose is acknowledged for shaping modern GTM strategy for SaaS products across African, European, and North American markets. He played a key role in launching a Nigerian SaaS platform that ranked top 4 globally on Product Hunt and has supported multiple teams in refining positioning, activation, and customer acquisition in new markets. His work is complemented by a strong commitment to mentorship, guiding emerging marketers and product operators across the continent.
● James Praise is recognised for his contributions to developing the next generation of African product marketers through his work with Marketing In Action (MIA), providing structured mentorship, community programs, and practical knowledge systems now used by more than 5,000 founders and marketers across Africa, the US, and Europe. James has supported more than 20 companies, driving more than $10M in pipeline, 15 product launches, and consistent MRR growth.
● Salimon Toheeb is a product marketing leader in Africa, known for transforming complex products into clear, relatable stories that drive real adoption. He has led GTM, positioning, and growth for cross-border payments, lending software, and stablecoin-powered financial tools across 40+ African markets.
● Ebuka Chidube is celebrated for having managed over £1 million in ad spend across 20+ brands, including PiggyVest, Lenco, AltSchool Africa, and i-Fitness. He currently leads Piggyvest’s digital marketing efforts and the Exodigital Agency, and runs the Ad Manager Community, a network of 920+ performance marketers across Africa.
● Kadijat Okeowo is celebrated for her powerful blend of product storytelling, data-driven growth, and lifecycle excellence. Her work aligns product, data, engineering, and marketing teams around a shared growth vision – from acquisition to activation, building core strategic growth engines and steering up products into their growth paths.
● Precious O’Dahunsi’s selection as one of the recipients of the APMP award comes as no surprise, as she has built a strong public career, starting as a Content Writer and Marketer and progressing to Product Growth Manager over 7 years. She is also a pioneer who has shaped what Product Marketing looks like in the emerging e-commerce SaaS industry, having grown Bumpa from 300 users to over 100,000 users across multiple countries.
● Lade Falobi is a product marketing leader, educator, and founder of Marketing For Geeks, a platform delivering actionable growth insights to thousands of African marketers and operators. Her work focuses on helping African companies achieve clearer positioning and stronger product adoption through strategic product marketing. With nearly seven years of cross-functional experience, she has led marketing and GTM execution for technology companies including Motherboard, SocialKit, and rivva, and supported strategic initiatives for brands such as Flutterwave, Disha, and Wicrypt.
“To be acknowledged among the continent’s finest is a testament to the Nigerian spirit of execution and excellence,” said Israel Ogunseye. “Our market trains you to be scrappy, data-driven, and relentlessly user-centric. You have to win trust daily, and that intense pressure for results is what sets Nigerian PMMs apart.” When speaking with Adedamola, he noted, “Fintech succeeds when people can actually use it,” underscoring his approach to inclusion-driven product strategy.
The Index emphasises that the Product Marketing career path is now one of the most lucrative and high-impact non-technical roles in African business, commanding highly competitive salaries and offering a direct route to the C-suite.
As the African tech landscape shifts from hyper-growth funded by global capital to sustainable, profitable scaling, the APMP Index is expected to become a key recruitment tool for venture-backed companies and multinational corporations looking to establish a strong presence on the continent. It provides quantitative data on the leadership excellence required to succeed in a $6.5 trillion opportunity market.
The full APMP Top 20 Product Marketing Leaders Index is available at https://www.apmpioneers.com/leaders.html
