- Leo StanEkeh, through the Leo StanEkeh Foundation and Zinox Group, is committing about ₦10 billion to fund 1,000 university scholarships in Computer Science for indigent but brilliant Nigerian youths, aimed at building a new generation of globally competitive tech leaders.
- The scholarshipprogrammetargets students from low-income families, provides mentoring from year one, focuses on federal universities, and is designed to strengthen Nigeria’s tech independence and future economic growth without bonding beneficiaries.
- Rather than celebrating his 70th birthday with a lavish event, Ekehchose this long-term, impact-driven initiative as part of his broader philosophy of philanthropy, human-capital development, and using technology as a tool to transform lives and national prosperity.ty
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 is not celebrating his 70th birthday with a mega party, preferring to offer University scholarships to additional 1000 Nigerian indigent wiz-kids to study Computer Science in Federal Universities so that the country’s private and public sectors could have a new generation of tech wiz-kids to support the growth of the economy.
He anticipates that these students who will not be bonded shall disrupt the global wealth equation in favour of Nigeria and defend our tech independence.
Selection shall be based on a minimIntelligenceent Quotient and age nationwide, and they shall be schooled and exposed beyond tech to become global Tech Citizens.
Speaking on the phone, Ekeh said, “Each shall have a tech mentor from year one, as I plan a partnership with the 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 supporting 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,” he said.
Ekeh, a largely humble and private person not known for celebrating birthday milestones, explained that rather than throwing a lavish birthday party befitting his newly attained septuagenarian age, he has chosen,n with his Group’s Management, not to provide world-class tech human capital to support the growth of the nation’s economy.
“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.
“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 an unfortunate knowledge century. 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 once 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 the youths, said Nigeria must begin to plan for the disruptions coming.
“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 from a very poor family, I am a testimony and shall tell the whole story in my book, which shall be published in the 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,“ the soon-to-be septuagenarian said.
When asked how much it will cost to undertake such a gigantic project, he said: “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.
However, beyond his birthday and the scholarship initiative, Ekeh, in the last 40 years, has been a worthy role model for philanthropy and a living exemplar of what it means to live for the public good. He has been decorated with a lot of local and international awards. His group has trained and retrained over 3000 Nigerians and donated tech centres to over 25 institutions nationwide, just to mention a few.
Ekeh was a former mass servant and chorister in his local community Catholic Church at Ubomiri, a sprawling community on the fringes of Owerri, Imo State.
One of his favourite pastimes is to seek out the poor and help them climb the ladder of life. He is an entrepreneur who draws a distinct line between capitalism and welfarism. He believes that capitalism must wear a human face; that profit must not take the place of empathy, as no one came with and shall leave this earth with cash.
His philanthropy is not limited by geography. From south to the north, his imprints of charity dot many educational institutions. A couple of years ago, he built a church,h complete wita h rectory, in his Ubomiri community, the same church where he was once a mass servant.
At the dedication of the church, he recalled in an emotion-laden voice: “My grandfather produced a Reverend Father who was ordained same day as Rev Canon Tansi. My father, in his 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 (pointing to the horde of choristers robed in red outfits). 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.
“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 civilised, because no person around me,e 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 superstarar. She is intelligent, beautiful, and unlike some women, she is not expensive, and more importantly, we operate on the same tech wavelength. If,f 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,e 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, ns but if there was no mercy of God and His grace to help me implement these, there would 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 were taking alcohol, I would have been a mental guy. I work an average of 20 hours a day andhave near-zeroo holidays, and I have no health challenges,” he once told some journalists.
For Ekeh, the Forbes Best of Africa Leading Tech Icon, the scholarship for 1,000 Nigerian students remains a tiny drop in the ocean of the multitude of philanthropies he has quietly extended to persons and institutions across the continent.
Through his Leo Stan Ekeh Foundation (LSEF), his family’s non-profit, and the various companies under the Zinox Group, he has impacted humanity and institutions both in cash and kind, especially human-capital development, upskilling the hitherto unskilled in tech-techniques, institutionalising entrepreneurship in select universities and awarded countless local and overseas scholarships to Nigerians of all tribes and tongues to advance their quest for knowledge.
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, Imo State University (IMSU), etc. The centres had been upskilling young men and women,n turning theintoto wealth and job creators, rather than job-seekers. At the IMSU centre, it was a moment of joy for about 200 young Nigerians who were the first set of beneficiaries of a 3-month entrepreneurship boost programme. They were taught the fundamentals of entrepreneurship by the best coaches and experts drawn from Nigeria, the United States and the United Kingdom.
Not only were they tutored by the best whizzes in diverse fields of human endeavour, but they were also kept on a stipend throughout the duration of the programme to augment their weekly commute to the centre. In addition, each trainee was gifted a brand-new Z-pad tablet to aid their learning and upskilling process. Some also received interest-free loans to launch their businesses.
What’s unique about Ekeh and his philanthropy is that he does them behind the scenes. No cameras flashing. No media buzz. Just humane acts of a man fated for greatness and encased in God’s grace.
