At 23, Sinet Akih Is Turning Crisis into a Launchpad for Innovation

Across Africa, young innovators are proving that technology is not just a tool for convenience but a powerful weapon against systemic challenges. In Bamenda, a city in Cameroon’s Northwest region where conflict has kept schools shut and opportunities scarce, the story of Sinet Akih begins not in a glass-walled office but in the uncertainty of disrupted classrooms and restless nights. As a teenager, he borrowed laptops to teach himself design and code. For many around him, the crisis meant an end to dreams. For Sinet, it became a call to create.

Today, at just 23 years old, Sinet Akih has emerged as one of Cameroon’s most dynamic product leaders, using technology and entrepreneurship to transform the prospects of thousands of young people. His journey from adversity to national recognition demonstrates the potential of Africa’s emerging innovators to succeed against considerable challenges.

Building Products That Matter

Sinet’s first big step into product leadership came with the Nang Health App, which he helped design and launch as product lead. He didn’t simply oversee development; he shaped the app’s user experience, outreach, and adoption strategy, ensuring it was accessible, stigma-free, and evidence-based. Within its initial rollout, the app reached more than 1,000 young Cameroonians, especially in his hometown of Bamenda, giving them confidential, youth-friendly information on sexual and reproductive health. In communities where silence and misinformation cost lives, his work transformed a simple mobile app into a lifeline.

By the time he was 22, Sinet was already driving measurable impact in fintech. At BitSika, one of Africa’s most prominent fintech platforms backed by Binance Labs, he joined as a product manager at a pivotal moment when the platform was keen on deepening its footprint in Cameroon. Known for enabling cross-border payments, cryptocurrency trading, and virtual Visa cards, BitSika processed nearly $40 million across 269,000 transactions in 2020, serving more than 95,000 users.

Sinet’s remit went far beyond marketing. He conducted deep user research to understand how Francophone and Anglophone Africans interacted with the app, collaborated with engineers to roll out bilingual onboarding and compliance features, and established KPIs to monitor acquisition, retention, and transaction volumes. Outside these product management operations, he led the company’s market expansion strategy in Cameroon, forging partnerships with influencers and adapting messaging for regulatory compliance. His efforts secured over 10,000 new users in Cameroon alone and improved retention across the region. Colleagues credit him with not just driving sign-ups but turning them into long-term, engaged customers through his hands-on community engagement and data-driven product decisions.

Never one to stop at promoting other people’s ideas, Sinet channeled his experience into building his own solution: Jappcare Autotech. As co-founder and product owner, he is addressing one of Cameroon’s silent crises, road accidents caused by poorly maintained vehicles. Under his leadership, Jappcare introduced features such as real-time vehicle diagnostics, digital maintenance schedules, and an e-commerce platform for spare parts. The vision is bold but practical: use digital tools to make roads safer, save lives, and create a new standard for vehicle maintenance in Cameroon.

The Bamenda Community Challenge: Innovation in a Crisis Region

In 2022, at just 21, Sinet co-founded the Bamenda Community Challenge (BCC), a bold initiative designed to inspire, train, and connect young people with technology-driven opportunities in one of Cameroon’s most crisis-affected regions. In a context where schools have been shut and opportunities disrupted since 2018, BCC proved that innovation could still thrive.

The first edition reached over 1,000 young people nationwide, eventually selecting 35 finalists for mentorship and pitching in front of an audience of 300. Participants underwent weeks of structured training and mentorship, covering everything from digital literacy to market validation, before competing for $1,000 in cash prizes. Sinet personally led product management workshops and mentored participants on translating raw ideas into viable, user-focused digital solutions.

The second edition expanded further, with more attendees, more projects, and deeper mentorship, ultimately reaching 2,000+ young people and mentoring over 20 startups across health, transport, and education. Today, BCC is more than an event; it’s a grassroots innovation hub and a model for youth-led tech transformation in a region once written off as “too difficult” for innovation.

Cameroon International Tech Summit: A National Stage

Sinet’s impact does not stop with BCC. He is also a lead organizer of the Cameroon International Tech Summit (CITS), the most significant technology convening in Cameroon, supported by UNDP, GIZ, and the U.S. Embassy. This year, the Summit team visited all 10 regions of Cameroon, hosting pre-event bootcamps and training sessions that impacted over 20,000 young people nationwide.

On 30 September 2024, CITS culminated in a historic grand event in Yaoundé, bringing together more than 10,000 attendees, a mix of innovators, investors, policymakers, and young entrepreneurs. As part of the organizing team, Sinet played a pivotal role in program design, speaker recruitment, mentorship sessions, and ecosystem partnerships, ensuring that CITS remained a catalyst for digital transformation in Africa and a platform where youth from every region could access opportunity.

Giving Back, Building Forward

Beyond these flagship initiatives, Sinet partners with Google Developers Group Bamenda and Women Techmakers Bamenda, training young developers and entrepreneurs in everything from product management to digital strategy and tech entrepreneurship. His social media channels have also become mini-classrooms where he shares short, sharp lessons on technology, earning him the Cameroon Youth Award for Best Digital Tech Content Creator in 2024.

Like many innovators, Sinet has faced setbacks. Early prototypes failed. Fundraising wasn’t always easy. “What didn’t work taught me as much as what did,” he reflects. However, he turned each obstacle into a chance to refine his approach, a mindset that has shaped both his ventures and mentorship.

Looking ahead, Sinet is focused on scaling Jappcare into a pan-African autotech player and expanding BCC’s reach to all ten regions of Cameroon. His three-year goal: impact at least 10,000 young people through training, mentorship, and startup incubation.

For African youths, his story is a reminder that the continent’s innovation is not confined to hubs like Lagos or Nairobi. It can spring from Bamenda, from crisis, from scarcity. At just 23 years old, Sinet Akih embodies a new kind of African tech leader, one who doesn’t just climb ladders but builds bridges. From health to fintech to road safety, from Bamenda to the national stage, his work is proof that Africa’s future will be written not only by those in power but by young people who dare to create even when the odds are against them.