African tech innovators make use of social media to communicate with followers and fellow tech industry experts, making themselves heard in under 140 characters.
Twitter has become a popular short-message platform in which to connect with the masses, and African innovators, along with the wider audience on the continent, have adopted the social media platform via mobile and desktop.
From South Africa to Nigeria, those involved in the tech scene on the continent have gained many followers through their innovations and the goals they aim to achieve within their industry.
Tech innovators create jobs while finding solutions to modern African problems, and they deserve to be celebrated for the important role they play in society.
Here are 12 African tech innovators who are worth following on Twitter.
Sources: Twitter, VenturesAfrica, CNN.
Vinny Lingham is a South African internet entrepreneur who is the co-founder and CEO of Gyft, a mobile gift card company backed by Google Ventures. He has over 36,000 followers on Twitter, many of which watch him on the South African versions of Shark Tank and Dragon’s Den.
Rebecca Enonchong is a respected Cameroonian tech entrepreneur, as well as the founder and CEO of AppsTech, a global provider of enterprise application solutions. With over 60,000 followers on Twitter following her aptly named handle @africatechie, Enonchong posts often with her most favorite topics involving women in tech as well as tech in Africa.
With over 11,500 followers on Twitter, the Nigerian entrepreneur, film magnate and African startup investor founded iROKOtv, which gives millions of people all over the world the ability to view Nigerian television and film content via the internet.
The most famous tech innovator on this list, South African-born Elon Musk has over 9.36 million followers on the platform, thanks to successful tech business ventures that include PayPal, Tesla and SpaceEX.
Almost 90,000 followers choose to follow Sesan on Twitter, as the often active Nigerian executive director on Paradigm Initiative uses the platform to communicate with peers and followers while giving his opinion on tech issues.
He may not have many followers on Twitter, but the Somali tech entrepreneur is a major driving force in the Somalian tech scene, encouraging coding camps, incubators, and accelerator programs that aim to allow tech startups in Somalia to thrive.
Investor, entrepreneur and philanthropist Thakkar is followed by a whopping 1.07 million Twitter followers, and is very active online. He is the founder of Mara Group, a Pan-African conglomerate with interests in internet, telecom and communications, property, manufacturing and finance.
Alan Knott-Craig is a South African entrepreneur who is heavily involved in efforts to bring free WiFi to Africa. He is the founder of Project Isizwe as well as executive chairman of Hero Telecoms, Ever Africa, and Happimo NPC. With over 16,600 Twitter followers, he is very active on the platform.
Ruge was born in Uganda and grew up in Uganda, Kenya and the United States. He is the co-founder of Remit Uganda, a mobile money service in the East African country, as well as Hive Colab, a collaborative work space and innovation hub in Uganda. He tweets to an audience of over 15,000 followers.
Jamme is a Senegalese technologist and social entrepreneur with a passion for helping to empower fellow Africans, especially women and girls, through education, leadership, social entrepreneurship and economic development. The ‘tech soldier’ helped organize the Apps4Africa contest across West, Central, and Southern Africa.
The Executive Chairman and Founder of the Econet Group has over 137,000 followers on Twitter, and he has been an active member of the social media site since January 2012. Masiyiwa often comments on African business while publicizing news about his business interests.
South African venture capitalist and former First National Bank Chief Executive Jordaan is another of the African tech voices who uses Twitter as a tool to express his opinion on a variety of issues and interact with over 132,000 people who follow him on the social media network.