Founder. Operator. Researcher. Builder.

Building technology, AI, and economic infrastructure for the next billion people.

Featured Essays

Why Insurance Is the Hardest Sell in Africa

Insurtech in Africa isn't fighting user inertia — it's competing with faith. Why the real rival is the church, and what that means for how you sell cover

9 November 2025

Emerging Markets

5 min read

Make Nigeria Great Again

An honest, data-driven look at why Nigeria has underperformed its peers for a decade — and the institutional reforms that could reverse it

16 June 2020

Companies

Full history

Octamile

Co-founder & CEO

2021 — Present

Building embedded insurance infrastructure for Africa. $500k pre-seed (EchoVC-led). 30+ B2C business clients. Covers ~10% of Nigerian insurance providers.

OList / Opera

Managing Director

2019 — 2021

Led growth to 1M+ seller accounts and 4M monthly users. Built the largest online classifieds platform in Nigeria under Opera.

Cheki Nigeria

CEO

2018 — 2019

Led company turnaround and eventual acquisition. Built team and product capabilities in the competitive automotive classifieds market.

Speaking

Available for keynotes, panels, and podcast conversations on AI, insurtech, and building in emerging markets.

Book Gbenro

Topics

AI and the future of insurance
Embedded insurance infrastructure
Building startups in frontier markets
The African technology ecosystem
Operator playbooks: scaling without shortcuts
Digital infrastructure for the next billion

Past Appearances

DIVE In Festival 2024 · Global
Insurance Meets Tech · Nigeria
Norrsken Impact Week '23 · Stockholm

As Featured In

All coverage

TechCabalTechPoint AfricaZawyaIBS IntelligenceDisrupt AfricaThe Ouut Media

TechCabal

Future-Proofing SMEs: PayCover by Octamile

SONR Global

Gbenro Dara — Octamile

The Ouut Media

Gbenro Dara's Insurtech startup, Octamile, is enabling insurance access to every social class

TechCabal

TechCabal Daily — Going the Octa-mile

Occasional essays

On AI, insurance, building in Africa, and what I'm learning. No cadence promises. Only when I have something worth saying.