New game changers in African technology won what amounts to attention gold when Forbes Africa published its annual list of 30 Africans under 30.
Nigerians dominate the 30 Africans under 30 in technology list. A third of the people chosen are from the West African country.
These are the 10 Nigerians named in the list of Forbes magazine’s 30 under 30 Africans in tech.
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Evans Akanna is the founder and CEO of creative and digital platform Cregital. The company designs and builds websites and platforms for African startups and corporates. In 2018, he founded tech platform Farmkart, which enables people to become involved in agriculture by investing in fish farming. At the 2018 Nigeria Technology Awards he was recognized as the Tech Young Achiever of the Year, according to Face2FaceAfrica.
Trained lawyer Fred Ayetayo was attracted to the digital space and decided to found Fresible in 2012. The company provides services such as website development, software development, digital marketing, and events management. Fresible has trained more than 60 individuals in entrepreneurship, digital marketing, and web development. In August 2018, the company launched Dlaw.ng, a web application that uses artificial intelligence to provide legal services to small businesses in Nigeria, according to LinkedIn.
Damilola Olokesusi is the 29-year-old co-founder and CEO of Shuttlers Logistics Company, a Lagos-based startup that uses web and mobile app tech to enable users to book trips along fixed routes at 60-80 percent less than ride-hailing services. Olokesusi and her co-founder used their savings to start the company after her sister was robbed on her way to work by armed men disguised as public bus drivers, Forbes reports.
Josh Okpata, 27 and Tochukwu Mbanugo, 29, are the co-founders behind successful startup Eazyhire, which is essentially a digital peer-to-peer sharing platform that enables individuals and businesses to rent items. The business has processed over 60,000 transactions and is projected to get to 100,000 by the end of 2019, earning these two entrepreneurs recognition by Forbes as game-changing Africans in tech. Eazyhire was awarded the Nigerian Technology Startup of 2016 accolade by the Nigerian Internet Registration Association, according to Techpoint.
Twenty-nine-year-old Chinedu Azodoh is the co-founder and chief growth officer for Max.ng, a Nigerian motorcycle transportation and delivery app operating across Nigeria. Azodoh and his co-founder, Adetayo Bamiro, came up with the idea for the company as part of an assignment while studying at MIT Sloan School, in Massachusetts. Max.ng recently raised $7 million to expand into Ghana and Ivory Coast, according to a press release.
Muhammad Salisu Abdullahi is the 28-year-old Nigerian co-founder and managing director of eTrash2Cash, the social enterprise that uses a tech-enabled platform to exchange waste for money. The waste is then sorted, processed and recycled into products such as organic compost from food wastes, raw material pellets from plastic wastes, and tissue paper from paper waste, according to TheGuardian.
Silas Adekunle is the 26-year-old co-founder and CEO of Reach Robotics, a robotics firm that created the world’s first augmented reality gaming robot in 2017. That accomplishment led to the company securing $7.5 million in investments, according to Techcrunch. Passionate about education, Adekunle recently launched a robotics and engineering pilot program in Nigeria and plans to expand it to other African countries.
All under the age of 30, PiggyVest co-founders Joshua Chibueze, Somto Ifezue, and Odunayo Eweniyi made this Forbes list of Africans in tech. The three entrepreneurs met at Covenant University in Nigeria before working together on a digital job site called pushcv.com in 2014. In 2016 they founded PiggyVest, a fintech platform for online savings and investing that claims to have helped more than 230,000 African Millenials save more than $15 million, according to BlackEnterprise.
Twenty-nine-year-old Uka Eje is the CEO of Thrive Agric, an agritech company that works with smallholder farmers in Nigeria to give them access to finance. They have been able to fund over 15,000 farmers across Nigeria thus far. The startup previously took part in Google’s Launchpad Accelerator Africa program and in March was announced as one of the startups that will be part of Silicon Valley incubator Y Combinator‘s 2019 winter batch along with 22 other companies, according to Techhawk.
Chika Madubuko is the co-founder and CEO of Greymate Care, a digital platform that connects patients that need 24-hour care to an insured and professional caregiver. She launched the business in 2016 after struggling to find a well-trained and competent caregiver through available means. Madubuko is now considering expansion into Kenya and South Africa. The startup CEO was a finalist in the She Leads Africa Accelerator 2017 program.
