23-Year-Old Nigerian Dominic Onyekachi is Building the Largest Online Collection of African Stories

23-Year-Old Nigerian Dominic Onyekachi is Building the Largest Online Collection of African Stories

Dominic Onyekachi is a 23-year-old young Nigerian who is bringing together indigenous Nigerian and African stories to youngsters through Akiddie, a web-based platform that provides access to African storybooks for children. Dominic Onyekachi holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the prestigious Covenant University, Nigeria. He is also an author and he has written over 10 children storybooks.

Storytelling is an integral part of the African tradition. It is the medium through which history, culture and tradition are passed from generation to generation. Dominic is on a mission to provide African children with African narratives which has led to the creation of Akiddie. Akiddie has become the largest collection of online African children stories. Akiddie tells socially conscious African stories in African languages. The books on Akiddie are written in English, French, Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba.

The creation of Akiddie was greatly influenced by an experience Dominic had with his niece when he discovered that all the books in her mini library were foreign, with none telling or showcasing African values. This prompted him to write his niece some empowering and enlightening indigenous African and Nigerian stories which she loved and shared amongst her friends.

Thereafter, Dominic together with his co-founders, Tolulope Wojuola and Fanan Dala, also students at Covenant University at the time, illustrated the stories and made them available online through Akiddie.

To kickstart the project, the company got an investment of $3,000 from Onyekachi’s sister which allowed them to create their website and publish 20 books. Initially the platform was free to access, however in May 2020, they officially launched a subscription model. The fees are affordable. With ₦600 ($1.30) per month, children can access to up to 20 books on the Akiddie platform.

Since creation, the platform has served over 1,000 users and has partnered with six schools as clients. Akiddie is planning to further integrate technology into its digital storytelling platform and intends to utilize emerging technologies like VR (Virtual Reality) and AR (Artificial Reality) to make the experience more immersive for the user.

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Akkidie was recently selected as one of the startups to participate in the maiden Forbes digital accelerator boot camp. Dominic has been featured on CNN, BBC, and TechPoint amongst others.