AYKO and the Art of Turning Talent into Legacy
Since its launch in 2021, AYKO Agency has been carving out a new space in Africa’s creative economy: one where modeling is not an endpoint but the beginning of a pipeline into global markets. Headquartered between Lagos and London, the agency was founded on the conviction that African talent must be scouted, trained, and positioned within systems that give them a long-term future, not just a single season on the runway.
At the heart of AYKO’s work is the African Talent Discovery (ATD) Show, an annual initiative that moves beyond auditions to become a structured process: applications, live auditions, intensive bootcamps, and a grand finale. Over the past four years, ATD has surfaced new talent across modeling, music, and dance. For those who make it through, the support doesn’t end with discovery. AYKO pairs emerging talent with training in branding, digital visibility, and financial literacy, ensuring they can thrive within the complexities of an international industry.
This approach reflects the professional backgrounds of its founders, Ayoola and Koya, who combine industry knowledge with corporate expertise from finance and a FTSE 100 company. Together, they are shaping an agency model that blends creative scouting with structured business development.
Beyond the Runway
AYKO has consistently widened its focus to include the broader creative economy. In 2022, it launched its Lagos symposium themed “Creative Minds. Business Solutions.” Speakers included Lagos Fashion Week’s Omoyemi Akerele and executives from Fenty Beauty and Insigna Media. Panels and workshops explored how financing models, digital distribution, and strategic partnerships could sustain Africa’s creative exports. By bringing business leaders directly into conversations with talent, AYKO underscored the need for creative empowerment to be tied to economic frameworks.
That same emphasis on sustainability underpins AYKO’s community outreach. From grassroots mentorship to cross cultural collaborations (such as pairing Nigerian talent with global music acts), the agency is building platforms that expand both visibility and earning potential. Partnerships with organizations like Getty Images have already placed AYKO models in international campaigns, demonstrating that talent pipelines can be global without losing their local grounding.
Contextualizing AYKO in the Creative Economy
AYKO’s trajectory also mirrors the wider dynamics of Africa’s creative economy. Access to financing remains one of the biggest barriers for creative entrepreneurs, who often rely on personal networks, sporadic grants, or high cost loans. Government initiatives like Nigeria’s Creative Industry Financing Initiative and South Africa’s Mzansi Golden Economy program point to emerging support structures, but agencies like AYKO fill a crucial gap by equipping talent with the business acumen to navigate these options.
Infrastructure is another challenge. With limited galleries, theaters, and training institutions across Africa compared to other regions, agencies are often forced to become both incubators and educators. AYKO’s two week bootcamps respond to this reality by offering practical learning, something traditional educational systems, still heavily influenced by colonial frameworks, often overlook.
The agency’s cross border expansion to Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, and the United Kingdom signals a third layer: global positioning. In an industry where Africa contributes less than one percent of global creative trade, creating structured international pathways is vital. AYKO’s ability to connect emerging talent to overseas platforms not only challenges representation gaps but also helps close the revenue divide.
Looking Ahead
The agency’s ambitions are far from exhausted. With plans to grow the ATD Show into more African cities, deepen collaborations with global creative institutions, and continue convening dialogues on financing and infrastructure, AYKO is positioning itself as a long term stakeholder in Africa’s creative economy.
Its evolution shows that modeling agencies can be more than intermediaries between faces and fashion houses, they can become institutions that shape industries. For FashionEVO, AYKO represents the intersection where talent discovery meets economic strategy, and where Africa’s cultural capital begins to take its rightful place on global stages.
