Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Co-founded Andela and Flutterwave
Iyinoluwa Aboyeji made our list of tech personalities of 2019. He is an entrepreneur, serial Investor, creative thinker and co-founder of two successful African unicorns. He co-founded Flutterwave, Africa’s leading payment technology infrastructure and Andela, the largest organization for training and developing software engineers in Africa. In 2018, he retired as the CEO of Flutterwave to launch Street Capital, two years after retiring from Andela. Iyinoluwa recently launched Future Africa to annually support 20 founders with $50000 and to build a community of innovators that can deliver the future of Africa.
Jeremy Johnson, CEO Andela
Jeremy Johnson is the only non-African founder that made this list. We considered his bravery and ability to lead a team to build the first of its kind institution in Africa. Against all odds, Jeremy co-founded Andela, a high-quality training platform for aspiring software engineers that don’t charge tuition fees.
After training, Andela remotely hires them out to global tech companies and pays them salaries. It is also pertinent to note that Jeremy was able to withstand social media bashing when Andela changed their business focus and sacked over 400 junior software developers in 2019.
Paula Ingabire, Rwanda Minister of Technology
Paula Ingabire serves as the current Minister of ICT and Innovation in Rwanda. She was the Head of Kigali Innovation City Initiative and former Head of ICT at the Rwanda Development Board. She played a crucial role in championing the launch of Mara Phones, the first smartphones to be wholly-made in Africa. Her government is very supportive of the adoption of the fourth industrial revolution technologies in Rwanda.
Peter Njonjo, CEO and Co-founder Twiga Foods
Peter Njonjo co-founded Twiga Foods with Grant Brooke in 2014. The agritech platform connects a network of over 17000 farmers to 8000 vendors via its mobile app which uses M-Pesa mobile money as the payment gateway. His company has reduced post-harvest losses in Kenya from 30% to only 4% s and provided reliable markets for agricultural producers in Kenya. Twiga Foods recently raised $30 million from a funding round led by Goldman Sachs.
TechGist Africa celebrates these 19 tech personalities of 2019 for challenging the status quo and pushing beyond limits. It demonstrates that Africa is capable of building a wide range of global businesses that attract foreign direct investment and socially impact the world.
