Day: May 29, 2023

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Tesh Mbaabu

African Changemaker

Tesh Mbaabu

Tesh is an African serial technology entrepreneur who lives to blend commerce and technology.

He is the Co-Founder and CEO of MarketForce, a B2B commerce platform bridging the gap in Africa’s retail distribution sector by enabling consumer brands to deliver essential goods and digital financial services to retailers and consumers. The platform also empowers over 200,000 neighbourhood merchants across five African markets to source, order and pay for inventory, access financing, and earn more by reselling financial services in their communities.

Before founding MarketForce, Tesh co-founded Cloud9xp.com, a travel-technology company they built and later exited to HotelOnline. An avid adventure seeker, Tesh is also supporting Africa’s next generation of high-growth technology startups and entrepreneurs.

He is doing this through Mesozi Group, a company on a mission to fuel growth and transform markets across Africa through integrated business and software solutions. ATesh’s significant contribution to Africa’s tech ecosystem has earned him various recognitions, including being named the Techpreneur of the Year 2019 in the East Africa Founder of the Year Awards. Recently, he won the People’s Choice Award in the Africa Business Heroes Prize competition.

 

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Rachel Sibande

African Changemaker

Rachel Sibande

Rachel is a Malawian technology expert, computer scientist, social entrepreneur, and innovator.

She is the Founder and Director of mHub Malawi, Malawi’s First innovation hub and incubator for emerging startups. At mHub, Rachel is championing the development of local technology solutions by nurturing young innovators and entrepreneurs with technical and business skills to create sustainable business solutions.

Since its foundation in 2014, the hub has trained over 4,000 youths with ICT skills and entrepreneurship. It incubates 15 emerging entrepreneurs. Rachel also serves at the United Nations Foundation as Senior Director of Country Outreach (Africa), leading the Africa portfolio in supporting African countries to accelerate their Digital Transformation Journeys.

A STEM Educator, Rachel has pioneered initiatives such as the Children’s Coding Club and Girls’ Coding Club. Her meaningful role in transforming Africa’s digital technology space earned her global recognition.

 

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Peter Njonjo

African Changemaker

Peter Njonjo

Peter is an accomplished business leader with over 20 years of experience across sub-Saharan Africa with a mission to revolutionize the efficiency of Africa’s food industry.

Peter is doing this through Twiga Foods, a B2B e-commerce company he co-founded with his business partner, Grant Brooke. Headquartered in Kenya, Twiga Foods is using technology to transform Africa’s retail sector in the agriculture value chain by organizing an efficient supply chain for fresh and dry goods.

Founded in 2013, Twiga Foods now serves around 7,000 outlets a day through a network of 17,000 farmers and 45,000 vendors and has reduced typical post-harvest losses from 30% to 4% for produce brought to market via its platform.

Before co-founding Twiga Foods, Peter spent more than 20 years with The Coca-Cola Company, where he rose through the ranks to become a general manager at the company.

Peter believes that more significant social and economic change in Africa begins with food. He now aims to make food more affordable by building fair and reliable markets for agricultural producers, food manufacturers and retailers based on transparency and efficiency.

 

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Miishe Addy

African Changemaker

Miishe Addy

Miishe is a Ghanaian entrepreneur pioneering her path in Africa’s logistics industry.

Born in Texas, Miishe grew up in the US, where she earned a philosophy degree from Harvard.

However, she always felt the need to do something more innovative to impact her home country. She eventually moved back to Ghana in 2017 to teach and mentor software entrepreneurs through the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) program.

It was during her time at the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology that she met Solomon Torgbor. The two partnered and co-founded Jetstream Africa, an e-logistics company for cross-border trade that provides technology-enabled freight forwarding, trade financing, and cargo tracking tools for African businesses.

Founded in 2018, Jetstream Africa is on a mission to simplify global trade logistics for African businesses. Miishe is currently serving as Jetstream Africa’s CEO, leading the company’s drive to build a digital infrastructure for the continent’s trade corridors.

 

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Jason Njoku

African Changemaker

Jason Njoku

Jason is a British-Nigerian serial entrepreneur, African film magnate, and start-up investor in Africa’s emerging tech ecosystem.

Born in the UK, Jason is widely credited for his role in revolutionizing the global distribution system for the Nigerian film industry. The 41-year-old is the Co-Founder of IROKO Partners Limited, a web platform fondly known as the ‘Netflix of Africa’ for providing paid-for Nigerian films on-demand.

IROKO Partners Ltd is one of Africa’s leading entertainment technology companies, thanks to its flagship Nollywood movie platform iROKOtv. Headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria, the company has pioneered Video-On-Demand for Nollywood content (Nigerian movies) and has aggregated the world’s largest online catalogue of African content

Jason founded iROKOTV with the support of his University friend, Bastian Gotter, and the company has gone on to become one of Africa’s most prominent internet TV providers with a dedicated mobile app.

The father of three is also an advisor and mentor to many start-ups across Africa. Forbes Africa has previously cited him as one of the ‘Ten Young African Millionaires to Watch’. In 2013, Njoku was named the CNBC All Africa Business Awards Young Leader of the Year for West Africa.

 

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Kevine Kagirimpundu

African Changemaker

Kevine Kagirimpundu

Kevine is a Rwandan social entrepreneur passionate about the circular economy, waste management, and sustainable fashion.

She is the Founder and CEO of UZURI K&Y, an African-inspired eco-friendly footwear brand with a mission to craft viable solutions using steady tech and soft skills to educate vulnerable urban communities on ways and techniques to recycle waste.

At UZURI K&Y, Kevine aims to tackle the United Nations’ SDG goal No. 13 of Climate Action by preserving the environment through recycling waste, especially car tires, to make eco-footwear.

She is also addressing SDG goal No. 4 & 5 of Quality Education and Gender Equality by equipping the youth with technical and soft skills and creating entrepreneurship opportunities for them. In 2019, Africa Netpreneur Prize Initiative named Kevine among the top 10 heroes creating change across Africa.

 

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Jumanne Mtambalike

African Changemaker

Jumanne Mtambalike

Rajabu is a Tanzanian tech innovator active in youth initiatives in areas of innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship.

He is the CEO of Sahara Ventures, a consultancy and investment firm whose mission is to build a stable innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship ecosystem in Tanzania and Africa at large.

The company’s ventures include Sahara Sparks and Sahara Accelerator, a corporate and venture-backed accelerator for post-revenue startups and managing corporately-focused acceleration programs.

A tech thought leader and community reformer, Rajabu is also the founding and board member of the Tanzania Startup Association. At Tanzania Startup Association, Rajabu is helping in advocating and lobbying for an inclusive and conducive business environment for the country’s startup ecosystem.

 

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The Commercial Potential of Africa’s Digital Revolution

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Did you know that over 525 million people used the internet in Africa in 2019? If current growth trends continue, almost 75% of Africans are expected to come online by 2030.
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Maya Horgan Famodu

African Changemaker

Maya Horgan Famodu

Maya is a Nigerian-American venture capital investor and entrepreneur committed to ensuring brilliant people, wherever they are located, have access to the resources they need to build wildly scalable businesses.

She is the founder of Ingressive Capital, a VC firm targeting early-stage startups across Sub-Saharan Africa’s key tech
markets. Ingressive Capital has seeded some of Africa’s fastest-growing businesses, including Paystack and OZÉ.

Her commitment to growing the African tech ecosystem also saw her co-found Ingressive For Good, where she is focused on equipping young Africans in need with tech skills to help them impact and contribute to the development of Africa, socially and economically.

At 25, Maya is thought to have been the youngest person to have launched a tech fund in Sub-Saharan Africa. She is a two-time Forbes 30 under 30 awardee and has previously been named United Nation’s Most Influential Person of African
Descent.

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Alain Capo Chichi

African Changemaker

Alain Capo Chichi

Alain is an Ivorian entrepreneur, innovator, and the brain behind the recently launched Open G smartphones in Cote d’Ivoire.

Open G is Ivory Coast’s first locally-made smartphone and aims to improve accessibility with voice commands in local languages for users who can’t read and write. The phone can understand commands and respond in 16 of Ivory Coast’s approximately 60 languages.

Alain is imparting his knowledge and skills in innovation at CERCO Group, a center of Excellence for higher education and research in Africa. Present in four African countries, Alain founded CERCO Group in 1998 when he was just 20.

His contribution to Africa’s innovation space has earned him global recognition, and he has previously been named among the ten most remarkable young people in the world.

 

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