Afam Anyika, a growth and marketing strategist and CEO of MediaKing Nigeria, with over two decades of experience, has been shaping brand and market expansion across Africa and the Middle East. He was also a founding member of Jumia, where he helped lead early growth strategies during the company’s formative expansion phase. In a recent discussion, Anyika highlighted his focus on building scalable growth systems that deliver long-term enterprise value. He has led market entry, product launch, and expansion initiatives in over 16 industries, including fintech, healthcare, FMCG, and energy.
Anyika has worked with companies such as Jumia, Konga, MAX Nigeria, and Helium Health, helping them translate complex market dynamics into actionable strategies, strengthen brand positioning, acquire customers, and align teams across diverse markets. In this interview with CHISOM MICHAEL, Anyika explains that sustainable growth comes from scalable systems, a clear strategy, and adapting to local markets. He balances data with intuition and emphasises that lasting impact aligns business success with social value.
You have worked across more than 16 industries; how has this breadth shaped the way you approach market entry and expansion?
Working across multiple industries teaches you that while sectors differ, the fundamentals of growth are often consistent: access, trust, and distribution.
For example, whether you’re working in media, energy, or consumer products, the first real question is always: how do people discover and adopt what you’re offering? In one market, that might be driven by digital channels. In another, it could be physical distribution or community influence.
In a previous project expanding into a new regional market, we found that what looked like a pricing problem was actually a trust issue. Once we partnered with the right local channels and aligned with trusted intermediaries, adoption improved significantly without changing the product itself.
So that breadth allows you to recognise patterns early, but also to respect local nuance. It’s really about applying proven principles, but adapting execution to the realities on the ground.
In your experience, what distinguishes a growth strategy that lasts from one that only delivers short-term results?
Short-term growth is often campaign-driven, promotions, discounts, or heavy marketing bursts. It can create quick traction, but it tends to fade once that activity stops. Long-term growth is usually built on systems.
A good example is what we’re doing with MediaKing. Instead of relying on recurring campaigns to drive usage, the focus is on building infrastructure, connectivity that people can rely on daily, and a communication layer that institutions can consistently use. That creates compounding value. The more people connect, the more useful the system becomes, and the more embedded it is in everyday life.
In contrast, if growth depends on constant spending or intervention, it becomes difficult to sustain.
You mentioned MediaKing as an example of building growth through systems rather than campaigns. In practical terms, how does that model work, particularly in markets like Nigeria where connectivity infrastructure is still evolving?
In practical terms, it’s about building for daily utility, not periodic attention.
With MediaKing, the focus is on making connectivity consistently available in environments people already use, transport hubs, campuses, markets. Once that reliability is established, usage becomes habitual rather than campaign-driven.
Over time, the platform becomes part of how people access the internet, and how institutions and businesses communicate. Growth then comes from repeated use and embedded value, rather than continuous marketing activity.
You often operate at the intersection of strategy and execution; how do you ensure that ideas translate into measurable outcomes?
The biggest gap between strategy and execution is usually clarity.
In one rollout I was involved in, the strategy itself was strong, but execution stalled because teams interpreted objectives differently. Once we broke the plan into very clear deliverables, timelines, and ownership, progress became measurable almost immediately.
I focus on three things: defining success in specific terms, assigning clear ownership, and building feedback loops early.
For instance, instead of saying “increase adoption,” you define what metric represents adoption, over what period, and what actions directly influence it.
That level of clarity makes execution less subjective and easier to manage.
Having worked in both startups and established organisations, what differences have you observed in how they pursue growth?
Startups are typically driven by urgency. They need to prove viability quickly, so they move fast and experiment more freely. Established organisations, on the other hand, are often managing complexity, existing customers, systems, and reputational considerations, so they move more cautiously.
I’ve seen startups scale quickly but struggle to maintain structure as they grow, and I’ve also seen large organisations miss opportunities because decision-making becomes too slow. The most effective approach tends to combine both.
For example, in one organisation, we created smaller, agile teams within a larger structure, allowing faster experimentation without compromising overall governance. That balance, speed with discipline, is what sustains growth.
Many markets across Africa and the Middle East are fragmented; how do you make sense of complexity when entering such environments?
Fragmentation can look overwhelming at first, but it usually becomes clearer when you identify the key points of influence.
In one expansion project, the market appeared highly dispersed, with multiple regions, different consumer behaviours, and fragmented distribution. But once we identified a few dominant channels and key aggregation points, the complexity reduced significantly.
It’s rarely necessary to solve the entire market at once. Instead, the approach is to identify where adoption is most likely, build a strong presence there, and then expand outward from that base.
In many African markets, for example, transport hubs, marketplaces, or institutional environments can act as anchors for broader expansion.
When deploying a platform like MediaKing’s high-density public Wi-Fi network in fragmented markets, what kinds of environments or urban nodes become the most effective starting points for adoption?
The most effective starting points are high-density, high-frequency environments, places where people gather and return regularly.
Transport hubs, commercial districts, universities, and public institutions are typically strong entry points because they already have built-in volume and repeat usage. If the experience is reliable in those locations, adoption happens quickly. From there, expansion becomes more structured, connecting adjacent areas into what effectively becomes a dense, city-wide network over time.
You have led several product launches; what do you consider the most overlooked factor in a successful go-to-market strategy?
Clarity of positioning is often underestimated. I’ve seen strong products struggle simply because the value wasn’t immediately clear to the audience. In one case, a product had multiple features and benefits, but the messaging tried to communicate everything at once.
Once we simplified the positioning, focusing on a single, clear value proposition, adoption improved significantly. People don’t adopt complexity; they adopt clarity.
So before distribution or marketing spend, it’s critical to answer what problem we are solving, why it matters now, and why this audience should care. If that’s clear, everything else becomes easier.
How do you approach building systems that are not only effective but also repeatable across different markets?
The key is separating what must remain constant from what needs to adapt. For example, with MediaKing, the underlying technology and system architecture remain consistent across markets, forming the foundation.
But deployment strategy, partnerships, and communication vary based on local conditions. In one market, adoption might be driven by government partnerships, while in another, it could be driven by commercial or institutional use cases. The system itself is stable, but its application is flexible, and that’s what allows it to scale without losing relevance.
In your work on customer acquisition and brand positioning, how do you balance data with intuition?
Data provides valuable insight, but it often reflects what has already happened. Intuition, particularly when informed by experience, can help anticipate shifts before they are fully visible in the data.
For example, in a campaign we ran, early data suggested moderate engagement, but based on behavioural signals and contextual understanding, we adjusted messaging and channels before the data fully reflected the trend, and that decision improved overall performance.
In practice, data validates while intuition guides. This balance is important, especially in fast-moving or emerging markets where data may not always tell the full story.
You have also been involved in corporate social responsibility initiatives; how do you see the relationship between business growth and social impact?
The relationship is becoming increasingly interconnected. In many cases, the most impactful businesses are those that address structural challenges, access to services, information, or opportunity.
For example, improving connectivity in underserved areas doesn’t just create business value; it also supports education, access to information, and economic participation.
When growth is aligned with solving real problems, it tends to be more sustainable. Rather than treating social impact as a separate initiative, it is more effective to embed it into the core business model.
As competition increases across emerging markets, what should organisations rethink about the way they pursue long-term growth?
There is a shift from transactional models to more integrated, ecosystem-driven approaches. In competitive markets, it’s no longer enough to offer a product or service in isolation; organisations need to think about how they fit into daily life, how they create ongoing value, and how they build systems that others rely on.
For example, platforms that combine access, communication, and service delivery tend to create stronger, more durable positions in the market, and over time, those are the models that are harder to replicate and more resilient to competition.