How Kennedy Adetayo constructed a worldwide advertising profession

“I used to be in Lagos, however barely in Lagos. I used to be virtually overseas each different time,” Kennedy Adetayo recalled of his function as Regional Advertising Supervisor at Exness, a worldwide fintech firm and multi-asset dealer. 

However it didn’t begin this manner. When Adetayo pivoted from his tutorial background in agribusiness, he was pushed by a starvation for the world talked about within the case research on Apple and Google from his Grasp’s in Enterprise Administration (MBA) courses. 

“I needed one thing completely different,” he stated. 

And he went for it: a profession wealthy in advertising, branding, and synthetic intelligence (AI) for international corporations, identical to he had all the time needed.

The MBA pivot in his early profession days

After acquiring his MBA in Agricultural Enterprise Operations from the Federal College of Agriculture, Abeokuta, in southwestern Nigeria, Adetayo realised he didn’t wish to construct a profession round fast-moving client items—or agri-only merchandise. 

In his first function after finishing his MBA in February 2015, he labored as a model officer at Africa Prudential, a Nigerian-based share registration and dividend administration supplier, the place he oversaw printed banners and ensured model compliance. In that point, Adetayo realised he liked studying and writing and had an eye fixed for errors in narratives. 

So, when a chance for a copywriting function at Aqua Company, an built-in advertising company, arose, Adetayo utilized. 

“The distinction was my interview course of,” he recalled. “Throughout my stay walk-in interview, I sat down and created a full marketing campaign from starting to finish. It wasn’t the reply they anticipated, and so they simply employed me on the spot.”

When he joined Aqua Company in February 2016, Adetayo and different strategists dealt with briefs for corporations corresponding to MTN. It was right here that the Head of Technique and Digital Innovation, Adepoju “PJ” Bakare, provided steering, and shortly after Bakare’s dialog with administration, Adetayo began working in technique by June 2016.  

In 2018, a Dubai-based administration consulting and advertising firm, Livingstone-Templeton, was increasing into Nigeria, and Adetayo utilized with the identical playbook with which he secured his function at Aqua. 

“I gave them a 90-day plan for it as a part of my interview course of,” he admitted. “They usually completely liked it and requested me to come back execute it myself.” 

By June 2018, Adetayo was a Model Supervisor on the multinational earlier than becoming a member of TigerWit, a UK-headquartered international monetary expertise firm, in February 2020. This was the place issues began to shift for Adetayo.

Deepening the African footprint

In 2018, two years earlier than Adetayo joined, TigerWit launched a partnership with the soccer membership Liverpool, a partnership that prolonged until 2021. TigerWit deliberate to broaden into Africa by January 2020. The then Chief Govt Officer (CEO), Tim Hughes, had shared the corporate’s growth plans. 

By February 2020, because the Advertising supervisor for the Nigerian and African area, Adetayo was tasked with establishing TigerWit’s presence in Nigeria and Africa. 

“A part of my function in TigerWit included relations with the overseas groups [in] London and Dubai,” he stated. “They each had impartial advertising groups, and I needed to be in sync, in order that our international model may be in sync, and there’s no off-brand messaging, despite the fact that most of my model branding was localised, however it was additionally in regulation with the worldwide model pointers.” 

Solely 4 months after Adetayo had come onboard, he was promoted to Head of Advertising/Enterprise Improvement, Africa. 

His function went past conventional advertising; he was accountable for establishing TigerWit’s model in Nigeria, driving consumer acquisition and retention, and overseeing campaigns for on a regular basis merchants (B2C), cost companions and different intermediaries (B2B), and engagement with regulators and banks (B2G). 

“TigerWit was not that large earlier than they got here into Nigeria, and by shifting to Nigeria, their numbers went exponential for a number of causes. We’re over 200 million in Nigeria,” he stated.

Observing the influence of Adetayo’s work at TigerWit, Exness, a worldwide fintech firm and multi-asset dealer, invited him to copy the success: “They requested if I might have the ability to deal with at the very least 30 African international locations. I stated, ‘I wouldn’t know until I attempt.’” 

The function was travel-heavy and initially targeted on West African international locations, then moved into East and Southern Africa. There was one main recurring constraint: visas. Inside West Africa, Adetayo had fewer visa points, however between East and Southern Africa, getting a visa grew to become a serious problem.

Twice, Adetayo was rejected when he had utilized for a  South African visa. In a type of rejections, Exness was opening a brand new workplace in South Africa, and he wanted to be current because the regional advertising lead.  His visa difficulties have been uncommon sufficient that they uncovered a brand new problem for the corporate. 

So, Exness created a devoted crew to deal with visa-related points for circumstances like his. Ultimately, he constructed relationships with two journey brokers whom he utilized in rotation to safe his visas. 

At Exness, Adetayo discovered an unusually supportive atmosphere: the corporate cared primarily about outcomes, giving him huge autonomy to determine the place he wanted to be and find out how to execute. If he wanted to fly to a market like Kenya the following day, the response was primarily to approve the funds and let him get on with it.

Discovering information and Malta

Adetayo started repositioning himself in direction of information evaluation to strengthen his function at Exness. 

So, in early 2021, he enrolled at Isles of Content material to be taught advertising information evaluation, then transitioned right into a contract function with the varsity. There, he dealt with actual consumer and product information for manufacturers concentrating on Nigeria and Africa. 

“They’re [Isles of content] primarily based in Nigeria, however their purchasers are in Malta, and are serving Nigerian markets,” Adetayo stated.

The info work sharpened his decision-making at Exness but additionally opened his eyes to alternatives past pure regional advertising, making it simpler to ponder life after a task he felt was near the height of what he might do in African-focused advertising. 

“It was from them (Isles of content material) that I first heard the phrase ‘Malta’,” Adetayo stated. “So I did a bit little bit of analysis. Whereas doing my analysis, I came upon in regards to the digital nomad in Malta, and from there, I utilized for that.”

Navigating European constraints and crypto headwinds

Intrigued by Europe’s extra specialised advertising panorama and the flexibleness of distant work, after making use of for Malta’s digital nomad visa, Adetayo relocated there in Might 2023 and spent over two years on the island. 

From Malta, he continued consulting for the Isles of content material and different European purchasers in advertising and information, whereas studying to current himself much less as a full-stack marketer or a generalist in advertising and as a senior advertising information analyst. Whereas in Malta, Adetayo expanded his community by becoming a member of a Nigerian group. 

“I didn’t realise we’re that a lot, however over time we grew as much as over 100 in a bunch,” he stated.

The digital nomad part gave him worldwide publicity and deeper information expertise, but additionally uncovered the bounds of Malta’s wage bands and visa guidelines, particularly with some contracts nonetheless paying in naira. Whereas the visa allowed him to work from Malta, Adetayo couldn’t work for Maltese entities.

After settling into Malta as a digital nomad, Adetayo took on a regional advertising contract with Binance-owned Belief Pockets in July 2024, with a short to develop its footprint in Nigeria after which throughout Africa. 

Working remotely however travelling again to Nigeria, he led a pilot occasion on the Federal College of Expertise, Akure, testing a campus-tour mannequin for crypto schooling and adoption. 

Nonetheless, the escalating regulatory crackdown on crypto in Nigeria, together with tensions between the federal government and Binance, made it more and more dangerous to run high-profile, on‑floor activations. And this constrained Belief Pockets’s growth technique.

Ultimately, Adetayo transitioned out of the function in December 2024 as a result of unsure crypto regulatory panorama. Leaning additional into his curiosity in AI, he stepped right into a senior AI information coach function with  US-based Invisible Applied sciences in April 2024, the place he helped stress‑check and refine giant language fashions (LLMs) for security, ethics and reliability.

Drawing on his expertise in advertising and finance, Adetayo designed and evaluated prompts to probe AI mannequin behaviour on delicate areas corresponding to weapons and express content material, banking information, privateness and regulatory compliance throughout general-purpose AIs and sector-specific methods for corporations like banks and enterprise platforms. 

As a complicated AI information coach, his function sat on the infrastructure of AI, utilizing his understanding of how individuals work and transact to assist guarantee these fashions behave responsibly in actual‑world use.  

In September 2025, Adetayo moved again to Nigeria whereas working remotely with Invisible Applied sciences till December.

The lifetime of a digital nomad is full of transitions, and for Kennedy Adetayo, this appears like a profession transition within the years to come back. 

“I’m trying into much less of a advertising function and extra of a rustic supervisor function in my subsequent few years, and I’m actively working in direction of that,” he stated.

For a profession that has entailed facilitating the growth efforts of world corporations into Nigeria and Africa, Adetayo sees a world the place he continues to help these expansions. The worldwide corporations he had studied in his MBA school rooms had now spurred a distinct type of starvation in him.

“I wish to be the principle issue, if not the pillar, accountable for them really gaining floor in Nigeria and Africa,” he stated. “I imagine there are plenty of issues working over in lots of the international locations I’ve travelled to that may be replicated efficiently over right here.”