From MSMPusher to HiÓja: The Story of Akinfenwa Kayode David, a Nigerian Founder Building for Africa’s Everyday Economy
For Akinfenwa Kayode David, the idea behind HiÓja began with a simple observation: finding everyday services and opportunities in Africa can still be unnecessarily difficult.
A person may need an electrician, a photographer may need equipment for a weekend project, a household may want to sell an unused item, while a busy professional may simply need someone to run an errand.
These needs exist everywhere, but the platforms connecting people to solutions are often scattered.
David, a Nigerian software engineer and two-time technology founder, is now trying to address that gap through HiÓja, a mobile marketplace that brings hiring, renting, selling, and errands together.
From Nigeria to Ghana
Born and raised in Nigeria, David is the firstborn in his family, a position he says helped shape his sense of responsibility and leadership.
His interest in technology later took him to Ghana, where he studied Computer Science at the Accra Institute of Technology.
While at the university, he began as a web development intern. That experience introduced him to software development and eventually led him towards mobile engineering.
Over the years, David developed experience across mobile and full-stack technologies, but his ambitions extended beyond engineering.
He wanted to build products that could solve practical problems.
The Journey From MSMPusher to HiÓja
David’s first major entrepreneurial venture was MSMPusher, a telecommunications platform focused on bulk SMS, email, USSD, and link-tracking services.
It was while building his first company and working across technology platforms that he began noticing another problem.
Many skilled artisans, informal traders, and young creatives had valuable skills or assets but remained largely dependent on personal networks and word-of-mouth referrals.
At the same time, people searching for services or products often had to move between different platforms, social media pages, and personal recommendations.
That experience helped shape the idea for HiÓja.
Rather than creating another platform focused on only one category, David wanted to bring several everyday transactions into one place.
What HiÓja Is Trying to Solve
HiÓja is built around four main areas: Hire, Rent, Sell, and Errands.
Users can search for skilled workers and freelancers, rent equipment, sell pre-owned items,s or request help with local tasks.
The platform also places emphasis on trust and verification, an important consideration in digital commerce where users can be uncertain about who they are dealing with.
David’s team has also experimented with assisted matching through WhatsApp, helping users find what they need while the marketplace develops.
The approach is particularly focused on local communities, including residential estates, student environments and commercial areas.
Giving Local Skills More Visibility
One of the bigger ideas behind HiÓja is giving informal workers a stronger digital presence.
For many artisans and small service providers, getting customers still depends heavily on referrals.
A digital profile, customer reviews and a wider pool of potential customers could give such workers another way to build their businesses.
The same principle applies to young people.
Students and graduates with skills in areas such as design, tutoring, software development, photography and social media management can potentially use digital marketplaces to find opportunities and build work experience.
The Opportunity Beyond the Platform
David believes the opportunity extends beyond individual transactions.
Unused equipment can potentially become a source of income for its owners through rentals, while people who cannot afford to purchase expensive tools can access them when needed.
For local businesses and individuals, the bigger benefit may simply be convenience: finding a service, product,ct or person without relying entirely on personal connections.
However, building a successful marketplace is not easy.
It requires enough buyers and service providers, reliable transactions, trust, and strong activity within the communities being served.
Those are some of the challenges David and his team will have to navigate as HiÓja grows.
Building for Everyday Africa
David’s journey from MSMPusher to HiÓja reflects a broader shift among African technology founders: building digital products around problems that people encounter in ordinary life.
His ambition with HiÓja is relatively straightforward—to make it easier for people to find opportunities, services, products, and help in their local communities.
For the artisan looking for customers, the student looking for a gig, the business with unused equipment,t or the person who simply needs something done, the challenge has always been connection.
David is betting that technology can make that connection easier.
And with HiÓja, he is taking another step in his journey from software engineer to entrepreneur building products for Africa’s everyday economy.
HiÓja is on the Google Play Store.
