University of Benin
BEng Civil Engineering
Full scholarship support from Agami Foundation, Total and MTN Foundation.
MY STORY
From a small village in southern Nigeria to engineering, entrepreneurship and building companies in the UK.
I grew up in a small village in southern Nigeria, where unreliable access to energy was an ordinary part of everyday life.
Moving from Nigeria to the UK made me realise how fundamental energy is to almost every aspect of economic life — and how easy it is to take it for granted when it works.
Education has shaped much of my journey. I studied Civil Engineering at the University of Benin before completing postgraduate study in Environmental Engineering and Business Management at Imperial College London.
But engineering eventually led me towards another question. It was no longer enough to ask whether something could technically work. I wanted to know whether an idea could become a real product, a real organisation and eventually a valuable business.
That took me into entrepreneurship.
LEARNING TO BUILD
The Sitigrid chapter.
After postgraduate study at Imperial College, I went on to found Sitigrid around the idea that energy markets could operate differently and create better incentives for locally generated renewable energy.
Sitigrid's technology was designed to digitally match specific electricity generation with customer consumption, helping create value across generators, customers, suppliers and the platform.
Building Sitigrid taught me a great deal about energy markets, raising capital, recruiting experienced teams and, above all, the importance of timing, economics and execution.
It reinforced something I had already begun to understand: a good idea is not enough. The market has to be ready. The economics have to work. The team has to execute.
Sitigrid also strengthened my conviction that the future of energy would become increasingly electric and renewable — and therefore increasingly dependent on storage.
That eventually took me towards transport and Moonlight Energy.
My role as a founder is not simply to invent technology. It is to build organisations capable of turning good ideas into valuable businesses and surround myself with people who are better than me in the areas where I am weak.
CURRENT CHAPTER
When a vehicle stops, earning stops.
Commercial vehicles presented a particularly compelling problem.
A delivery rider does not simply own a vehicle for convenience. It is a productive asset.
When it stops, the rider stops earning.
For electric commercial vehicles, lengthy charging times can therefore become an economic problem rather than merely an inconvenience.
That is the challenge Moonlight Energy is now focused on through Swap-It.
But Moonlight is one chapter in a broader journey. Across the companies I have helped create, the technologies have changed — energy, connectivity, mobility, materials and artificial intelligence — but the attraction has remained remarkably similar: find an everyday problem and see whether technology and business can offer a better answer.
EDUCATION
Education gave me options.
I have been fortunate to receive scholarship support at different stages of my education. That matters to me because education changed the options available in my own life.
Imperial College London
MSc Environmental Engineering and Business Management
Full scholarship from the Nigerian Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF).
INSEAD
Transforming Your Business with AI
Harvard Business School
Sustainable Business Strategy
Cranfield School of Management
Ready for Net Zero
VALUES
Things I try to carry with me.
Gratitude
Empathy
Trust
Honesty
“Discipline is my fuel.
Consistency, my goal.”
Consistency, my goal.”
MY VISION
The long view.
People >> Profit
My ambitions extend beyond any one company. One long-term goal is to build Brickfort into a major asset-management organisation with a particular focus on the UK and Africa.
But scale on its own is not the objective. The principle behind that ambition is People >> Profit.
My existing stated lifetime ambition is to create more than US$100 billion, or its future inflation-adjusted equivalent, and ultimately give it away. That is a future ambition, not an achieved fact.
Education sits at the centre of that long-term purpose. I recognise how much of my own journey was made possible by education and the sacrifices my parents made.
My ultimate goal is to help expand access to quality education — especially for children in Nigeria and across Sub-Saharan Africa.
🌍 UK & Africa🏗️ Brickfort🎓 Education🤝 Opportunity
THINGS I LIKE
Life outside the companies.
Books
Reading, ideas and other people's thinking.
Boxing
Something I enjoy — no business metaphor required.
Painting
A different kind of creative space.
Weightlifting
Part of the routine.
Behind The Diary / Diary of a CEO
One of the media formats Emmanuel follows.
My First Million
Business ideas, trends and entrepreneurial conversations.
MY THOUGHTS