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Egwu Nnanna Echem, known as ‘The Grandfather,’ is a force to be reckoned with in Nigeria’s tech and creative spaces. As a Senior Product Manager at Bujeti Inc (Y Combinator W23), he’s helping build Africa’s leading spend-management platform.
With over a decade of experience, Nnanna has mastered the art of bridging innovation and artistry, shaping ideas, systems, and people across tech and community development.
His work at Bujeti, Vendease, and HabariPay has made a significant impact, streamlining payments and improving financial control for businesses.
Across these roles, his approach has been defined by one principle: build with empathy, scale with data. Whether designing internal systems for financial transparency or enabling smoother user experiences, Egwu Nnanna merges the precision of a technologist with the intuition of a creative.
His story doesn’t end in the product room. Beyond the lines of code and wireframes, he has quietly built ecosystems that nurture creativity, collaboration, and purpose among young Africans.
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He is the co-founder of CEDARS, a community for young thinkers, poets, and change-makers; and a member of the Enugu Literary Society, the ChristAPoet Team, and The Paters Heritage Mission, through which he has mentored tens of emerging voices in Nigeria’s spoken word and literary space.
As an artist, Egwu Nnanna’s voice is as distinct as his vision. In 2025, he made history as the first spoken word poet in Nigeria and Africa to release a book and an album on the same day, both titled ‘For The Record.’ The project blends performance poetry with philosophy, social commentary, and faith, reflecting his signature mix of old-soul wisdom and modern cultural insight.
When asked about the connection between his art and his career work in tech, he often smiles and says, “Creativity taught me product. It trained me to listen to people, to problems, and think of solutions from different perspectives.” That philosophy; human-first, data-driven, creatively aware, has become his blueprint for innovation.
From Lagos to Berlin, Egwu Nnanna represents a generation of Africans who are not waiting for permission to shape the future. He mentors founders through platforms like Futurize Studio, TektonX Labs, and the Young & Skilled Initiative, and was previously a case study facilitator for the Hult Prize, helping early-stage teams refine ideas into viable tech solutions.
His transformation also extends globally. As a PMP-certified project manager and MBA candidate in IT Management at the International University of Applied Sciences (Germany), Nnanna has prepared to deepen his impact within the global tech ecosystem, particularly in fintech, AI, and e-commerce innovation.
A TEDx organizer and Entrepreneur-in-Residence with the Founder Institute Lagos, he continues to champion youth empowerment, helping young professionals and founders discover their voice, whether through art, technology, or entrepreneurship.
