The conversation on Africa growth and development is heating up with innovations and startup springing up across Africa.
Last year Ventures Africa published 40 African Innovators to Watch and this year, the astounding talent pushed us to feature 42 innovators this time around. 42 African Innovators to Watch seeks to reposition how we consider innovation on the continent and by extension what it means to be an innovator. Each of the individuals we spotlight, share a commitment to something simultaneously infinite, yet quantifiable: change.
While the public conversation around innovation is often limited to developments within science and technology, in practice, its manifestation is limitless. This year’s list includes leaders within agriculture, the arts, hospitality, healthcare and beyond, because experimenting within any discipline leads to innovations that have the capacity to alter and inform how we live.Ozoz Sokoh, also known as Kitchen Butterly, notes that “the innovator’s life is one guided by three Ps: Patterns – recognising them; Preservation – innovators discard very few ideas; and Possibility – old ideas aren’t dead and buried. For most of the innovators I know, the desire to create and make a difference is far greater than fear of failing.” And so, this year we present 47 innovators (we have two teams of three), who have shown an inspired commitment to the three P’s, and change, in all its forms.
1.
Tonje Bakang
Afrostream, Cameroon
‘You have to live in the present but have the vision for the future’What started as a dream to promote black heritage on film and television screens led Cameroon native, Tonje Bakang, to create Afrostream, a video-on-demand platform designed to distribute ‘Afro entertainment’. His goal is to impact black communities in every continent in the world by sharing stories they can relate to, while also providing them with on-and-off screen heroes that they recognise. He hopes that this initiative will create a shift in how black people are depicted in film and television.
While Tonje agrees that Afrostream is thriving. For him, real success will be visible in the next ten years. Afrostream’s plans for the future centre around developing and transforming how Africans can tell their stories.
2.
Afua Osei
She Leads Africa, Ghana
‘This year, we’ll be in seven different cities. We’ll also be launching a new and accelerated programme for women startups in Nigeria. The main focus is growth and how to reach more women.’
3.
Asma Mansour
Tunisian Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, Tunisia
‘We can make social impact together …It’s about new concepts and the way that we’re doing it.’Asma Mansour’s journey as a social entrepreneur started because of her experience working with NGOs, which in her opinion, lacked adequate sustainability impact assessment on the people that these organisations were trying to help.
In 2011, Asma founded the Tunisian Centre for Social Entrepreneurship in Tunisia after a discovery that gave her an entirely new perspective. While attending a conference in Japan, she came across a company that was solely focused on tackling social problems and happened to meet like-minded individuals who would eventually become her co-founders.
The Tunisian Center for Social Entrepreneurship is the first of its kind in Tunisia. The innovative board co-creates local ecosystems in Tunisia, and the centre comes up with new ideas to tackle social problems, while working with unemployed people in both rural and urban areas.
Asma was an Ashoka Fellow in Tunisia in 2014. Her latest project is expanding “Lingare”, the centre’s latest product from its current location in Mahdia to other regions such as Sidi Bouzid, Kasserine and Jandouba.
4.
Evans Wadongo
Greenwize Energy, Kenya
‘I’m happy to solve problems and then see the impact of the solutions.’Growing up without electricity turned out to be one of the best things to happen to young Evans Wadongo. After graduating with honours from the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in 2009, Evans combined his passion for clean energy solutions to what he learned from his degree in Electronics and Computer Engineering to make the LED lamps he became famous for, at the impressive age of 19.
He is currently the Co-Founder of GreenWize Energy Limited and the Executive Director and Founder of Sustainable Development for Africa (SDFA) in Kenya. Since its formation in 2014, Greenwize’s revenue has increased by 100 percent each year and the employee count has tripled. By 2019, the energy company is set to serve 300,000 clients with renewable energy solutions through a “pay as you go” model.
By 2019, the company hopes to develop ‘EnergieRapide’ an all-in-one solar and wind energy hub. Evans finds being an innovator both ‘tiring and fulfilling’ but for him, it’s all about hard work.
5.
Roye Okupe
YouNeek Studios, Nigeria
‘Innovation is the next frontier for Africa’Thanks to Roye’s childhood dream, fans of comic books, graphic novels, and animations no longer have to look beyond the shores of the continent for superhero characters that they can idolise. Rather they can look to ‘E.X.O. – The Legend of Wale Williams’.
As a child, Roye watched all the classics: Superman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Batman, and more. While he loved these characters and could relate to them as a boy, he also wanted to see a superhero that was Nigerian or African.
Based on his interest in comic books, movies, and entertainment, Roye decided to study graphic design, motion graphics and animation. Soon after, YouNeek Studios was born and Roye’s Nigerian superhero has been making headlines all over the world ever since.
‘…We’ve seen a lot of support, not just from the African community, but the world as a whole. [E.X.O.] is making an impact I could have never imagined could happen outside Nigeria and outside Africa.’Roye is humbled by the support that he receives from individuals all over the world seeking permission to translate the comic book into their local languages. “The next phase of what we’re doing now is making animated movies based on the books.”
6.
Nkem Uwaje-Begho
Futuresoft, Nigeria
‘You always have to figure out what works in the environment that you’re in.’Nkem Uwaje founded FutureSoft Software Resources Limited (Futuresoft) in 2008, driven by a desire to change Nigeria’s technology space. FutureSoft, an IT solutions provider focused on online solutions, e-learning and IT security, has garnered Nkem respect and recognition as a leader in her industry, where she remains one of the few women occupying the space.
Nkem is also an expert speaker on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in Africa. She received the Jim Ovia Prize for Software Excellence and the Etisalat Prize for Innovation, for her efforts in improving access to technology in Nigeria and Africa-at large.
Presently, Nkem is focused on expanding Futuresoft into other markets in Ghana, South Africa, and Kenya within the next five years.
7.
Sara Menker
Gro Intelligence, Kenya
‘The process of creation can be a weird one. For some time, you’re creating in a vacuum.’When Ethiopian native Sara Menker’s nine-year trading career at Morgan Stanley stopped motivating her, then the Vice President of the New York Commodities Group, she turned her attention to fixing a problem in Africa that impassioned her – agriculture. Starting out, Gro Intelligence Ventures was primarily concerned with agricultural data issues and commodities on the continent, but soon Sara and her team realised that the scale and technical complexity of the product that they were dealing with, was in fact global.
For Sara, being an innovator is about constant discovery and uncertainty as well as being able to remain comfortable in a world where everything – including your ideas – is constantly shifting. Gro is presently working on improving ‘Clews’ and the overall delivery of the company.
‘Our product (Clews) helps users find connected paths between information and the shortest path possible to an end goal to the questions that they have around agric.’Sara is the current Chair of the Board of Truth Aid, an organisation which harnesses the power of multimedia in order to effect social change. She is also a Trustee of the Mandela Institute for Development Studies, a member of the Global Agenda Council on Africa at the World Economic Forum and an Advisory Board Member of Shining Hope for Communities. Sara was named a Global Young Leader by the World Economic Forum and is also a fellow of the African Leadership Initiative of the Aspen Institute.
8.
Sitawa Wafula
My Mind My Funk, Kenya
After a traumatic experience, a bipolar disorder diagnosis, and epilepsy discovery, Sitawa Wafula quickly discovered that there wasn’t enough information on the continent that she could access to help her understand how to cope and further understand her physical and mental health. In addition, there was a lot of stigma surrounding her mental health, which made the process of dealing with things even more challenging.
The three-time award winning mental health and epilepsy crusader decided that she was going to tell her story and make sure that individuals that shared her condition knew that they were not alone.
MMMF is focused on the social and preventative aspects of mental health as opposed to the curative, which in too many cases involves traditional healers or subpar psychiatric help. The organisation tries to include mental health awareness in everyday life, by working with young people to promote wellness in their communities all across Africa. This way, according to her, “you don’t need to always contact Sitawa or MMMF to get information on mental health,” and you can access mental health information that is suited to you.
9.
Kelvin Okafor
KelvinOkaforArt, Nigeria
‘We become what we think about.’As a student in St. Ignatius College in Enfield, London, United Kingdom, then 15-year-old Kelvin Okafor steadily honed his talent for drawing. Kelvin took on drawing while his peers were having fun socialising and this is something he is grateful for as it made him the artist that he is today.
Kelvin is known for his pencil and charcoal drawings of lifelike portraits which feature both ordinary people and celebrities which have caught the eye of a global audience. Early pieces of his work include portraits of Amy Winehouse, Tinie Tempah, Mother Teresa, Lauryn Hill Jamal, Nelson Mandela, Rihanna and Beyoncé, amongst others.
According to Kelvin, as a teenager he would “draw tirelessly” until he was satisfied. With the help of his parents, the British-Nigerian artist did a foundation Art & Design course at City and Guilds Art School (2005–06), then studied at Middlesex University (2006–09), where he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts. His awards include the Catherine Petitgas Visitors Choice Prize, of the National Open Art Competition.
10.
Bethlehem Tilahun-Alemu
SoleRebels, Ethiopia
Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu’s footwear company soleRebels is one of the most disruptive innovative companies in the past few years. All the Ethiopian-born social entrepreneur wanted to do was provide her poor community in Addis Ababa (Zenabwork) with jobs, and the eco-friendly company remains the world’s one and only World Fair Trade Organisation (WTFO) certified footwear company.
Every single one of soleRebels’ shoes is handcrafted and to Bethlehem they spotlight the “amazing artisan heritage of Ethiopia” as well as the creative skills of the people in her local community. Bethlehem is currently a United Nations (UN) Goodwill Ambassador for Entrepreneurship and is on the board of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO).
soleRebels employees are among the highest paid workers in Ethiopia with full medical insurance which covers them and their families. This probably has something to do with why the brand, which relies solely (pun intended) on recycled car tires and inner tubes, hand-spun cotton and hand-woven fabrics, is the first of its kind to emerge from a developing nation and go global. Last year, Bethlehem launched ‘Republic of Leather’, a new venture which offers custom made leather wears and accessories.
11.
Vivian Maduekeh
Food Health Systems, Nigeria
‘Our problem in Nigeria and Africa is not the quantity of food. Our problem is the quality.’In light of the importance of healthy and safe food, Food Scientist Vivian Maduekeh started to pay closer attention to what she felt was being ignored in Nigeria– food safety. Vivian is the Founder and Managing Principal of Food Health Systems Advisory Africa (FHS Africa), dedicated to advising food companies on food safety management systems to promote safe standards for food to the general public.
FHS Africa bridges the gap between farming and agricultural firms in the agricultural sector of most countries, in order to maximise the economic rewards of agriculture by producing high quality food products. Vivian was spurred to establish FHS Africa after Nigeria was banned from exporting beans to Europe in 2015 because they possessed high levels of toxic chemicals. Through an online resource called the SafeFoodNigeria Initiative, which was launched in 2012, the journey began.
FHS changes the conversation on food security. Countries and NGOs are concerned about food security in terms of increasing food production, but we need to talk about the standards and safety measures. In Nigeria, such a thing as what FHS is doing is rare because we rely only on NAFDAC.Vivian is a Project Director at Young Bright Minds Africa (YBM Africa). FHS is currently working on launching an application called ‘Food Incident Reporting Portal’, a sort of eyewitness reporting platform that encourages customers at restaurants, cafeterias, supermarket to report their harmful food discoveries at these places so they can be properly addressed.
12.
Chief Obi
Comedy, Nigeria
‘It’s not about the money… Anyone can stand in front of the camera, but it takes true passion to be different.’As a sophomore in college in 2012, Henry Obiefule – Chief Obi – incidentally started a comedic career in the United States by making and posting videos on social media media platforms, Keek and YouTube. With a fair amount of nudging from his friends who liked his videos and encouraged him to do more, he kept on, while extending his content to Vine, and finally Instagram. Today, he has 172,000 followers on his Instagram page and his full-time career includes stand-up comedy with hosting and MC-ing duties.
Chief Obi’s videos were inspired by growing up around his Igbo relatives, the “die hard ones that you see in Nollywood movies”, and the experiences of the popular character from his skits – Obinna is actually loosely based on his own experiences living with those relatives.
“I stay relevant by being motivated to do my videos, because I love doing what I do.”
Sometime in 2011, an aunty sent me an audio message on Whatsapp. It was the singsong voice and accent of a middle aged woman from the South East admonishing the youth to avoid being what she termed ‘a waste’- except that she pronounced it ‘weist’, or something like that, with a thick heavily-inflected tone infused with Igbo ‘ethnic interference’. The recording had just the right dose of playfulness and wit to make me reply to her text with ‘LMAO.’
13.
Rapelang Rabana
Rekindle Learning/Yeigo, South Africa
After selling her first company, Yeigo, to South African communications company, Telfree, in 2009, Computer Scientist and entrepreneur, Rapelang Rabana, remained with the company for two more years before starting another equally brilliant company – Rekindle Learning. The 2014 Entrepreneur for the World and World Economic Forum Global Shaper started Rekindle with the hopes of transforming how we learn and utilising digital technology to better facilitate that process.
“Being an innovator comes from the things that you are subliminally aware of which frustrate or annoy you and believing that you can change them.”
Rekindle Learning focuses on the methodology behind learning and how young individuals in Africa can quickly and competently reach mastery levels while also seeking to develop their skills and capabilities. The technology company uses tools such as personalised learning which checks your learning performance by helping you master your weak areas, and ‘real time guide’, a GPS-like tool that helps individuals without experience navigate through organisational processes and rules to help them add value to whatever organisation or corporation they find themselves in.
‘The real-time guides give you contextual advice. Essentially, you can behave as if you’re an expert. Just as you do in a new country with the help of GPS.’Rapelang hopes to use Rekindle to achieve more within academia and education in the future. In the near future they plan to establish an English learning platform to address the poor quality of written English found amongst youth who are secondary school graduates, with other subjects to follow.
‘We’re still finding out what works and what doesn’t as we go along. The outline is to reduce the time to competency, and whatever can assist with that is what will be part of the plan.’
14.
Samuel Otukol
Water Distillation System Process (DSP), Uganda
Trekking up to three kilometres in search of water as a young boy in Uganda, Samuel Otukol could not believe that there was so much water in one place when he moved to Canada. The difference between his hometown where there was a constant water shortage and his new country of residence inspired him to eventually create the Water Distillation System and Process (DSP), an alternative source of viable drinking water, after years of research.
“Some realities [in Uganda] have not changed much… There are boreholes now, but some of them are tapping into brackish water which could be harmful to health.”
Because of Dr. Otukol’s research, drought-stricken areas or those that only have access to seawater, commonly found in Eastern Africa, can now boast of clean water and improved agricultural practices. The DSP also works with solar energy which is an added advantage in areas that witness electricity shortages in addition to periods of drought.
15.
Prof. Lesley Erica Scott
Smartspot TBcheck, South Africa
‘This is an idea that can be commercialised and impact health in Africa and the world,” says Prof. Scott.’With Smartspot, Tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment which has saved over 37 million lives between 2000 and 2013 will significantly improve, allowing laboratories to safely and economically diagnose the disease which is the third leading cause of death in Africa. Smartspot was awarded the Special Prize for Social Impact ($25,000) at the 2015 Innovation Prize for Africa awards which held in Morocco.
16.
Jean Bosco Kazirukanyo
Oil Spill Cement, Burundi
Last year, Burundian Chemical Engineer, Dr. Jean Bosco Kazirukanyo, shone at the Innovation Prize for Africa awards with Oil Spill Cement (OSP). His ground-breaking innovation, which was also borne out of climate change activism, mitigates the poisonous effects of oil spillages and lubricants by containing them in lumps suitable for adequate disposal and ecological recycling.
17.
Dr. Edward Mabaya
Genetically modified crops, Zimbabwe
The African Seed Access Index (TASAI) provides a diagnostic tool that helps farmers, investors, agricultural companies and policy makers in Africa uncomplicate the process of seed systems and supply. Since its launch in Nairobi last year, it has spread to 12 countries in Africa and promises to cover the entire continent in the next two to three years.
‘I’m trying to make seeds ‘sexy’ again. People have forgotten how powerful seeds can be in transforming the lives of small-holder farmers…This very small technology can be the key to improving food security in Africa. It’s simple yet complicated.’Dr. Mabaya, whose life has been directly impacted by agriculture, believes that it is one of the answers to the eradication of poverty in Africa. As the Associate Director of the Cornell International Institute for Food and an Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellow (2007) amongst other notable achievements, Dr. Mabaya credits his current status to his firsthand experience with seeds as one of ten children on a small farm.
‘[Seeds] transformed my own life. I’m where I am now, partly because I saw the power of seeds in rural Africa. What keeps me motivated is making sure that more people get the access that I was able to get.’
18.
Paulo Miki Akpablie
Kadi Energy, Ghana
‘As an innovator you’re constantly thinking about the things around you and what could be made better. It’s also about empowerment and leaving a legacy. It shouldn’t start and stop with one person.’Kadi, which in ‘Ewe’ (a language from the Volta region in Africa) means “light”, hopes to become one of the major players in energy in the world by producing energy storage systems and launching unique 50-port charging stations for micro-enterprises. The prototype for the charging stations was manufactured and assembled in Nigeria and the company hopes to expand manufacturing to other African countries.
In Ghana, Paul-Miki’s is building a ten megawatt solar farm to provide energy for 10,000 homes with plans to achieve completion in the first quarter of 2017. Haiti and Sierra Leone are also posed to witness the launch of the charging stations in the near future.
19.
Rachel Sibande
mHub, Malawi
It is no surprise that Malawi owes its first and only technology hub and incubator space to Rachel Sibande, CEO and founder of mHub which identifies, nurtures and incubates young technology entrepreneurs. A PhD candidate in Computer Science at Rhodes University in South Africa, Rachel’s research focuses on the use of mobile technology for citizen engagement.
When she was young, Rachel was curious about gadgets, and would break old radios and move parts from one gadget to another to learn how they worked. Earlier on in her career, Rachel taught Information and Computer Technology (ICT) at an elite high school in Malawi and was a Statistics lecturer at the Mzuzu University.
With a membership of over 120 young technology enthusiasts, mHub has championed the development of local technology solutions in Malawi. The company intends to become a leading software development house in the East African country and penetrate global markets. Also, mHub plans to nurture and mentor more than 40 technology startups by 2021 by establishing a formal training institute for practical and dynamic technology-related courses that respond to the fast changing world of technology.
Rachel’s passion for enhancing female participation in Science and Technology led her to establish a ‘Girls4Code’ initiative and a ‘Children’s Coding club’, where children and girls between the ages of 9 and 18 are taught the basics of computer science and mobile application development skills in order to take up careers in science and technology.
“I find satisfaction in creating change that unravels new value. For me, not even the sky’s the limit…it is about being creative and dynamic.”
20.
Winnifred Selby
Bamboo Bicycles, Ghana
The Ghana Bamboo Bikes Initiative employs 35 people and is focused on the afforestation of degraded lands and exportation of bamboo bike frames to generate revenue for the Ghanaian economy. The initiative also serves as an empowerment scheme for women as bamboo briquette (making a type of charcoal from bamboo residue to use as a cooking fuel) entrepreneurs with added training on leadership and entrepreneurship. More than 100 women have been trained in professional technical courses since the programme’s inception.
‘Moving forward, we seek to position the Ghana Bamboo Bikes Initiative as the number one bamboo bike manufacturer and exporter in Africa, creating employment opportunities for hundreds of young people. We also want to go into large scale commercial bamboo plantation as a means of creating employment opportunities for the youth while encouraging processing of the bamboo by adding value to it and exporting them to earn foreign exchange for the country.’Winnifred has travelled extensively worldwide, shared platforms with notable international figures such as the Executive Director of the World Trade Organization, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon whom she was able to convince to take a ride on one of her bamboo bikes.
21.
Damola Taiwo, Tola Ogunsola, Dolapo Taiwo
MyMusic.com.ng, Nigeria
According to Dolapo Taiwo, one of the co-founders, “we had an idea for people to download music in one click…we didn’t know how it was going to pan out.” Damola and Dolapo returned to Nigeria in 2008 to start Unitech Media (which is still in operation) and later joined forces with Tola in 2014 to start the company. Today, MyMusic is integrated with all the telecommunication companies in Nigeria and about 60 million Nigerians with a phone and internet connection can download music.
Damola, Tola and Dolapo have plans to make MyMusic Pan-African with a short-term plan to expand into five other African countries through an aggressive marketing plan. In time, the company hopes to go global, as they note “African music is very dynamic and big all over the world.”
MyMusic currently partners with Facebook on the social network’s ‘Facebook Music Stories’, as Facebook’s first African partner in this capacity
22.
Ify Aniebo
African Health Magazine, Nigeria
‘The passion of trying to save lives, imparting knowledge and creating change is what drives me.’Nigerian-British Geneticist and Scientist, Ify Aniebo, is on a mission to find out why malaria drugs are failing by exploring drug resistance. According to her, Africa is living on its ‘last life’ for malaria drugs and the medical community is not working quickly enough to develop new solutions. Ify’s dedication to these issues was born from her experience with malaria as a child and a desire to educate people about science and health.
Ify founded African Health Magazine to provide better information around health and science, particular to health concerns facing people around the continent. Her work is centred around trying to stop the spread of malaria drug resistance in Africa with detailed research which serves as a surveillance tool for clinical scientists.
In order to do this, the molecular geneticist spends most of her days and nights in the laboratory. “Sometimes I’m not aware of the time. It’s tough and it also gets lonely for scientists. You’re in your own world a lot. If things don’t work out you try to find why. But when you do get a little bit of progress it gives you the energy to carry on.”
While the award-winning scientist admits that her PhD candidacy at Oxford University (which is almost over) doesn’t afford her the energy to invest in her magazine as much she would like, she plans to move back to Nigeria in September and make the magazine and initiative more programmatic with outreach strategies in addition to the use of mobile and internet technologies.
“Education is empowerment. People need to know the signs to look out for. However, not everyone can access the internet. I plan to go into the rural areas to provide information to those who need it the most.”
23.
Adebunmi Adediran
NAILANGS, Nigeria
‘Language is a beautiful thing.’Adebunmi Adeniran created NAILANGS, the keyboard that allows you to type in Nigerian languages, three years ago after a conversation with friends in the UK about the importance in embracing their languages.
NAILANGS is a multilingual keyboard which supports and enables writing in at least 12 Nigerian languages and aims to ensure that local Nigerian languages do not become extinct by making them easy to learn.
Ms. Adeniran studied Russian Language at the University of Lagos, along with minors in the Italian, Yoruba and English Languages.
However, she was always passionate about teaching her language (Yoruba) to others while also learning to speak theirs. She is fluent in English, Yoruba and Russian, can speak some Italian and is currently learning to speak Portuguese.
The linguist believes that passion begets innovation; she plans to visit Nigeria soon to market NAILANGS and make the keyboard something that any Nigerian can use. “I want the future generations to be aware of how beautiful our languages are. This is just the beginning.”
In the future NAILANGS hopes to incorporate language translation as one of its features.
24.
Takunda Chingonzo
Saisai, Zimbabwe
Saisai is going to become a gateway for local developers, content creators and curators to reach their targeted customers.Takunda also plans to establish 100 sustainable companies on the continent by 2020 with the launch of 20 per year. His business model for Africa is investing in products with visible potential in order to guarantee lasting success. For Takunda, innovation is an extension of ourselves as humans and must be practiced with frugality. He believes an entrepreneur should create and transfer value to the end user using the least amount of resources.
25.
Adnane Remmal
Livestock Antibiotics, Morocco
Professor Remmal directed his research towards studying the quality and strength of livestock antibiotics and replacing them with the most natural and harmless compositions for livestock, which offer the same antimicrobial results and prevent resistance. This way, livestock remain healthy, the agricultural sector receives a tremendous boost, and people can consume livestock products without fear of transmitted germs or carcinogens.
He currently runs a small company that manufactures and distributes the product with hopes to attract investment in order to increase production levels and expand into other countries in Africa and the world.
According to Professor Remmal, innovation is the most important means to contribute to African development.
The entrance of Nigerian artist, Victor Ehikhamenor’s home is a vibrant and diverse trail of his artwork. The first is a play on collage with hundreds of old film cartridges arranged into a square, around picture cut-outs of a camera in the middle, bare African women, and article clips from foreign magazines. The second is a multi-coloured painted carcass of an old generator, and the third is an old typewriter sitting on a wooden box covered with inscriptions and the Ehikhamenor’s characteristic drawings. Titled, Their Point of View, Power Play, and Klakitiklak of Ineffective Policies, respectively, these pieces occupy most of the balcony as Ehikhamenor welcomes guests into his home as well as his artistic vision, which over the past decade has made an indelible imprint on contemporary African art.
27.
Bilikiss Adebiyi-Abiola
WeCyclers, Nigeria
WeCyclers collects waste from low-income communities and rewards the participants with points that can later be exchanged for prizes.
Before founding WeCyclers, Bilikiss attempted to establish a scrap metal venture with her brother which didn’t quite pan out. However, that failure led her to an even better innovation. Bilikiss hopes to turn WeCyclers into a movement that will change the way Nigerians and Africans view waste.
According to Bilikiss,
“Waste management is one of the main problems for poor populations in Nigeria. We want to create a system that would change how people see waste from a problem to a solution.”
28.
Madiba Olivier
Kiro'o Games, Cameroon
To this end, Madiba began developing Aurion: Legacy of Kori Odan, a Role Playing Game (RPG) inspired by one of his favourite games ever – Final Fantasy. He launched Kiro’o Games, which is now the first gaming studio in Central Africa, in 2013. Last year, Kiro’o Games received $50,000 from a Kickstarter campaign to fund its projects.
“As an innovator, you’re a little bit alone. A lot of people don’t understand how you see things or how you see the world”, Madiba says. The Computer Scientist also thinks that while some people are born with the gift to come up with great ideas, others are trained. For Olivier, it’s 50-50 and the key is to keep an open mind and learn how to process ideas better. Kiro’o plans to organise with other games studios in Africa to make the continental market one of the best in the world.”
‘The video game industry is moving towards virtual reality/augmented reality. In ten years, Africa can invent the next way to entertain. America already invented sight cinema and video games. I want to have a team ambitious enough to invent the next step.’“We’re in the last stages of trying to release the game. This is the end of the road of a 12-year dream. We will decide on the future of the industry in the region if Aurion is a success. If we succeed, we will pave the way for other games to be produced in Cameroon. If we don’t, we may have closed it for a long time for investment and giving others a shot. That gives us a lot of pressure and equal motivation.”
Aurion: Legacy of Kori Odan launches in April 2016.
29.
Ntone Edjabe
Chimurenga magazine, Cameroon
Chimurenga was originally a magazine but it now incorporates additional platforms such as the Pan African Space Station (PASS), which is Chimurenga’s broadcasting wing and online music radio, the Chimurenga Library which is also online and collects pan African periodicals and personal books, and a broadsheet produced every quarter known as The Chronic.
30.
Loza Maleombho
Fashion designer, Cote D'Ivoire
Loza’s brand, which is now based in Abidjan, has been featured in VOGUE, ELLE Magazine, MARIE CLAIRE and a slew of other fashion magazines.
My creative process is very much centered around using tools available at hand; local fabric and materials, social media and storytelling in order to start a discussion between modernity and tradition: Two antagonist notions. I believe there is a link to be established in all things, there just needs to be a reason for it.Last month, one of Loza’s designs was featured in Beyonce’s video for the song ‘Formation’ causing a lot of buzz for both the designer and her designs. Speaking in an interview after the video was released, Loza says she watched the video four times just to catch a glimpse of her design.
Presently, the Loza Maleombho team consists of six people but plans to grow into a larger team of solely women to promote female empowerment as well as social and economic development. Loza also plans to establish a training workshop for young women from unprivileged backgrounds to teach them sewing, pattern making and production so as to improve their economic situations.
31.
Zina Saro-Wiwa
Visual Art, Nigeria
‘…See the bigger picture. The work has to be the reward. Anything else is just a bonus.’Zina Saro-Wiwa first carved a niche for herself in arts and film-making in 2008 with her documentary This Is My Africa which transformed discussions about the continent in international media. A former BBC presenter, Zina’s experimental video installations, documentaries, photography and films take an interesting stance in the scope of young contemporary African artists.
In 2013, Zina moved back to the Niger Delta in Nigeria to make a body of work that aimed to tell new stories about the region through contemporary art, food projects, and her own contemporary art gallery called Boys’ Quarters Project Space which is based in the city of Port Harcourt. Zina’s work has been shown in museums all over the world including Seattle Art Museum, The Fowler Museum, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Stevenson Gallery, Goodman Gallery, Guggenheim Bilbao, Nikolaj Kunsthal, Tate Britain and many others.
Shuttling between Brooklyn and the Niger Delta, Zina is currently set to show her work based on her Niger Delta residency at Brooklyn Museum in April, the Serpentine Gallery programming in May, and also at Arles Photo festival this summer. Her Port Harcourt Gallery, Boys’ Quarters Project Space, moves to London for the summer where they take over the Tiwani Gallery for one month.
“An innovator’s life – especially that of a woman’s – is often a lot more tedious and thankless than the outcomes may suggest. You have to be prepared to sacrifice comfort, stability and relationships to see an idea through to the end. You have to love what you do and see the bigger picture.”
32.
Boniface Mwangi
Photographer/Artist/Activist, Kenya
Mwangi’s unbridled passion for social justice and change led him to establish the first-of-its-kind ‘artivism’ hub called Pawa254 in 2011, a platform which “empowers young professionals and disadvantaged youth to effect social change through new innovative projects.”
He is currently working on ‘Boom Twaff. Boom Twaff, a book which documents his work from 2005 to 2015 and summarises his journey into photography.
33.
Oluseun Onigbinde
Budgit, Nigeria
BudgIT uses SMS, infographics, interactive applications and games, amongst other tools, to bring transparency and accountability to civil society while aiming for a more socially and economically evolved Nigeria. According to Oluseun, BudgIT simply aims to provide budget access, which both he and his team believe is the key to civic engagement and institutional reform.
Oluseun is presently working on international partnership to advance BudgIT’s vision. The Africa Transparency Initiative, a Pan-African initiative, USAID, Ford Foundation, and the Knight Foundation are some of the partners that the company has managed to make progress with over time. Additionally, BudgIT has developed tools such as ‘Tracka’ and ‘Fitila’ to monitor local community projects.
The idea is that rather than having reports just being entirely narrative, we want them to be backed by data. We don’t want 1000-word opinion pieces not backed with data guiding the thoughts.BudgIT currently employs 22 people and has future plans to build “sustainable cities” that are data-driven. To do this, Oluseun is ready to “pull the old order down and rebuild a new experience for stakeholders” while strengthening access to citizens in digital and offline communities.
“We want to publicise finance data in the hands of citizens, raising their ability to ask questions and demand service delivery. But we don’t want to do this with heavy dependence on donor funding, so we want to ensure that we fully establish a thriving business segment that focuses on private clients and development agencies in areas of data science, visualization and civic technology.”
34.
Dr. Chrystelle Wedi and Dr. Kopano Matlwa Mabaso
The Ona Mtoko Wako Initiative, DRC/South Africa
The aforementioned exercises are aimed at drastically reducing the numbers of preventable deaths in mothers caused by complications such as pregnancy-related anaemia, hypertension, HIV and malaria. At the screenings, the phone numbers of these ‘high risk women’ would be collected in order to stay in touch and connect them to healthcare facilities in their area.
This thoughtful initiative won the first ever Aspen Idea Award in July last year with a cash prize of $25,000 to bring the idea to life. Dr. Mabaso is an award-winning author, a pioneer of the World Economic Forum Global Shaper – Johannesburg Hub and a 2015 Fellow of both Tutu and Aspen New Voices.
Dr. Wedi is currently the Secretary General of Vandelo NGO and co-managing partner of Watoto Hospital & Karibuni Hospital, based in the DRC, as well as a 2016 Aspen New Voices Fellow.
“I am passionate about issues affecting the African continent especially those relating to socio-economic, public health and gender inequalities. I hope to play a significant role in improving quality and accessibility of healthcare for women and children in Africa and plan to coordinate research which can be translated into effective and efficient health policy in African states.”
35.
Meschac Gaba
Artist/Museum for contemporary art, Benin
‘I collaborate with craft.’Beninese artist, Meschac Gaba, disrupted the international art scene with a conceptual five-year-long, 12-part project entitled The Museum of Contemporary African Art which commenced in 1997, following his relocation to Amsterdam to further his studies. Gaba’s nomadic museum, which explores globalisation, consumerism and the ‘Western museum’ (just as his other artistic endeavours do), fuses art with daily life and serves as a contemporary biography of the artist himself.
Since his emergence, Gaba and his gallery have received global attention which led the high profile London art institution, Tate Modern, to purchase most of his work. However, Gaba still holds on to the Library room in his ‘museum’ with plans to keep it in his hometown in Cotonou, where he currently resides.
36.
Dr. Thumbi Mwangi
Livestock Systems, Kenya
A trained veterinarian and member of the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), Dr. Mwangi carried out a study which tracked 1,500 households and their livestock in Kenya in March 2015, and has since been documented in an open journal Plos One.
37.
Priscilla Hazel, Cassandra Sarfo, Esther Olatunde
Tress- Beauty app, Ghana/Nigeria
Hazel, Sarfo and Olatunde met at the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology in Accra, Ghana and instantly connected based on their shared frustrations with their hair and options available to them. Last month at the Lagos Social Media Week, the three friends launched Tress amidst rave reviews.
For Genevieve, making The Road to Yesterday was exactly the sort of unexpected, challenge filled experience that has helped to shape her career and her person. “I made this film because I realize people grow and move on. Things change in their life, but they don’t expect things to change in yours. People don’t expect that you are human because you are a superstar. In other words, you can’t grow, learn, and make mistakes. They don’t expect those normal things from you. You are expected to know it all because you are famous,” she told me.
Despite, or perhaps because of the mistakes and challenges, as a test case for the newly conceived TEN, The Road to Yesterday caused quite a stir. At the end of the AFRIFF screening, the audience stood to applaud the cast and crew. As they exited some viewers murmured that this was indeed a game changer. In wide release, The Road to Yesterday received generally positive if somewhat critical reviews but it is unclear whether or not the film was a box office success. For Genevieve, however, the point was not to make money but to forge a new path for herself as an actor, producer and media entrepreneur while also taking the industry in a new direction. The success of the production in this regard has led industry behemoths like DSTV and Africa Magic to take note and express serious interest in the projects TEN and Genevieve are currently developing. Chinny told me that she and Genevieve felt “like we’re making a difference with TEN. We get to work with a lot of young talent—even old talent that has not been given the opportunity. We want to respect everybody that can contribute something to Nollywood, so that just allowed us to do this kind of thing, to open up TEN to bring that on. We have a slate of projects that I’m excited about now… and people are going to get work, and if this our own way of contributing to the economy, then why not?”
It has been a long journey for Genevieve, a nearly twenty-year career that has required her to develop a Nigerian movie star aesthetic and build a path where no one has walked. “Entertainment is new in this country. It was new when I started. The celebrity lifestyle—obviously, there was no blueprint to how things worked,” Genevieve told me during our last conversation at her Ikoyi residence. When I asked her earlier about her role models she said, “I didn’t set out trying to be the next somebody, to be like this person. I just set out to do something that I didn’t understand, but something my heart wanted, something that comes out from within, and I just wanted to be given the chance to let it out and express myself.” Genevieve’s commitment to individuality drives her understanding of her place as a cultural icon and economic force in the Nigerian creative space. “I am me, but I am also conscious of the fact that am being watched. I have a responsibility not just to myself but to young people,” she told me. “I didn’t set out to be anybody’s role model but you grow up, you grow into yourself and become aware of how much impact you can have on the lives of other people. I don’t take it for granted and I believe in setting an example. That’s all I’m trying to do. I’m not saying I’m a saint or I’m going to be perfect. But I’ve learned that acknowledging my imperfections and my mistakes has enabled me to become wiser and smarter in the choices I make in my life. For me it’s all about being true to yourself. When you do that you will never be a ‘wanna be’, you will be who you want to be.”
CEO Priscilla Hazel agrees that it can get awkward for women to approach strangers and inquire about their hairstyle and this is a barrier that the application is helping women overcome.
‘For us at Tress, after identifying the challenge that we faced we wanted to find an easier and convenient way to solve the challenge of finding details of amazing hairstyles we constantly see online.’Tress is available for download on the Google Play Store with more versions to come. The founders have disclosed plans to expand into e-commerce, as well as make Tress active on various media platforms by partnering with “likeminded organisations and individuals”.
“We envision that in the near future, Tress will be the go-to app for black women looking to find hair inspiration, hair-stylists and high quality hair products. We believe that Tress will continue to evolve and grow into a multi-faceted global brand.”
38.
Ozoz Sokoh
Kitchen Butterfly- Innovation in cuisine, Nigeria
Formerly an Exploration Geologist, Sokoh, who has worked in the oil and gas industry, began her affair with food and Nigerian cuisines while living and working in The Netherlands where she became more aware of Nigerian food and developed a deeper appreciation for Nigerian ingredients and techniques.
‘Whether with geology or food, I use the same skills – curiosity, data gathering & observation of the facts, synthesis and concept selection, experimentation and documentation. I’m an explorer, through and through.’Ozoz, who would rather “shop for veg than shoes,” never restricts herself to the provisions of a recipe and loves to create colourful and pretty dishes. Her successful gustatory experiments involve using ‘unusual’ foods, fruits, and vegetables such as sugarcane and agbalumo to create never-before-seen-nor-imagined cuisines and drinks.
The ‘Traveller by Plate’ sees the world through food, which for her is “for more than eating.” One of her dreams include going to a Nigerian restaurant in Paris and stunning and interesting people with Nigerian innovative culinary skills.
‘In future, I would like to establish a Culinary Institute focused on the entire value chain – from agriculture to the table, finish writing my first cookbook and host a TV show.’Kitchen Butterfly is on a mission to create awareness of Nigerian food, at home and abroad. Ozoz calls this ‘The New Nigerian Kitchen’ – redefining Nigerian cuisine to showcase the colours, flavours and textures.
39.
Yahaya Ahmed
Development Association for Renewable Energy (DARE)- Architecture/Eco friendly homes, Nigeria
DARE CEO, Engr. Yahaya Ahmed, co-founded the Kaduna-based non-governmental organisation, which seeks to promote the understanding and use of renewable energy resources as well as promote clean indoor air through energy autonomous plastic bottle houses and other environmental projects. The houses are fitted with energy saving stoves with little or no emissions which mitigate desertification and climate change, urine filtration fertilization systems and purification tanks.
Yahaya Ahmed’s environmental projects seek to aid Nigeria’s issues with deforestation and pollution, in addition to other forms of environmental degradation. The energy efficient kitchen stoves were recently made available for purchase in Kaduna and plans are in the works for nationwide availability.
DARE currently trains young people in Kaduna to assemble the stoves in order for them to become future entrepreneurs. Additionally, the organisation is training local masons in the bottle building technique with the help of Andres Froesse, the founder of Eco-Tec Soluciones Ambientales.
40.
Igoni Barett
Author, Nigeria
In his most recent piece of work, Blackass, which is also his first novel, the author demonstrates his astuteness around unearthing critical and complex debates surrounding race in Nigeria, a topic largely suppressed in mainstream conversations.
Born and educated in Nigeria, Igoni’s widespread acclaim was cemented with Love is a Power, or Something Like That, a collection of short stories published in 2013, which explore contemporary life in Port Harcourt. Igoni is also lauded for how he uses local dialect, without translation, further emphasising that he is more focused on the craft of language, than explaining things for a western audience.
Blackass, was inspired by Igoni’s desire to spark a conversation on how Nigerians view race following the incident in Ferguson in the United States, and the conversation around African American perceptions and fantasies of life in contemporary Africa.
41.
Zim Ugochukwu
Noire - Travel App, Nigeria
Born in the United States to Nigerian parents, Zim worked as a Biologist and community organiser (she was among the organisers of the Obama campaign in 2008) before her love for travel led her to establish Travel Noire in 2013. In less than three years, her establishment has become the go-to guide for young black people who want to travel around the world.
‘It’s challenging but rewarding. As an innovator, you need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.’Travel Noire presently employs seven people who “live wherever they want, are productive and very happy.” The brand offers two major products at the moment; the Travel Noire Experiences, which curates a group travel experience, and the community based product.
According to Zim, the experience is about connecting with the local environment, more than mere sightseeing. The TN experience package is available in Italy for now but will include six to seven other locations by summer this year. Next year, Travel Noire plans launch another product to teach people how to work while on vacation, to encourage people to travel more. Zim believes that “you can be in Fiji or Darfur and still have your ‘nine to five’.”
On November 13, 2015 Genevieve Nnaji, the Nigerian actress who some have called the face of Nollywood, premiered her latest movie, The Road to Yesterday, at the close of the Africa
International Film Festival (AFRIFF). The event took place at the Genesis Deluxe Cinemas inside The Palms, a shopping mall in the upscale Lekki Neighborhood of Lagos. It was a gathering of Nigeria’s most influential film and television personalities who mingled with an onslaught of unknown actors, actresses, and filmmakers hoping to break into the increasingly glamorous and lucrative Nollywood, the world’s third largest film industry. I tried to navigate my way through the crowd of people towards the interview stations along the red carpet, but there was almost no room between the women in long dresses and men in crisp suits. If Hollywood is a well structured machine with actors systematically tiered by A, B, C list categories according to their earning power, popularity and ultimate cultural significance, then its African cousin Nollywood, is an altogether more chaotic but egalitarian affair where everyone is welcome, but you must hustle or shout for attention in an improvised industry that is remaking and redefining itself as quickly as the country that birthed it. This frenetic creativity combined with the Nigerian love of the hustle made for a boisterous environment in which conversations were shouted over the Naija-pop playing through the overhead loudspeakers. I could feel the room’s vibrational energy. An American friend of mine in town to research Nollywood remarked that this was the most fun she had ever had going to the movies.
International Film Festival (AFRIFF). The event took place at the Genesis Deluxe Cinemas inside The Palms, a shopping mall in the upscale Lekki Neighborhood of Lagos. It was a gathering of Nigeria’s most influential film and television personalities who mingled with an onslaught of unknown actors, actresses, and filmmakers hoping to break into the increasingly glamorous and lucrative Nollywood, the world’s third largest film industry. I tried to navigate my way through the crowd of people towards the interview stations along the red carpet, but there was almost no room between the women in long dresses and men in crisp suits. If Hollywood is a well structured machine with actors systematically tiered by A, B, C list categories according to their earning power, popularity and ultimate cultural significance, then its African cousin Nollywood, is an altogether more chaotic but egalitarian affair where everyone is welcome, but you must hustle or shout for attention in an improvised industry that is remaking and redefining itself as quickly as the country that birthed it. This frenetic creativity combined with the Nigerian love of the hustle made for a boisterous environment in which conversations were shouted over the Naija-pop playing through the overhead loudspeakers. I could feel the room’s vibrational energy. An American friend of mine in town to research Nollywood remarked that this was the most fun she had ever had going to the movies.
Credit:VentureAfrica.
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