About
BuildCon connects Africa's diaspora with founders who have built successfully on the continent, turning ambition into informed action.
Our story
BuildCon began with a pattern we kept seeing. Talented people across the African diaspora engineers, operators, clinicians, investors, marketers hold a serious intention to build something on the continent. They have savings, skills and family networks. What they do not have is a reliable way to test whether the opportunity in front of them is real.
Meanwhile, founders who have already built on the continent carry hard-won knowledge that rarely reaches the people who need it most: what a market entry actually costs, how long licensing takes, which partners keep their word, where the first customers really come from.
BuildCon connects the two. Not through one-off networking, but through structured programmes, conferences, mentorship and market access designed to produce decisions.
The problem we address
Building across markets requires local knowledge and trusted partners. Distance distorts information: a market looks simpler from abroad than it is on the ground, and advice from people who have not operated there can be confidently wrong.
Diaspora founders often carry an extra burden. They are expected to know a market they may have left as a child, or never lived in. Practical local insight is not a nice-to-have. It is the difference between a venture that survives its first year and one that spends its capital learning what someone could have told it in an afternoon.
Vision
A connected African diaspora translating global experience, capital and networks into durable enterprise across Africa.
Mission
To connect aspiring diaspora founders with experienced builders through curated programmes, community, mentorship, conferences and market access.
Promise
BuildCon helps people move from intention to an informed, practical next step.
Core pillars
Connect diaspora ambition with credible people, markets and opportunities.
Move ideas towards validation, clear decisions and practical next steps.
Turn experienced founders' knowledge into structured mentorship.
Support ventures that can create jobs, investment and wider community value.
Not a conventional conference
A conference ends when the room empties. BuildCon is built around what happens afterwards: a 90-day programme, assigned mentorship, peer accountability and a written action plan that someone follows up on.
Our events exist to create relationships that continue into that work founder conversations, dinners, country visits and showcases, all connected to the same cohort of people.
We do not promise funding, guaranteed investment or business success. We offer structure, candour and access to people who have actually built.
Founding team
BuildCon was founded by two operators who have built products and businesses across the UK, Nigeria and other emerging markets.
Co-Founder
Sayo Lojede is a product manager, business analyst and entrepreneur with over a decade of experience building products, improving businesses and delivering meaningful change across the UK and Nigeria. Driven by his belief in Africa's economic potential, he founded BuildCon to connect accomplished diaspora founders with aspiring entrepreneurs who need the knowledge, networks and confidence to build successfully on the continent.
Co-Founder
Chinyere Ifediora is Co-Founder of BuildCon, a community bringing together startups, industry leaders and aspiring founders to bridge the execution gap and support the launch of impactful products across emerging markets. With a focus on product strategy, innovation and opportunity creation, she connects founders with the people, knowledge and partnerships that turn ambitious ideas into sustainable impact.
