PiggyVest Co-founder, Odunayo Eweniyi and Lifebank’s Temie Giwa-Tubosun are among the 15 tech founders recognised in this years 100 Most Influential Young Africans.
The recently-unveiled list is the 5th annual publication by PR & Rating firm, Avance Media and Africa Youth Awards to recognise young Africans for their outstanding contributions towards the development of Africa in a diverse range of fields.
The honour list comprises 51 men and a record 49 women across 29 African countries. The criteria for selection included Excellence in Leadership and Performance, Personal accomplishments, Commitment to sharing knowledge, Breaking the Status Quo and being an accomplished young African.
Nigeria recorded the highest representation with 21 young achievers. Ghana, Kenya and South Africa had 10 young people each.
Popular artists like Davido, Joeboy and Burna Boy were featured in the list. Similarly, footballers like Nigeria’s Alex Iwobi and Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang made the list.
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15 tech Founders
The list also features 15 young tech founders from across the continent. The tech founders include:
Odunayo Eweniyi is the Cofounder and COO at Piggyvest, an online savings platform. She also co-founded pushcv.com, one of the largest job sites in Africa with the largest database of pre-screened candidates.
Temie Giwa-Tubosun is a Nigerian-American health manager and founder of LifeBank, a business enterprise in Nigeria working to improve access to blood transfusions in the country.
Ola Brown is a British-Nigerian medical doctor and healthcare entrepreneur who founded Flying Doctors Healthcare Investment Company.
Olugbenga Agboola is the co-founder and CEO of Flutterwave. Prior to co-founding Flutterwave, Olugbenga contributed to the development of fintech solutions at several tech companies like PayPal, Standard Bank, among others.
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Orondaam Otto is a Social Entrepreneur, Development Consultant, and founder of Slum2School Africa. He is impacting Africa Through Education.
Umra Omar is a Kenyan humanitarian and founder of Safari Doctors, an organisation that delivers primary healthcare using technology.
Rachel Sibande is a Malawian digital development specialist and the founder of Malawi’s first technology and innovation Hub – mHub
Gregory Rockson is a Ghanaian entrepreneur and Founder of mPharma, an e-prescription network in emerging markets.
Fejiro Hanu Agbodje is the founder and CEO of Patricia Technologies, a fintech service provider based in Lagos.
Fatoumata Bâ is a Tech Entrepreneur & VC Investor and founder of Janng, the first African Social Start-up Studio that leverages technology and capital to build digital ecosystems in Africa.
Charlette Desire N’Guessan is an Ivorian technology entrepreneur and co-founder of the BACE Group, a company that uses facial recognition and artificial intelligence to verify identities remotely. She is also the first woman to emerge as the winner of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s prestigious 2020 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation.
John Obidi is a Social Media Strategist, Online Business Consultant and founder of Headstart Africa, a 140,000 members strong online community of experts.
Bright Simons is a Ghanaian social innovator, entrepreneur and founder of mPedigree Network, where he pioneered a system that allows consumers to instantly check whether their medicines are counterfeits or not.
Ashish J. Thakkar is a Rwandan-based entrepreneur and founder of Mara Group and Mara Foundation, a multi-sector business services company that operates in the technology, financial services, manufacturing, real estate and agriculture industries.
Alain Nteff is the Co-founder and CEO at Healthlane, an e-health startup that helps get quality and affordable healthcare in Africa. He is also the Co-founder of GiftedMom, an African pregnancy, baby and health app.
In summary, the wide recognition of successful tech founders in the list shows just how important the sector is to the growth of the continent. According to Prince Akpah, MD of Avance Media, the stories of the 100 most influential young Africans will serve as motivation to the younger generation.
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