04/05/2026
I had the privilege of attending TED Conferences as one of 15 Acumen Fellows selected from a global community of 2,000+ Fellows. What an honour. Think of it like the Oscars for the brightest ideas on earth.
It was inspiring to be in a room filled with people... scratch that... not just people, brilliant rock stars asking bold questions and unafraid to shake things up in pursuit of meaningful solutions for our future.
But what stayed with me most was something closer to home.
My grandfather, God rest his soul, was a cocoa merchant in Nigeria. I still meet people who tell me how he funded their education and what a force he was.
In his time, exporting cocoa was good trade.
Yet today, we know all too well that exporting raw materials without adding value leaves too many African nations locked out of prosperity.
That truth is one reason I founded Kókárí, a vertically integrated agribusiness that farms coconuts, creates premium products, and transforms byproducts into circular inputs that restore soil.
Shipping out raw materials may seem the easier and surer path to wealth, especially in environments where the odds are stacked against producers. But in Nigeria, where businesses often build their own infrastructure, choosing value addition is slower and tougher.
And it is also exactly what we must do.
At TED, among a constellation of bright ideas, I felt renewed conviction that Africa’s future will be shaped by builders who create value at the source and refuse to mortgage our future for the convenience of the present.
My vision for Africa is simple:
That our children inherit economies that capture value before it leaves our continent.
My deepest gratitude to Acumen Academy to Kome Oruade-Etim and Bavidra Mohan for helping to gracefully prepare us for a meaningful TED experience, and to our fearless Acumen founder Jacqueline Novogratz for her enduring belief in founders building a more just world.
To my beloved TED buddies Jordan Vaughn, Margarita Neymark, Mande Holford, Roger Gorman see you in San Diego.
The work continues. The future is worth building.
Love & Coconuts,
Ebun
Agribusiness Entrepreneurship
