From Problems

to Products

14th & 15th October 2026
Lagos, Nigeria

Africa is not short of ideas.

But, it is short of problems that are chosen carefully enough, to be worth years of someone’s life.

'So, what problems are worth our time, and how do we know?'

That is the question this year’s programme is built around, and every speaker has been tasked to answer to it.

Check out the agenda below. Come with a problem you are working on. You will be asked about it more than once!

Morning Arc 9:00 AM – 1:30 PM
9:00 – 9:30 AM30 mins
Arrival + Product GalleryDoors Open: Built HereProduct gallery, live stands and demo reel. Come early and see the many products being built on the continent and meet the teams building them.
9:30 – 9:45 AM15 mins
OpeningThe Road Was Never Straight: One Question for the DayChidi sets the stage with the single question every session has to answer to: what problems are worth our time?Speaker: Chidi Afulezi, Managing Principal, Red Kola Product Consultancy
9:45 – 10:15 AM30 mins
KeynoteIt Has Never Been Easier to Build the Wrong ThingAI has collapsed the cost and the time of producing software making judgement, customer understanding and discovery more valuable than ever. So what changes for African builders when production is no longer the constraint?Speaker: Christian Idiodi, Partner, SVPG
10:15 – 10:40 AM25 mins
Builder StoryWe Thought We Knew the Problem. We Were Wrong.The unedited version of a product story: the first idea, the moment customers said the thing nobody in the building wanted to hear, what changing direction cost in months and money, and what the company actually sells today. Host: Dr. Seyi Ogebule; Speaker: Deepankar Rustagi, Founder & CEO, Omni Retail
10:40 – 11:00 AM20 mins
Lightning TalkProduct Is Not a DepartmentWhen the digital product becomes the business, product thinking cannot stay inside one function. Speaking from the top of one of Nigeria’s fastest-scaling companies, Olu sets out what senior leaders have to understand, and what they have to stop doing, for a product culture to survive contact with the org chart.Speaker: Olu Akanmu, Executive in Residence, Lagos Business School
11:00 – 11:10 AM10 mins
Networking Break
11:10 – 11:35 AM25 mins
ConversationWhat Breaks at the Border: One Product, Five MarketsExpansion decks make it look like a distribution exercise. Operators who have actually done it walk through what genuinely breaks when a product crosses an African border: payments, trust, language, regulation, onboarding, support, and the assumptions that quietly do not travel.Moderator: Abiola Laseinde, The CIO & C Suite Club Africa; Speakers: Olawale Oladunni, Global Senior Director, Delivery Hero SE; Andrew Obuoforibo, Senior Product Manager, Bolt; Ademola Adeniran, Product Management & Solution Delivery, Interswitch; Victor Ndukauba, Group Deputy MD, Afrinvest (West Africa) Limited
11:35 AM – 12:00 PM25 mins
Product Story"Where Do You Live?" Is a Harder Problem Than You ThinkMost digital services assume a working address. Hundreds of millions of customers do not have one. Roger traces a single African product from that problem through discovery to a working service, including the wrong turns, and what it takes to build when the infrastructure your product quietly depends on does not exist.Speaker: Roger Norton, CPO, OkHi
12:00 – 12:25 PM25 mins
Lightning TalkHow Not to Be the ProblemLarge organisations often become successful without truly embracing product thinking, and as they grow, processes, urgency, approval cultures and internal priorities can get in the way of solving real customer problems. So how do we innovate inside big organisations without becoming part of the problem ourselves?
In this talk, Charity will explore how to stay close to problems, think and move more like a scale-up, and champion better product thinking without relying on title or authority.
Speaker: Charity Ibhadon, Global Product Director, WPP
12:30 – 1:30 PM60 mins
Lunch & LearnEat. Meet. Build.Career Fair and Mentorship Session with WorkNigeria, plus a hands-on Canva workshop with PLA: From Problem to Testable Concept in 45 Minutes (bring a laptop)Facilitators: Akeminiabasi Mercy Ubit, Canvasador, Canva; Nkem Nweke, Lead Coach, PLA
Afternoon Arc 1:30 PM – 4:30 PM
1:30 – 2:00 PM30 mins
KeynoteManaging UpA Guide for Product People to Understand and Influence Leadership. Speaker: Petra Wille, Product Leadership Coach
2:00 – 2:30 PM30 mins
Lightning StoriesBUILT HERE: Three Problems, Three Products, Five Minutes EachThree builders show the problem they found, the product it became, and the one thing they learned that changed what they built. No company pitches. No fundraising decks. Five minutes on the clock.Speakers: Wicked Innovation Labs portfolio companies; Shina Arogundade, CEO, Myitura; Oritsejolomi David, Founder, Pacto; Victoria Oletu, Founder, Gemynate
2:30 – 2:55 PM25 mins
Lightning TalkYou Built It. Nobody Came.Every other session today runs from problem to product. This one asks the question that comes next: how does anyone find out it exists? Hertz built an audience of more than five hundred thousand people from nothing, in this market, and is now building a product for them — the reverse of the usual order. He makes the case that distribution is a product problem rather than a marketing afterthought, and that treating it as something to solve after launch is why good African products stay invisible.Speaker: Hertz Fauzan, Founder, Train of Thought
2:55 – 3:25 PM30 mins
Main Stage ConversationWhat Breaks When You Get Big?At five people, everybody talks to customers. At five thousand, there are twenty approval layers and a roadmap nobody believes. Product leaders inside three of the continent’s largest banks get real on how you keep the ability to solve real problems at scale, and what they have had to dismantle to get it back.Moderator: Annu Augustine, Founder, Nedrock. Speakers: Lolan Moodley, Head of Product Development & Management, Absa Bank Limited; Makopi Nkopodi, Product Design & Innovation Executive, Nedbank; Olu Delano, Executive Director, Personal & Private Banking, Stanbic IBTC Bank
3:25 – 3:40 PM15 mins
ClosingWhat Will You Build Next?Five lessons from the day, named plainly. Three commitments made out loud from the floor. One challenge to carry out of the building: find a problem worth solving, and start.Speakers: Christian Idiodi, Partner, SVPG; Chidi Afulezi, Managing Principal, Red Kola Product Consultancy
3:40 – 4:00 PM20 mins
Closing MomentThe Builders’ PhotoEvery builder in the room, in one frame. Then straight into networking.
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The C Suite Experience includes a closed-door strategic forum for Africa’s most senior product minds on the continent; leaders driving product strategy at Africa’s largest corporations, financial institutions, and high-growth scale-ups.

Note: C Suite Experience Ticket Includes Day 1 of the Conference on 14th October, VIP Networking Cocktail Mixer on 14th October evening, Exclusive CPO Summit with Christian Idiodi on Day 2 - 15th October, and Virtual Silicon Valley Product Group Masterclass on 10th - 12th November.
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Tailored specifically for founders and entrepreneurs to gain strategic insights, participate in practical problem-solving sessions, and benefit from invaluable networking experiences.

Note: Founder’s Town Hall Experience Ticket Includes Day 1 of the Conference on 14th October, Investor Matchmaking Mixer on 14th October, Inpsired Founders’ Town Hall on Day 2 - 15th October & Virtual Silicon Valley Product Group Masterclass, 10th - 12th November 2026.
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The SVPG Product Masterclass is for product practitioners and leaders. Delivered over a series of online sessions covering principles from INSPIRED, EMPOWERED, and TRANSFORMED.

Note Masterclass Ticket does NOT include Conference. To attend both, select the ticket labelled Conference + Masterclass.
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