[Transcript] #80: The End of the Afrobility Podcast - Until We Meet Again…
Transcript for podcast originally recorded in June 2025
[Sending from correct account this time] 😉 In June 2025 (just a few days ago), we dropped a closing recap episode where we looked back at all previous 79 Afrobility episodes. Yep, every single one.
No worries though — even though the Afrobility Podcast is ending, Afrobility lives on right here. I’ll be sharing new Africa tech posts on this Substack.
It was both incredible and emotional to revisit the companies, founders, and stories we covered — after five years and over 200 hours of recording. I asked ChatGPT what the Afrobility Podcast would be remembered for, and it said:
🔹 1. Strategic Analysis of African Tech
Afrobility stood out by blending deep strategic insight with storytelling — covering not just what companies did, but why they did it and how it fit into the broader ecosystem. Think: a McKinsey case study meets a podcast.
🔹 2. Foundational Documentation of Africa’s Tech Boom
It captured the rise of Africa’s tech scene — from Jumia’s IPO to Flutterwave, MTN, Wave, and beyond — creating a rare, high-quality time capsule of modern African business evolution.
🔹 3. Business-first, Bullshit-free Tone
No hype, no soft takes. Just sharp thinking, frameworks, second-order consequences, and market context — delivered with honesty and clarity that listeners came to trust.
🔹 4. Global Standards, African Focus
It treated African companies with the same depth and rigor as top Western startups. That elevated the conversation and gave both local and global audiences a reason to tune in.
🔹 5. Chemistry Between Hosts
The natural flow between co-hosts made complex topics digestible, fun, and human — helping listeners stay engaged through long-form episodes.
Summary:
Afrobility will be remembered as the podcast that chronicled, analyzed, and elevated Africa’s tech narrative with global-grade strategic depth, respect, and clarity.
Confidence: 98% — based on listener feedback, tone differentiation, niche positioning, and gap it filled in the ecosystem.
Beautifully said. Afrobility Podcast changed my life — and I hope it added something to yours too.
Companies discussed: All of them :) - Jumia, Flutterwave, Paystack, Andela, Chipper Cash, Safaricom (M-Pesa), Wave, Reliance Health, M-Kopa, Naspers, Interswitch, Kuda, Yoco, Tyme Bank, Twiga Foods & many more…
Business concepts discussed: Market Creation, Business Model Innovation, Cross-border Expansion, Fintech Infrastructure, Informal Economy Digitization, Agent Networks, Platform vs Vertical Strategy, Talent and Outsourcing, Unit Economics, Scalability, Offline-to-Online (O2O), Acquisition & Exit Strategies
Olumide Ogunsanwo
Personal: Website
Afrobility Podcast: Stories and analyses of African technology companies (Website, Listen: Apple podcasts, Spotify & Google podcasts & Read: Substack Newsletter)
Adamantium Fund: African B2B fund focused on education, health, finance, food and transportation (Website & memo)
Firedom Book: Financial Independence stories of African Immigrants (Website, Substack Newsletter & Buy: Print, eBook or Audiobook)
Transcript starts here
[00:00:00] Olumide Ogunsanwo: Today we're going to talk about Afrobility. We'll explore the Afrobility tour across the following areas. First, why we started Afrobility. Second, lessons from past Afrobility. Third, some behind the scenes. Fourth, future plans after Afrobility. And end with our closing thoughts.
This episode was recorded on June 8th & 14th, 2025. I have a fresh haircut and I'm ready to do this. How are you doing, man?
[00:00:23] Bankole Makanju: Hair that you cut yourself, right?
[00:00:25] Olumide Ogunsanwo: Of course. I wouldn't pay a human being in this world to cut my hair. Even for free. I'm used to cutting it myself.
[00:00:31] Bankole Makanju: You guys. Olumide cuts his own hair! And on that note, welcome to the final episode of Afrobility.
[00:00:36] Olumide Ogunsanwo: And it looks so good. If you found this episode in your podcast stream, you may be a bit surprised by the title. Yeah. But that's how we're doing it. I guess.
[00:00:43] Bankole Makanju: That's how we're doing it. The whole point of this episode is to put a bow on Afrobility and talk about it. I think we can talk about how we ended up in this position as well. It feels very celebratory for me. I spent a lot of time listening to the episodes in the past. It was really fun.
[00:01:05] Olumide Ogunsanwo: It's been a journey. We are recording in the middle of 2025 and started in the middle of 2020. It's been five years. It's actually funny that I remember when I wrote the script for this episode and I was thinking: how do we organize this? What do we talk about? And I wrote the script almost two years ago and it's weird because normally Bankole writes the script.
We are going to run through this basically chronologically. Why we started? Review all previous episodes, discuss lessons across episodes, behind the scenes, and then future, and then overall thoughts.
It's weird to be talking about Afrobility on Afrobility. That's meta and I love it. Here we are. It's a bit sad, but I actually remember it was very emotional when I was writing this episode series.
I remember thinking that the most important thing for me in this episode was not to cry. I think I'm gonna make it. I feel strong. I'm ready.
Why did we start Afrobility? I actually wrote a blog post about this on our substack. , I can do the audio version of that.
I’ve loved technology since as far back as I can remember: computers, internet, companies and everything related. Afrobility is really sort of a natural outgrowth of one of my passions that I happen to share with someone else. And because Bankole had similar passions, Afrobility ended up being something we experimented with.
It ended up being bigger than we could ever have imagined.