It was a night of recognition and achievement as Stephen Akadiri, one of Africa’s leading organic growth experts, received the Outstanding SEO Growth Manager of the Year award at the MARKETING EDGE Awards 2025.

The prestigious ceremony celebrated his remarkable seven-year journey. Specifically, he mastered sustainable organic growth and turned search visibility into long-term business success for brands across global markets. The honour crowned a career built on curiosity, strategic thinking, and an unconventional path. Ultimately, he successfully transitioned from biological sciences to become one of the continent’s most sought-after growth marketing professionals.

For Akadiri, the award means more than another career milestone. “It feels truly special,” he said. “It is a reminder of how far curiosity, consistency, and excellence can take you.”

He reflected on his journey with humility. “When I started, I had no background in marketing. I was just curious about how tech startups grow. So being recognised today for my contribution to organic growth means a lot.”

He added that the recognition mirrors the quality of his work, the experiments he has conducted, the teams he has led, and the impact they have created together.

Akadiri’s career has taken him through remarkably diverse sectors. Notably, each experience added new dimensions to his understanding of organic growth. At Hotels.ng, Nigeria’s first and largest hotel booking platform, he discovered how SEO can directly influence business performance when aligned with user needs.

His time at BHM Holdings proved especially formative. There, he managed SEO and growth across brands like ID Africa and Neusroom. He learned how to scale organic acquisition across multiple markets and how storytelling shapes brand trust. Furthermore, when he moved into pure SaaS environments with Plaqad and ThePeer, he discovered how closely product and marketing must work together to achieve measurable growth.

Today, Akadiri is the Senior SEO and Organic Growth Specialist at Grey, a YC-backed cross-border fintech platform. He brings all those lessons together. “I’m building repeatable organic systems that attract the right users and turn them into loyal customers across global markets,” he explained.

When asked about his most satisfying win, Akadiri smiled. “My favourite moments are when the systems I built start producing results on their own,” he said.

He recalled a defining experience at Grey. For instance, the company faced the challenge of expanding into regions where no one knew them. Instead of relying heavily on paid campaigns, the team focused on creating helpful, search-driven content. This content addressed the real problems remote workers face with cross-border payments.

“Within a few months of iteration and optimisation, people started finding us organically, signing up, and referring others,” he said. “Seeing that kind of sustainable, community-driven growth always reminds me why I love this work.”

In essence, the Outstanding SEO Growth Manager of the Year award represents more than individual achievement. It celebrates a journey that began with a biology student spending nights reading about startups and attending tech events, driven purely by curiosity.

Akadiri’s story reflects the power of curiosity, consistency, and building systems that compound over time. He moved from cold emailing founders as a volunteer to leading international SEO strategy for a YC-backed fintech platform serving customers across five continents.

As he accepted the recognition, his gratitude was evident. “I am grateful to the MARKETING EDGE team for this honour and to everyone I have worked with who made the journey meaningful,” he said.

For Akadiri, moments like this serve as reminders of why he started. “To keep learning, keep building, and keep helping brands grow authentically.”

His work continues to shape how African tech companies approach organic growth. He proves that with the right mindset and framework, sustainable business success is not just possible but scalable across global markets.

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