HOUSTON, Texas - July 16th, 2025 - Last weekend, all eyes were on the city of New Orleans as the widely popular Essence Festival made its grand return to the city affectionately known as “The Big Easy”. With tens of thousands of people in town for the holiday weekend celebration, Dr. Stephen Akintayo, the president and chairman of GText Holdings USA (recognized as one of Africa’s top real estate investors and business moguls, and a Forbes “Best of Africa” 2023 award recipient), also took the opportunity to attend the festivities and connect with both Essence Fest attendees and several of America’s prominent and emerging genres in theBlack community.
The weekend kicked off on Thursday afternoon with an exclusive visit to day one of the Black Economic Forum at the Four Seasons New Orleans (led by the organization’s president and CEO Alphonso David and the founder and chairman Richelieu Dennis) where several of the nation’s top experts and locals from across many industries gathered to provide their insights on the current state of affairs impacting Black America’s economic and social advancement.
For Dr. Akintayo, many of the conference’s key topics (including investing in Africa, the emergence and governance of A.I., venture capitalism, philanthropy, labor, overcoming DEI setbacks, etc. ) are some of the key priorities or learnings that his company had begun to investigate solutions for since launching its U.S. division in 2023.
He was introduced to many of the conference speakers, moderators and notable guests — including U.S. Ambassador Ron Kirk, Illinois’ Gov. JB Pritzker, award-winning journalist Roland Martin, SEIU president April Verrett, Kenya’s Ambassador Christopher Kirigua, Tanzania’s Ambassador Dr. Elsie Sia Kanza, former communication’s director of Vice President Kamala Harris, Ashley Etienne, CNBC’s correspondent and anchor Frank Holland.
On day two, Dr. Akintayo was taken to Ernest N. Morial Convention Center where thousands of visitors came to experience a variety of vendors and social activities ranging from haircare, jewelry and apparel, to live concerts and technology stations. The Black Economic Forum continued their empowering conversations on the main stage with several known names (including , and major companies like CocaCola, Target, AT&T, Yves Saint Laurent and more At the BeautyCon experience area, Dr. Akintayo connected with R&R Skincare (a Ghanaian skincare company founded by Valerie Obaze with a distribution center in the United States). Alongside her husband Stanley “Stan” Obaze, Dr. Akintayo had a chance to deeply engage them on the growth, impact and legacy that R&R Skincare has established since founding the business over 10 years ago. Dr. Akintayo also met with Premise Martin, the owner of Pedillious Shoe brand, who treated him to a complimentary chair massage while speaking on the importance of wellness. Dr. Akintayo also met Kim Roxie, a legendary Houston entrepreneur figure and the owner of Lamik Cosmetics, a popular brand that specializes in non-toxic makeup created from all natural ingredients, and entrepreneur Susan Wright Barr who talked with Dr. Akintayo on the importance of knowing your brand identity and boundaries when navigating specific professional industry spaces.
On Friday evening, Dr. Akintayo was invited to attend the “How We Win: The Path Forward” cocktail reception at the House of Blues (hosted by strategist and social change leader Rashad Robinson, in partnership with Alphonso David and the Global Black Economic Forum). During the reception, Dr. Akintayo had to chance to once again hear from April Varnett (alongside popular media legal analyst and Native Land podcast co-host Angela Rye and actor and social activist Kendrick Sampson) as they took a critical deep dive into voicing out hard truths and perspectives to the audience that were centered around the reception forum’s theme of cultural power, political power, and social power for Black America.
It was at the same event that Dr. Akintayo was introduced to Nana Baffour, the president and founder of the brand Enda (recognized by the company as “Africa's first performance footwear and sportswear brand”). The sportswear brand served as the official sponsor of the Essence Fest “Qualify Her” 5K Walk & Run. Following the forum, Dr. Akintayo took time to speak with the speakers and several attendees to react on the topics and other important perspectives brought to the forefront of the festival experience.
On Saturday Morning, Dr. Akintayo served as a panelist for the Essence Festival Weekend/United Nations ECOSOWC panel discussion (hosted by media mogul Dr. Edna Frenchwood ‘aka’ Chi Chi StylXz). Centered around the theme of “The American Boss & The Digital Era”, Dr. Akintayo was joined by fellow panelist Commissioner Gene Andrews, author Susan Troth, IT expert Felix Egwu, master brand architect Delano A. Johnson, and co-host United Nations Amb. Catherine Utsalo, to provide their experience and context. Dr. Akintayo's major contributions to the conversation centered around the urgency for both business and individuals to embrace and learn AI best practices before it's too late. From his perspective, it’s important to truly study the usefulness and application of AI to ensure that both individuals and businesses will not be left behind. Within his own organization, Dr. Akintayo shared with both the panelist and attendees that his company has made it a requirement to apply AI into every facet of the business.
To conclude his time in New Orleans, on Saturday afternoon, Dr. Akintayo reconnected with Nana Baffour and the Enda team to celebrate the success of their 5K walk and run with a VIP mixer & brunch at Addis Nola Ethiopian Restaurant. For Dr. Akintayo, the key takeaway from this year’s Essence Festival experience includes the overall urgency to reduce the wealth gap for Black Americans, and to expand on the value of being brought into new rooms and spaces to advance economic growth and social consciousness. “Let’s create wealth together.”
Following this year’s Essence Festival, Dr. Akintayo will continue to embark on a number of upcoming projects for 2025, including his highly anticipated Business Growth Conference in London, England and Houston, Texas, and his upcoming leadership retreat in Kenya.
To keep up with the latest updates for Dr. Akintayo, please visit his social website online at www.StephenAkintayo.com and follow Dr. Akintayo on Instagram (@StephenAkintayo).
About Dr. Stephen Akintayo
Recognized as Africa's most influential investment coach, Dr. Stephen Akintayo is the chairman of Gtext Holdings, a company of different subsidiaries,which includes Gtext Homes, a real estate company with over twenty estates across West Africa, United Arab Emirates, and most recently the United States.Additionally, Dr. Akintayo is the founder of Stephen Akintayo Foundation, and a member of the Forbes Business Council (recognized as winner of Forbes’ Best of Africa Leading Investment Coach & Real Estate Mogul Award.
Written by Ivy Okoro (Evomah Communications)
Edited by Dr. Edna Frenchwood
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