What happens when one woman decides Africa’s creatives deserve global tools and gives them the keys?
Meet Ayodotun Akinfenwa, brand strategist, trainer, author, and the first African woman to join the Canva Experts Programme. When she’s not helping global brands craft their stories, she’s teaching entrepreneurs how to design their own futures, literally.
Through her workshops, she’s helped thousands of business owners move from “I can’t design” to “I just built my brand.”
From hosting Africa’s first Canva Labs, to bringing the Adobe Express Bootcamp to Lagos, Ayodotun has turned empowerment into an art form, one that merges creativity, technology, and confidence.
In her world, branding is more than colors and fonts, it’s about helping people see themselves differently.
And that’s exactly what she’s done, one class, one story, and one bold woman at a time.
She leads business. And she’s making sure the next generation of African women do, too. 💫
Read the exclusive interview with the The Creative Visionary Building Africa’s Next Generation of Brand Leaders.
Thank you for joining us, Ayodotun! You’ve worn many hats, author, brand expert, strategist, and now Adobe Express Ambassador. But if you had to introduce yourself to someone outside your industry, how would you describe who you are?
I’d say I’m someone who helps people, products and organizations show up as the best version of themselves. At the core, I’m a communicator, but that really means that I help people tell their story in a way that unlocks doors. For instance, I’ve worked with small business owners who walked into my workshops unsure of what to post online, and left not only creating their own designs but also seeing themselves differently—as brand-builders. I’ve also worked with 70-year-old organisations building relevance in today’s world! That’s what I do: I bridge the gap between goals, ideas and visibility, creativity and execution. Titles aside, I help people shine.
At my core, I’m a corporate creative driven by the power of storytelling. Over the years, I’ve built a career at the crossroads of creativity, strategy, and execution, blending project management, community development, and knowledge sharing to drive meaningful impact.
You’ve built a career as a global communications strategist and brand expert. What first drew you into the world of branding and storytelling?
FOR AS LONG AS I can remember, I’ve been obsessed with the world of storytelling. In my teens, I spent hours going over those beautiful glossy ads in the papers and magazines, happily sitting through TV ads while watching my favourite sitcoms, daydreaming about the people behind them. I would read tons of novels too. On rides to school, I would gaze longingly at billboards, taking in the copy as we drove through the streets. I was curious about the world of brands even when I didn’t know there was a name for the industry.
That curiosity eventually led me to study communications at university. I was fortunate to have a wonderful mentor, Dr Tunji Olugbodi, who was a Director at one of the top Agencies in Nigeria almost 25 years ago. He gave me a holiday internship as as an undergrad that opened me up to this incredible world of advertising, and the rest, as they say, is history. Working in advertising laid the foundation for brand consulting, training and facilitation and everything else I do today.
Hosting the first-ever Adobe Express Bootcamp in Africa is no small feat! What inspired you to bring it here?
It was the stuff I’ve seen over the years. There are about 40 million SMEs in Nigeria today and their ideas solutions and brands deserve a fighting chance. I’ve run workshops where SME owners showed up with notebooks, eager but intimidated by the concept of design, branding and content. They’d say, “I wish I had a designer, but I can’t afford one.” ! For me, tools like Adobe Express and Canva are the bridge to make branding, building easy and accessible to anyone who has something to express. When I became an Adobe Express Ambassador, I saw the massive impact the brand is making globally and wanted us to connect with that locally. Thanks to the Adobe team, who, when I pitched the idea , approved and sponsored immediately.
For people hearing about Adobe Express for the first time, why should they be excited about it?
It’s like having an entire design studio in your pocket. Personally, as someone who wears many hats—author, strategist, leader—I don’t always have the luxury of time. Adobe Express has saved me countless hours. At the Bootcamp, I watched entrepreneurs design professional flyers in minutes, create social media posts that looked like they had a full design team, and even experiment with AI tools on Adobe Express to bring their ideas to life. The excitement in the room was proof: Adobe Express is not just software, it’s a creative equaliser. The icing on the cake is that Adobe Express exposed me to a lot of other life-changing productivity tools integrated with it, from the Adobe Creative suite, such as Adobe Acrobat Studio powered by AI and many others which are an eye opener for a busy corporate creative like myself.
Women are often underrepresented in tech and creative leadership. How do you hope your work with Adobe Express changes that narrative?
For me, it’s about access, exposure, and visibility. Despite the odds stacked against us, we can make our mark globally. When Adobe Express invited me to partner with them (repeatedly, I might add), it didn’t matter that I am a woman; my work was what mattered and the fact that I made a lot of noise about it. I noticed that more than half the participants were women when I walked into the boot camp hall in Lagos. They weren’t just there to learn—they were there to lead businesses, manage brands, and scale ideas. The showing up, that was powerful. I want women to see that tools like Adobe Express empower them to show up and compete without waiting for permission, huge budgets or a lot of resources. I also want them to see that a woman can represent a whole continent by making the most of her capacity and access to it. My hope is that when young women see me, they don’t just see an ambassador repping Nigeria or our continent on the global stage, but that they see possibility, and they realize they can own their space in tech and creativity too.
You were the first African woman on the Canva Experts programme and went on to host the very first Canva Labs in Africa. Looking back, what did that milestone mean for you personally, and for African women in the creative space?
When I was selected as the first African woman on the Canva Experts programme, it felt like history was being written in real time.I had put in a lot of work over the years teaching and empowering to leverage the tool for their brands and it felt good to be seen. Hosting Canva Community Labs in Lagos was also heartwarming. I remember looking around the room and seeing young women and men with their laptops open, the room bursting with a larger crowd than expected, creating designs they never thought they could. Seeing the news stories that followed and the fact that the Lagos event was the one with the largest attendance globally, told me that a little positive idea in your small corner of the world, if you act on it, can make history. Again it didn’t matter that I am a woman. This was a community event that was held in the UK, Poland, Brazil, the US, the Philippines and any other nations. I just wanted to empower the world to design in my corner of the world and voila! I’m hoping it’s a sign to any woman to show up and take up space, and pioneer whatever they want to!
Over the years, you’ve hosted countless free and subsidized workshops for SME and personal brands. Why is empowering others such a central part of your leadership journey?
It is a part of my journey because I know what it feels like to start from scratch. When I first started my business in 2016, I didn’t always have the budget, access, team or the right tools. I had to figure out a lot on my own. I also saw that there was a crop of startups that couldn’t afford to work with me sustainably but desperately needed to build their brands. So I decided to train them so they can execute the strategies themselves to grow their businesses. That’s why I committed to help others. Since 2017, I’ve been training businesses owners, corporate and recently government staff in the areas of Branding, Marketing, Content Strategy/Development, Customer Service, Social Media Marketing and DIY tools such as Canva and Adobe Express. I’ve run sessions where people came in doubting themselves and walked out creating their first brand kit or strategy. One woman told me after a workshop, “This class gave me the courage to launch my business online finally.” I’ve had clients who came to me with zero personal brands who have built names for themselves, and today, speaking around the world and taking on brand partnerships. Those moments fuel me and the brand partnerships I take on. Empowering others isn’t just something I do on the side—it’s at the heart of my leadership.
As Africa’s digital economy grows, where do you see the biggest opportunities for young female creatives to thrive?
Everywhere. Content creation, digital marketing, e-commerce, AI-powered design—you name it. But I think the biggest opportunity is in storytelling. African women are natural storytellers; it’s in our culture. Now, with digital platforms, we can monetize those stories globally. At the Adobe Express Bootcamp, I saw young women entrepreneurs creating product stories, social campaigns, and personal brand visuals on the spot. It reminded me that the tools are there, the opportunities are ripe—the only thing left is consistency. If young female creatives combine their authentic stories with digital tools, they can build brands that resonate worldwide.
To wrap up, what’s one word of advice you’d leave with young African women who dream of building powerful, global brands?
Own your voice, your path, your uniqueness (however quirky it is) is how your brand stands out! Don’t dilute it, don’t shrink, stand on business. When I wrote my book Fire Up Your Brand, I essentially documented my journey—turning years of industry experience into a simple, relatable guide others could follow. I almost talked myself out of it, thinking, “Do people really need this?” But the feedback I got proved that authenticity resonates. If people build global, profitable brands based on random rants, bants, or even reality TV-style content on social media, you can make yours based on your value. Don’t forget to stand on business! That’s the advice I’d give: Stand tall in it, because the world is not just open to hearing it—it’s waiting for it.
