Cheers to 2025
January 5, 2025
Every New Year holds promise, as though it is any different from the turn of
Akin Akingbogun, Engineer, Author, and Clean-Tech Innovator.
In an era that increasingly demands hyper-specialization, Akin Akingbogun stands out as a refreshing anomaly. He is a man who refuses to be confined to a single box. By day, he is the Co-founder and Vice President of Mobility at Qoray Mobility and Energies Limited, driving Africa’s electric vehicle revolution. By night, he is a published author of psychological thrillers, a prolific blogger, and the self-styled “Duke of Small Talks.” [1] [2]
Akingbogun’s journey is a masterclass in integrating seemingly disparate passions—engineering precision, corporate strategy, entrepreneurial innovation, and artistic storytelling—into a cohesive, impact-driven life. His story is not just about personal achievement; it is a blueprint for the modern African changemaker.
The Foundation of a Polymath
Akingbogun’s intellectual foundation rests on solid technical and business training. He holds a Master’s degree in Water and Environmental Engineering from the University of Lagos (2007) and an MBA in Business Marketing from Obafemi Awolowo University (2018). He further honed his leadership skills at the prestigious Lagos Business School. [3]
For nearly two decades, he built a robust career in the downstream oil and gas sector, where he developed expertise in project management and infrastructure design. One of his notable early achievements was the revolutionary redesign of access gates for retail filling stations—a pragmatic, cost-effective solution that became an industry standard across Nigeria. [3]
This early success revealed a pattern that would define his career: the ability to identify practical inefficiencies and engineer elegant solutions that scale.
Leading the Clean Energy Revolution
Akingbogun’s transition from fossil fuels to clean energy marks a significant evolution in his career. During his tenure as Head of Mobility and Projects, Renewable Energy at Sterling Bank, he became a vocal advocate for sustainable transportation. He was instrumental in developing innovative financing solutions to support the local production of electric vehicles, particularly in response to Nigeria’s fuel subsidy removal. [4]
Today, his most prominent role is at Qoray Mobility and Energies Limited. Under his leadership, Qoray is not merely deploying vehicles; it is building a fully integrated electric mobility ecosystem tailored to African cities. [5]
In January 2025, Qoray achieved a monumental milestone: its flagship Electric Teak tricycle, driven by Nigerian rider Sekinat Taiwo, set a Guinness World Record by covering 347.11 kilometers in 12 hours. [6]
“Our Guinness World Record achievement wasn’t just about boundaries; it was about proving that African-built electric vehicles can compete with the world’s best. One year later, the real victory is the confidence our partners, riders, and state governments now place in the Qoray Electric Teak.” — Olabanjo Alimi, CEO of Qoray Mobility [6]
Since that record-breaking run, Qoray has deployed over 2,000 Electric Teak tricycles across Nigerian cities like Kano and Ilorin. These deployments have created green jobs, reduced daily operating costs for riders by over 30%, and established critical infrastructure, including Nigeria’s first commercially available AC and DC charging stations.
The Duke of Small Talks: A Return to Creativity
While his engineering and business achievements are formidable, Akingbogun’s creative identity adds a profound layer to his profile. After a 22-year hiatus from creative writing—a pause he attributes to the pursuit of career success—he returned to his literary roots in 2019. [3]
Adopting the persona “The Duke of Small Talks,” he launched a blog that quickly became a repository for his keen observations of human behavior. Since then, he has authored over 350 short fiction stories and published four books:
His latest novel, Damaged Goods (released in April 2026), exemplifies his writing philosophy. It moves beyond traditional crime-solving to explore the emotional forces behind human decision-making. [7]
“Rather than presenting crime as random, the story suggests that tragedy often grows out of everyday human weaknesses, such as jealousy, anger, insecurity, and silence. It’s not just about who committed the crime, but why it happened and what it reveals about us.” — Akin Akingbogun [7]
The Incurable Optimist
What truly sets Akingbogun apart is his authentic vulnerability and relentless optimism. He openly discusses his failures and business setbacks, reframing them as essential learning opportunities. This transparency makes him highly relatable and effective in his role as a certified business leadership and performance coach through his outfit, MindVolution. [1] [3]
He is a sought-after speaker, notably delivering a TEDx talk in 2024 titled “Storytelling for Impact,” where he demonstrated how narrative can drive social change. [8]
Akingbogun is a devoted family man, married to Tolulope and father to three children, all of whom show promising literary inclinations. He balances his high-achieving career with personal interests like playing the piano, traveling, and voracious reading. [3]
Conclusion: A Model for the Modern Professional
Akin Akingbogun’s life is a testament to the power of multidisciplinary integration. He does not write as an engineer who dabbles in fiction, nor does he innovate as a banker who happens to care about the climate. He integrates these identities deliberately, using technical knowledge to inform sustainable business, storytelling to humanize leadership, and coaching to amplify impact.
In a world that often demands we choose one path, Akingbogun invites us to embrace our multiple potentials. He is, in his own words, an “incurable optimist” who genuinely believes that the right mindset and determination can change the world. And looking at his track record—from setting global records in clean mobility to probing the depths of the human condition through literature—it is clear he is doing exactly that.
References
[1] Akin Akingbogun Personal Website. “Profile.” https://akinakingbogun.com/ [2] LinkedIn. “Akin Akingbogun Profile.” https://ng.linkedin.com/in/akin-akingbogun-b9679718[3] Reference Document: “Akin Akingbogun Profile.docx”
[4] TechCabal. “Sterling Bank Drives E-Mobility Innovation.” June 5, 2024.
[5] Qoray Mobility. “Official Website.”https://qoraymobility.com/ [6] TechCabal. “Qoray’s electric teak: From Guinness World Record to nationwide EV momentum.” January 30, 2026. https://techcabal.com/2026/01/30/teak-tricycle-guiness-world-record/ [7] Punch Newspapers. “Author explores consequences of poor decisions in new novel.” April 19, 2026. https://punchng.com/author-explores-consequences-of-poor-decisions-in-new-novel/ [8] TEDxNUTM. “Storytelling for impact! | Akin Akingbogun.” September 2024.
Related Posts
Who Was Jack the Ripper? What Lessons Can Be Learned
October 2, 2026
The Whitechapel murders remain unsolved, but their history still teaches us about criminal profiling, media panic, inequality and the stories we choose to remember.
FIGHTING ADDICTION
September 26, 2026
I once spent an entire Saturday preparing to write a business plan. I did not
The Year the Streets Would Not Let Them Rest
September 26, 2026
What the Dancing Plague of 1518 still has to teach a city like Lagos A
THE MIND IS A BATTLEFIELD
September 22, 2026
There is a particular kind of madness that visits a man stuck in traffic on the Third Mainland Bridge at half past six in the evening. I remember one such evening clearly. The cars were not moving. The okada men had long given up weaving between them and were now just leaning on their bikes, chatting. And somewhere between Adeniji and Oworonshoki, my mind decided to open a courtroom.
THE MAN IN THE MIRROR
September 22, 2026
I once sat in a gathering of otherwise reasonable, educated Nigerians, the kind of room where everyone has an opinion and every opinion is delivered with total conviction, and listened to a full hour of righteous fury about the state of the country. The politicians were thieves. The system was broken. Nobody in government cared about the common man. Heads nodded. Glasses were raised. It was, by every measure, an excellent vilification session, and I nodded along with the rest of them, because every word of it was true.
LATE BLOOMER
September 22, 2026
I remember scrolling through one of those glossy “Forbes 30 Under 30” style lists one quiet night, the kind of night when you are not really looking for trouble but find it anyway. Photograph after photograph of confident young faces, each caption more impressive than the last. Founded a company at twenty two. Sold it at twenty six. Sat on a panel by twenty eight.
The Law of wasted efforts
August 8, 2026
There is a statistic that should discourage any lion from ever hunting again. Three out of every four times a lion charges after prey, it fails. Twenty five percent success. Seventy five percent waste. If a man ran a business on those numbers, his accountant would resign quietly, his investors would call an emergency meeting, and his mother would move from praying for his success to praying for his sense.
The Full Cup
August 4, 2026
There is a woman I know, call her Adaeze, who loves her husband the way a well-tended fire loves the wood it is given: completely, warmly, without……
The Paradox of giving:When generosity becomes complicated
August 4, 2026
A message arrives from someone you have not spoken to in years. A parent needs surgery. An account number is attached, and a photograph of a hospital bill that may or may not be real. You have just been paid. Not much is left after rent and the small emergencies that always find a way to arrive before the salary does. You send something anyway. You do not ask why the message found you specifically, out of everyone this person knows.
Some Animals Are Still More Equal
August 4, 2026
I ran into a post on social media a few days ago. Someone had turned Animal Farm into a slideshow, cartoon pigs in suits, captions lifted straight from the book, the whole thing dressed up for a scrolling audience. It stopped me mid scroll, the way certain things from your teenage years do when they show up uninvited in your adult timeline.
She Was Never the Weaker One. We Were Just Reading the Wrong Manual Part 2
June 23, 2026
In Part One, we established something that the available evidence handles quite comfortably: the female is not the weaker version
She Was Never the Weaker One. We Were Just Reading the Wrong Manual Part 1
June 23, 2026
Her name was Nkechi. She was thirty-one years old, and she was dying — at least, that is what the doctors privately believed.
They Found a Computer. It Was 2,000 Years Old
June 23, 2026
It was the spring of 1900. A group of Greek sponge divers, blown off course by a fierce Mediterranean storm, dropped anchor near the small island of Antikythera — a barren, wind-battered speck of land sitting between Crete and the Greek mainland. They were looking for shelter. What they found instead would take another century for the world to begin to understand.
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Add Your Heading Text Here
Discover more from Akin Akingbogun
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
1 thought on “The Constructive Generalist: How Akin Akingbogun is Engineering Africa’s Future and Writing Its Stories”
I’m proud of your achievements, Akin! And also, I should testify, that your literary works helped reshape my attitude towards reading; I’m not yet a voracious reader, but I see a strong inclination towards one.
Thanks, brother.