Kalu Onyekachi told a packed Akure audience that everyone misunderstands what growth actually costs
TEDxAkure 2025 drew several hundred attendees to the venue beside Agape Church on Saturday, August 30th, with speakers addressing the theme “Growth: Moving from Zero to One.” But it was Kalu Onyekachi’s talk that generated the most sustained audience reaction and post-event discussion.
Onyekachi, Senior Product Designer at Payaza Africa and founder of tech education initiative Lilac Africa, delivered a 15-minute presentation titled “Growth: The Weight of Becoming” that directly challenged how most people think about personal and professional development.
“Everyone talks about growth like it’s this amazing thing we should all want more of,” Onyekachi said during her talk. “But what no one mentions is that growth has weight. And that weight is fear.”
The comment drew immediate attention from the audience, which included local entrepreneurs, university students, and professionals from Ondo State’s growing tech sector.
Direct Challenge to Growth Culture
Rather than offering the typical motivational messaging common at business events, Onyekachi argued that fear is not something to overcome but an inevitable part of meaningful change.
“When I started Lilac Africa, everyone wanted to know about business plans and funding,” she told the audience. “But the real question keeping me awake was whether I could become the person needed to make this work.”
Lilac Africa has trained over 1,000 women across Nigeria in product design, software engineering, AI, and product management since its launch. The organisation recently announced a billion-naira campaign to reach 10,000 participants.
Drawing from her background in user experience research, Onyekachi compared personal development to product design. “In UX, we identify friction points where users abandon processes,” she explained. “Personal growth has the same friction. The difference is that in growth, friction isn’t a bug, it’s supposed to be uncomfortable.”
Local Tech Context
The talk resonated particularly with audience members working in Nigeria’s tech sector, where rapid scaling often creates pressure for quick personal transformation.
“We see promising startups plateau, or wonder why there aren’t more women in tech leadership,” Onyekachi said. “Part of the answer is that everyone’s carrying individual fears about growth, and collectively that becomes paralyzing.”
She connected this to her work at Payaza Africa, where she leads product design for the fintech company’s payment gateway serving businesses across Africa.
Several audience members approached her after the presentation to discuss their own experiences with professional development challenges.
“I’ve been avoiding a team lead role because I’m worried about the responsibility,” said Mary Adebayo, a software developer from Akure. “Her talk made me realize the fear isn’t going away—I just need to work with it.”
Community Response
The presentation generated significant discussion during the event’s networking sessions. Unlike typical growth-focused talks that emphasize mindset shifts, Onyekachi’s approach acknowledged the emotional difficulty of change as legitimate and necessary.
“Most growth talks are about motivation and pushing through barriers,” said event attendee Tunde Ogundimu, who runs a local digital marketing agency. “This was more realistic about what change actually feels like.”
The response reflected broader conversations in Nigeria’s tech community about sustainable development versus rapid-growth pressures that can lead to burnout.
Onyekachi concluded her talk by addressing the audience directly: “Everyone here is carrying the weight of becoming something new. That weight isn’t a sign you’re failing—it’s proof you’re actually changing.”
TEDxAkure Context
TEDxAkure 2025 featured eight speakers across various fields, but Onyekachi’s presentation drew the longest audience discussion period. The event, organized locally under TEDx’s independent licensing program, aimed to showcase ideas and innovations emerging from southwestern Nigeria.
Other speakers included education reformer Dr. Funmi Adewumi and renewable energy entrepreneur James Ola-Daniel, but conversations throughout the day frequently returned to themes from Onyekachi’s presentation about fear and growth.
The event organizers noted higher than usual social media engagement around her talk, with attendees sharing quotes and key points across platforms throughout the weekend.
For Onyekachi, whose design work emphasizes data-driven user research, the presentation represented an extension of her professional methodology to personal development—focusing on actual human behavior rather than idealized outcomes.
