Building Trust in Global Trade
Zahirul Haq and Kingmansa, winner of SP26 Startup Experience Day Langley pitch competition
April 14, 2026 Abdul-Raoof Abdulai
kingmansa began with a simple but persistent question: why is trust still the biggest barrier in global trade? For Zahirul
entrepreneurship has meant translating years of experience in government technology and international business into something clear enough to pitch, test, and build. When he stepped onto the stage at Startup Experience Day in Langley, he wasn’t just presenting an idea, he was presenting a solution shaped by that experience. His venture, Kingmansa, earned first place, but it’s the journey behind it that truly makes the story compelling.
Haq did not arrive at entrepreneurship by accident. He began his career as a military officer, later deploying to Africa on United Nations peacekeeping missions. After completing an MBA in the UK, he moved into corporate roles managing large-scale public sector IT projects across the continent, including biometric national ID systems and passport infrastructure. Over time, his work expanded beyond technology into building relationships between businesses, policymakers, and trade networks across Africa and Bangladesh. That progression eventually led him to serve as President of the Africa Bangladesh Business Forum.
That is where Kingmansa began to take shape. After years of watching how trade relationships succeed or stall, Haq kept returning to the same issue. “The biggest problem with Africa today is trust,” he says. In his view, businesses often do not just need access to products; they need confidence in the people, systems, and transactions around them. “The biggest problem with Africa today is trust,” Haq explains. Businesses don’t just need access to products; they need confidence in the people and systems behind each transaction.
Kingmansa was built to address that gap, a cross-border trade platform focused on verified sellers, local currency payments, and end-to-end logistics. Even its name reflects that vision, inspired by Mansa Musa and Haq’s long-standing connection to African markets.
The Pitch Competition
By the time Haq moved to Canada in 2023 to begin his MA in Leadership at Trinity Western University, the idea was already taking shape. Canada, he explains, gave him a stronger base for building something global. He developed the concept through 2024, registered the company in 2025, and launched a pilot in Addis Ababa before moving toward a wider rollout. Still, when he joined Startup Experience Day hosted by EMBARK, TWU’s venture incubator, what he wanted most was not applause, but validation.
That is what stood out. Haq says winning first place was encouraging, but the greater value came from the judges’ questions. They pushed him beyond what he had prepared and helped make the business “sharper and more meaningful” to an audience. The event did not change the idea itself. It changed how clearly he could explain it. He left with a stronger pitch, clearer framing, and a greater sense that the venture could move toward funding.
Toward What Comes Next
Since then, his focus has remained steady: strengthen partnerships, keep proving the platform, and keep improving along the way. “This is my life project,” he says. EMBARK’s role in Haq’s story is not that it gave him a vision he did not already have. It helped turn deep experience into a clearer founder narrative. That movement, from vision to articulation, is exactly the kind of growth EMBARK is meant to support.