Africa has gone beyond the ages when other continents dump ideas and innovations without any contribution from Africans.
The continent now holds unlimited opportunities for growth through technological innovations, especially from its teeming youths, who have developed interests in tech-related matters over the years.
This development has brought Africa to the fore and given it recognition globally for building innovative businesses and products that have contributed to humanity and grown economies.
From health, education, manufacturing, and agriculture to other sectors of the economy, African techpreneurs keep stepping up their games to explore and come up with innovations which address specific problems and transform the continent.
This write-up will look at some of the techpreneurs across the continent whose activities and innovations are making meaningful impacts on their communities and Africa as a whole.
Isaya Yunge
Isaya is a serial Tanzanian Techpreneur and founder of Somaapps Technologies. He created SomaApp- a mobile app that is changing Africa’s approach to scholarship offers and helping to get the best out of such opportunities.
The SomaApp was birthed to bring to the awareness of Africans the many scholarship opportunities that abound and how to get the best out of such.
Through the Soma App, Isaya helps to connect underprivileged African students to advanced level education by opening up new education funding resources to them and build
an ecosystem that bridges the financial and information gaps between Africans and educational institutions.
So far, over 2,000 students use the SomaApp daily and around 450 scholarships totalling more than $850,000 a year have been won by students in Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda.
In 2018, he was among the five Tanzanians who received the Queen’s Young Leader Award for his work in using a scholarship-matching mobile App (SomaApps) that helped more than 7000 young African people progress in their education.
Not relenting on that alone, Isaya Yunge is also the founder of Goodsam Technologies, where he co-founded Smart Kaya, Africa’s first hands-free smart speaker designed to fit anywhere around the home with a target of turning every African home into a smart one.
Bosun Tijani
Bosun Tijani is an innovation expert and researcher interested in knowledge application for economic and enterprise competitiveness.
He is the co-founder and CEO of Co-Creation Hub(CcHUB ), a pan-African innovation hub that provides a platform for innovators and creatives to solve social problems in Africa.
Through the centre, Bosun has given IT companies access to the resources they need to develop their ideas into long-lasting enterprises.
With locations in Nigeria, Kenya, and Rwanda, CcHUB is the largest innovation hub on the continent, running multiple programmes and initiatives and working alongside numerous African and international partners.
Bosun has over 15 years of experience across various global public and private corporations, including Pera Innovation Network (UK), Hewlett Packard (EMEA) and the International Trade Centre (UNCTAD/WTO) in Geneva, Switzerland.
Bosun’s efforts have been recognised locally and internationally, and he has been named one of the 100 most influential Africans by New Africa Magazine.
Leonida Mutuku
Leonida is an experienced data science enthusiast who delights in leading research projects and implementing data-driven applications.
With a Bachelor of Science degree in Actuarial Science from the University of Nairobi and a Master’s in Business Analytics and Big Data from IE Business School in Madrid, Spain, coupled with her experiences in data science, Leonida established Intelipro. This African company builds data platforms for financial and retail institutions to make data more accessible and valuable to businesses.
The tech company, currently based in Kenya, runs in Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda through the East Africa Famers Federation (EAFF) with targeted expectations of reaching more individuals and businesses in other African countries.
Leonida is also the project lead at Africa Open Data Network, a community of Africans, and friends of Africa, who believe in the continent’s development agenda and how open data can help make it a reality.
She was named one of Forbes Africa’s Top 30 under 30 in 2018.
Chijioke Dozie
Chijioke Dozie is the CEO and co-founder of a $15.8 million Venture Capital backed fintech company, Carbon Finance and Investments.
Chijioke holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from the University of East Anglia and a Master’s degree in risk management from the University of Reading.
He also obtained an MBA from Harvard Business School.
He worked with Zephyr Management LP in the United States and South Africa as an investment associate before moving to International Finance Corporation as an investment analyst responsible for sourcing investment opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa.
His company, Carbon, is a leading African Mobile-First Consumer Lending Business and a digital bank which empowers individuals with credit, simple payment solutions, high-yield investment opportunities, and easy-to-use tools for personal financial management.
Domiciled in Nigeria to become a pan- African digital bank, Carbon already has platforms in Ghana, South Africa and Kenya.
Rebecca Enonchong
Rebecca Enonchong is one of the most influential techpreneurs in sub-Saharan Africa.
Through her technology leadership of software pioneer Appstech, and the development of a pan-African ecosystem of angel investors, incubators and start-up support networks, she has made a significant contribution to the promotion of engineering innovation across the continent.
The Cameroon-born techpreneur is the brain behind the global provider of enterprise application solutions – AppsTech whose activities span 50 countries in Africa, Europe and North America.
The platform provides enterprise software, service, and support to local and international clients.
Rebecca is also the co-founder of the Cameroon Angels Network and vice-president of the African Business Angels Network.
She also serves as an advisor to several technology start-ups and sits on the United Nations Africa Digital Identity Advisory Board.
Enonchong was also a recipient of New African magazine’s most influential Africans in 2014, 2016 and 2017.
