Meet The Under 30 CEOs Sponsoring This Year's #BBNaija

One of the most amazing discoveries of this year was that the ongoing season of Big Brother Naija, Nigeria's most viewed reality TV show has under 30 entrepreneurs among its sponsors.

The sixth instalment of the Big Brother Naija reality show, themed "Shine Ya Eye", is sponsored by a host of market-leading brands including Pepsi, Tecno, BoomPlay, Airtel, Abeg, Patricia, Innoson Vehicles, among others.

Dare Adekoya and Hanu Fejiro Agbodje, CEOs of Abeg and Patricia respectively have caught the attention of the public not just for their youth, but for their unconventional appearance and style, particularly their dreadlocks and piercings. 

Abeg App, which was launched in 2019 is a fintech app that allows users to send and receive money — but has a little twist to it. The name "Abeg" captures its unique identity that lets users literally beg for and receive money from benefactors. Users can request money from other users on their contact list by simply typing in their Abeg tag, and can also send money to other Abeg users.

Patricia, on the other hand, is a fintech platform that allows safe and secure alternative payment solutions through the use of bitcoin, gift cards, or Perfect Money. The platform was birthed in 2017 and has now become a market leader in Nigeria's alternative payments sector.

Dare Adekoya, CEO, Abeg

Dare Adekoya is 26 years old, and a Nigerian entrepreneur, tech enthusiast and product designer. He has an impressive work history, including being the product designer of Sterling Bank’s Gomoney banking app. He has also worked with brands like Linda Ikeji, Stanbic IBTC, Brük Oil Mill, OneOS and many more.

Dare founded Abeg alongside Muheez Akanni and Michael Okoh in 2019, but the app was launched in September last year and has quickly generated interest among millennials for its informal outlook.

Dare Adekoya had kept his life private up until his company took the loud step to become an associate sponsor of the Big Brother Naija reality show.

Hanu Fejiro Agbodje, CEO, Patricia

Born on November 16, 1995, Hanu is a user-experience (UX) expert with a deep understanding of user-centred designs (UCD) and strong skills for conducting user research and surveys, and translating them into sitemaps, user flows, customer journey maps, wireframes, mockups and prototypes.

Hanu Fejiro is an alumnus of the University of Port Harcourt where he studied Mathematics and Statistics. He founded Patricia (registered as Patricia Technologies) in 2017, an e-commerce business that initially focused on trading digital assets and discounted gift cards at cheaper prices. Today, Hanu has been transformed Patricia into a whole new gift cards/digital assets trading industry, with a formidable team.

How much are they spending to sponsor BBNaija?

Dare Adekoya – CEO ABEG Technologies (Sponsor Fee: 2 Billion)

Hanu Fejiro Agbodje – CEO Patricia (Sponsor Fee: 1 Billion)