Africa’s foremost tech icon and Chairman of Zinox Group, Leo Stan Ekeh, who turns 70 on February 22 this year, has explained why he will not be marking his milestone birthday with a mega celebration. Instead, he has chosen to fund university scholarships for an additional 1,000 Nigerian indigent wiz-kids to study Computer Science in Federal Universities across the country.
Ekeh said the goal is to help Nigeria’s private and public sectors build a new generation of tech wiz-kids who can support economic growth and defend the nation’s tech independence. According to him, the beneficiaries will not be bonded after graduation.
He said selection will be based on a minimum Intelligent Quotient and Age nationwide, and the students will be trained beyond core technology skills to become global Tech Citizens.
Speaking on phone, Ekeh said, “Each shall have a tech mentor from year one, as I plan a partnership with Computer Society of Nigeria and every vocation they shall be engaged resourcefully. Beneficiaries shall be from poor homes and those with parents who earn below Government Level 10 and its equivalent in the private sector. The first batch starts this September, and I expect each to earn first class degree. This is my Group of companies’ and my little way of appreciating my country, individuals and corporates that gave us the opportunities in the last 40 years and still patronizing our Tech Group – Task Systems, TD Africa, Zinox Technologies, Konga etc. If we are successful with this spiritual mandate, I can then celebrate my 100 years on earth with a bang. With God and AI, I am aiming to make 120 years.”
Ekeh, who is known to be humble and private and not given to celebrating birthday milestones, said he decided with his Group’s Management to invest in world-class tech human capital instead of hosting a lavish party.
“We need quality and tech-savvy wiz-kids who can drive the future of government and e-governance and those who will become change-makers in the private sector,” he said.
He added that Nigeria must prepare for the technological disruptions expected in the next five to 10 years across oil and gas, banking, agriculture, manufacturing, mining, entertainment and the public sector.
“I have been blessed and bruised in this country and I thank God. Frankly, I don’t see enough Nigerian tech wiz-kids who can defend the massive development anticipated in the next 5 – 10 years in the oil and gas, banking, agriculture, manufacturing, mining, entertainment, etcetera, and public sectors. We are becoming slaves in our own country in a knowledge century which is unfortunate. We are all arrogantly living just for today, forgetting that only four God-anointed tech wiz-kids can alter the GDP of this country in five years. The man who controls your tech resources decides your profit level and how far your country and corporations can grow in this second quarter of the 21st Century and in future,” he said.
Ekeh, who was decorated by President Olusegun Obasanjo as ‘Icon of Hope’ on Nigerian Independence Day in 2003 for his tech-driven transformative impact on the Nigerian economy and youths, said the country must begin to plan seriously for the future.
“The future is here but very fragile and disruptive, it’s either you are something or nothing at all. No middle ground. We need to alter the digital trajectories of our people. Technology is realistically the only profession in the world today that can alter the destiny of brilliant and humble kids from poor families and position them as huge wealth creators and sustainers. Though I am not really from a very poor family, but I am a testimony and shall tell the whole story in my book that shall be published last quarter of 2027. It shall be most revealing.
“This is my additional contribution amongst others to appreciate Nigerians, the Federal Government, sub- nationals and corporations that have been supporting my tech commitments and innovations on this side of the Atlantic,” he said.
When asked about the cost of the scholarship initiative, Ekeh described it as a spirit-driven project.
“It is a spirit-driven project to thank those who supported and are still supporting companies within the Zinox Group. It has an annual cost that shall run into billions of Naira and my group is committed to it amongst other social responsibility projects like TD Africa Project to produce 10,000 female tech experts out of which 400 have graduated and are fully employed in different corporates in Nigeria. This is a 10-year project with other perks. The full package shall be revealed online on April 22, 2026,” he said.
Beyond his 70th birthday and the new scholarship initiative, Ekeh has in the last 40 years built a reputation as a philanthropist and role model committed to public good. He has received several local and international awards, and his group has trained and retrained over 3,000 Nigerians. The group has also donated tech centres to over 25 institutions nationwide.
Ekeh was once a mass servant and chorister in his local Catholic Church in Ubomiri, a community near Owerri in Imo State. He has continued to show strong ties to his roots and faith.
At the dedication of a church he built in Ubomiri, complete with a rectory, Ekeh recalled his early days in the church. “My grandfather produced a Reverend Father who was ordained same day with Rev Canon Tansi. My father as a past time was a soloist in this church, and he served God with all his might; I was a mass servant and a member of this choir. I have never tasted alcohol or smoked since I was born and I don’t know why. It was something that never appealed to me or fascinated me. I believe our good God decided to save me from birth,” he said.
“I come from a lineage of people who served God dedicatedly. I think I am a miracle child and was clear who I wanted to be from the day I launched out as a tech entrepreneur. I saw myself as an only Child even though I have siblings and, as an orphan even though my parents were alive and a bit civilized because no person around me even though educated, had tech knowledge to advise me, so I decided to take the pain before pleasure alone.
“I love God and will never hesitate to do anything in the service of God and humanity. I built this church as a mark of God’s special love and mercy towards me. I have the best wife any man would wish to have. She is a super star. She is intelligent, beautiful and unlike some women, she is not expensive and more importantly, we operate on the same tech wavelength. If for any reason I get stuck, she is the one to figure out the solution for me. God blessed me with brilliant and responsible children too. I am grateful to God because He has seen me through the valleys and mountains of life. As a mark of God’s mercy to me, I pay corporate tithes for all my companies. I didn’t read it in the Bible but I do it,” he told the audience.
“God is the architect of my success. As an entrepreneur, I have strategised, stayed up late, made projections but if there was no mercy of God and His grace to help me implement these, there will be no success. God has done me well; even for me to be alive, to come from the family I come from, the village, town, region and country I come from. Most importantly, God has managed me because He gave me a proactive personality, removing all the holes in my life. The temptations are there, you can imagine them. Maybe if I was taking alcohol, I would have been a mental guy. I work an average of 20 hours a day and near zero holidays and I have no health challenges,” he once told journalists.
For Ekeh, described by some as Forbes Best of Africa Leading Tech Icon, the scholarship for 1,000 Nigerian students is only a small part of his wider philanthropy across the continent. Through the Leo Stan Ekeh Foundation (LSEF), his family’s non-profit organisation, and the companies under Zinox Group, he has supported human-capital development, upskilling Nigerians in tech techniques, institutionalising entrepreneurship in select universities and awarding numerous local and overseas scholarships to Nigerians from different backgrounds.
In the last two years alone, the Foundation launched three entrepreneurship centres at St. Augustine University in Epe, Lagos; Federal University, Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State; and Imo State University (IMSU). The centres have been training young men and women to become wealth and job creators rather than job-seekers.
At the IMSU centre, about 200 young Nigerians were among the first beneficiaries of a three-month entrepreneurship boost programme. They were taught the fundamentals of entrepreneurship by experienced coaches and experts from Nigeria, the United States and the United Kingdom. During the programme, the trainees received stipends to support their weekly commute. Each participant was also given a brand-new Z-pad tablet to aid learning and upskilling. Some beneficiaries received interest-free loans to start their businesses.
Observers note that one unique feature of Ekeh’s philanthropy is that many of his charitable acts are carried out quietly without publicity. According to those close to him, there are often no cameras or media buzz, just deliberate efforts focused on empowering individuals and institutions.
As he approaches his 70th birthday, Ekeh says his decision to invest in 1,000 additional scholarships reflects his belief that technology remains the strongest tool for transforming lives and shaping the future of Nigeria’s economy.
