“Signed And Became An Official Partner Of MTN The Biggest Telecommunications Company In Africa”- Tunde Onakoya Outlines 20 Things He Achieved In 2025

My 2025 wrapped.

  1. Got closer to God.
  2. Travelled and got paid to speak accross 17 cities globally.
  3. Signed and became an official partner of MTN the biggest telecommunications company in Africa.
  4. Took 5 children from Nigeria to America and won multiple chess medals—from Atlanta Georgia, to New York City including a gold medal at the United Nations games.
  5. Spoke at the Harvard Africa Business conference, Graduate school of design, MIT and New York State university.
  6. Delivered a Keynote speech at the United Nations.
  7. Our kids won gold at the key academy chess masters tournament and tied for first place at the Ecobank chess tournament against 500 top schools in Nigeria.
  8. Set a new world record for the longest chess marathon in recorded human history alongside my brother Shawn Martinez for 64 HOURS in the heart of Times Square.
  9. Forever grateful for my friendship with Russ, our work @thegiftofchess and its continued expansion accross Africa and globally.
  10. Got into the US state department IVLP fellowship alongside 20 fellows from around the globe.
  11. Co-designed my very first luxury chess board with Neo chess and sold out all 100 (a million Naira each) in less than 6 hours.
  12. Featured with Grammy award winning superstar TEMS for a chess themed Hennessy campaign.
  13. Won over 15 awards this year including the Earnest shonekan leadership award by the Harvard business school alumni association.
  14. Got a Brand new Car courtesy my amazing @nordmotion family.
  15. The chess in slums innovation Hub with Lufthansa airlines Help Alliance came fully alive this year and we did high level tech training for thousands of children from Design, robotics,chess to AI. This got us 2nd place at the STEMite NAFESS innovation challenge.
  16. Visited the Duolingo Headquarters in New York with 5 children from the chess in slums project, spoke to the entire product team and helped Beta test the new chess course.
  17. Earned the most and gave the most I ever have.
  18. Partnered with my friends @hackSultan and @SamuelOtigba to give out free Laptops weekly to young undergraduates with internship opportunities.
  19. Launched my first Children’s book written by the legendary @lolashoneyin . It went on to win the children’s book of the year at the Akada book festival.
  20. And my most important achievement this year is we sponsored the education of thousands of children, gave out many scholarships and have kickstarted our 10 year vision to build the biggest chess academy/free school in the world.

I gained so much this year but it was also filled with many painful losses and hard lessons. My health also suffered greatly as I completely neglected self. I hope to be kinder to my body next year and spend more time with my loved ones.

Above all, I’m grateful. Thank you all for being a part of my unfolding story and I hope you have an incredible 2026.

I still believe in what my eyes do not yet see. Keep going dreamer❤️

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Source: Tunde Onakoya|X

Email: elora.akpotosevbe@yahoo.com