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Congratulations to the 2020 Builders of Africa's Future Fellows!
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African Diaspora Network is awarding eleven Builders of Africa's Future (BAF) fellows at African Diaspora Investment Symposium 2020. Builders of Africa’s Future (BAF) is a program that celebrates innovation and impact in early stage African enterprise.
BAF serves to showcase and award entrepreneurs who are running early stage for-profit and not-for-profits that are addressing Africa’s unique needs through technology or differentiated business models. These unique needs are in health, education, energy, financial inclusion, gender inclusion, nutrition, commerce, industrial development, and other socioeconomic good.
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Tabitha Arenson Abimiku, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Virtouscore Ltd
Tabitha Arenson Abimiku is a microbiologist with over 7 years of leadership and management experience in program management, community advocacy and social intervention programs working in social empowerment focused non-profit organizations.She has a bachelor’s degree in microbiology, a master’s degree in Medical Microbiology and a PhD in Medical microbiology (in view). Tabitha is the founder and chief executive officer at Virtouscore Ltd where she manages all the business concerns of its subsidiary, VirtousPads, a company that produces reusable, eco-friendly sanitary pads and aims to provide affordable, healthy, biodegradable and sustainable sanitary pads to young girls in low-income communities.
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Kanyinsola Adepoju, Global Business Manager & Expansion, Flutterwave
Kanyinsola is the Global Business Manager of Expansion at Flutterwave, a global payments technology company building digital payments infrastructure, with a focus on the African market. Prior that that, she served as an analyst at Maze Analytics in Lagos, Nigeria, developing strategic solutions for clients to help improve competitive positioning in the market. She holds an MS in International and Development Economics from the University of San Francisco.
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Jabulani Dlamini, Founder and CEO, Sidingulwazi
An eco-warrior Jabulani Dlamini has been pioneering projects that cleans illegal dumping sites, converting them to communal vegetable gardens that provides food security and sustainable living within the community of my township Orange Farm, south of Johannesburg, South Africa. Among the projects is the food waste and organic waste collection that is converted to organic Bokashi compost which in turn is used at the communal gardens to grow crops.
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Genesis Ehimegbe, Co-founder and CFO, Coliba
Previously, Genesis worked as a business developer in a software company, and then as management consultant. Genesis has a strong will to help make Africa an eco-responsible and sustainable continent that could serve as an example in terms of innovation, social inclusion and perfect mastery of its waste.
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Mosoka P. Fallah, PhD, Acting Director General, National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL)
Dr. Mosoka P. Fallah completed his PhD in Immunology at the University of Kentucky. He subsequently studied Global Health, with a concentration in Infectious Disease Epidemiology, at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health. Upon graduation in 2013, he returned to Liberia to focus on maternal and child health in a country that was ravaged by civil war and that was trying to rebuild its health system. When the Ebola outbreak occurred, he leveraged his skills in epidemiology and program management to lead the Ebola response, launching an active case finding system that became a recognized model for epidemic control. For his work building community-level trust in the Ebola response, Dr. Fallah was named a Time Magazine Persons of the Year in 2014.
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Tendekayi Katsiga, Founder, Deaftronics
Tendekayi is an award winning leader who founded Deaftronics (Pty) Ltd, is a Biotechnology company established in 2009, that manufactures affordable solar powered hearing aids, made by hearing impaired people for people with a hearing loss; its first solar-powered hearing aid unit was called Solar Ear. Further improvements to the Solar Charger Kit have led to the team developing the first rechargeable hearing aid battery, which lasts for 2-3 years and can be used in 80% of hearing aids on the market today. He trains hearing impaired people in Electronics Assembly.
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Lou Louis Koboji, Founder/Director Kajo Keji Health Training Institute
Lou Louis Koboji believes that South Sudan’s health system will be greatly strengthened through educating health workers at KKHTI. Lou Louis Koboj was born in South Sudan and grew as a refugee in Uganda. In addition to being one of African Visionary Fellows in Segal Family Foundation, Lou has also completed the Perennial Fellowship, Unreasonable East Africa’s Fellowship, and the United Nation Alliance for Civilization Fellowship. Lou was awarded with the Segal Family Foundation raising star award 2019 in New Jersey City. Lou holds Bachelors of Biomedical Laboratory Technology of Makerere University Kampala and he is currently in his second year in pursuit of a Bachelors of Medicine and Bachelors of Surgery.
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Innocent Magambi, Executive Director -There Is Hope
A refugee from birth, Innocent spend the first 27 years of his life in five refugee camps in four Eastern and Southern Africa. Despite facing much hurt along his journey, he never allowed the adversity to define him or to determine his destiny. Instead he became a change agent for fellow refugees and the host community in Malawi. Against all odds, he founded There is Hope, an organisation that aims at mitigating the effects of long-term displacement among refugees and generational poverty among Malawians by providing access to education (secondary school sponsorship for girls, university bursaries and vocational training), job creation through social enterprise Kibebe, leadership development and advocacy for refugee rights.
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Joan Rukundo Nalubega, Founder, Uganics
Uganics is a Ugandan social business contributing to a malaria free world. Nalubega struggled with malaria growing up in a rural orphanage. After completing high school, she decided to turn her pain into an opportunity by fighting malaria. She has been featured on Al Jazeera, awarded Champions of Science Africa Innovation Challenge 2.0 2019, won the Anzisha Prize 2018 as 2nd Runner Up, recognized by Initiative Teilen (Germany) and TEF in 2017. She was a mentor and Keynote speaker for the Anzisha Prize 2019 and was a guest at the Africa Innovation Summit 2018.
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Madlala Nkanyiso, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Energy Efficiency (Pty) Ltd
Nkanyiso is an Energy Efficiency & Intelligent Lighting connoisseur with five years experience having worked alongside Government, Municipalities, Climate Change Adaptation & Mitigation Aficionados. He has been selected to Innovate Durban and is a participant of the prestigious Redbull Amaphiko Academy | 2019/20 | Redbull Amaphiko is a global programme that champions social entr epreneurs driving positive change in their corner of the world. Is part of the Durban Chemicals Cluster 2020 accelerator.
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Diana Wilson, Yielding Accomplished African Women
Diana Wilson is a vibrant, articulate, and highly successful 23-year-old social entrepreneur, marketing strategist at Google, activist and global speaker. She was recognized as the 'Next Black Female Mark Zuckerberg' via Face2Face Africa. She has gone viral for her achievements via MTV and LinkedIn. She is a published author, being featured in We Will Lead Africa. A book that complies the stories of 32 top African female leaders today. All the same, Diana Wilson started from humble beginnings. She is the product of a diligent single mother, prayer and a constructive community of Newark, NJ.
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"There is no mistaking the important role that the African Diaspora Network plays in connecting social entrepreneurs with impact investors to further Africa's development. ADIS2019 provided the perfect forum to knowledge-share and foster partnerships, and that is why I am consistently proud to support this event. I am honored to share my ten years of experience in Ghana, supporting social entrepreneurs who own schools that serve impoverished families. The annual ADIS events create a very special community united in a common goal and I am very excited to see where this leads." - Irene D. Pritzker, President and CEO, IDP Foundation, Inc.
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A Glimpse at ADIS2020: Session Highlights
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Diaspora Remittances and Sustainable Development Agenda 2030
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The World Bank estimates in 2018, Africans in the diaspora remitted $46USD billion. This figure reflects the magnitude by which Africans in the diaspora are participating in economic development of the continent. In addition, the figures reflecting levels of both education and economics show the latent potential of the African diaspora community for mobilizing greater human and capital assets in support of their home communities in Africa. In this session, our speakers will discuss how remittances from Africans in the Diaspora is contributing to several of the SDG’s, the role of technology to transform markets, and the regulatory environment from the sending countries and the Continent.
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Agriculture: Africa, the Breadbasket of the World
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According to an analysis by McKinsey & Company, Africa’s agricultural footprint amasses 23% of the sub-Saharan region’s GDP, with more than 60% of the population being smallholder farmers. However, the potential of agriculture has yet to be fully tapped. How do we increase productivity through crops and livestock? This session digs into opportunities for growth among various countries across the Continent, accounting for factors such as supply and demand, land expansion, competition, and the role of government, investors, and development partners.
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With the expected population boom anticipated to double by 2050, Africa must look to its youth to hone talent and skills for its next generation of leaders and workforce. Education is widely recognized as the great equalizer, and entrepreneurs and innovators are leveraging new means of expanding and enriching education in Africa. Explore the challenges that educational organizations are addressing and how digitization and revolutionizing curriculum have become key steps to unlocking African potential and excellence.
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Thank You to Our Sponsors
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Hugh Stuart Center Charitable Trust
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Terry & Carolyn Gannon Fund
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ADN Board Member Joshua Ghaim Launches New Venture Model
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African Diaspora Network is delighted to share the news of board member Joshua Ghaim, who has launched IGNITE Growth Brands, a new venture model that will disrupt the status quo of start-ups by equipping new and existing companies with the critical infrastructure for long-term growth. The model focuses on companies in the beauty and digital health industry and is led by Josh Ghaim, Ph.D. (co-Founder & Partner), Jeff B. Smith (co-Founder & Partner) and Marc Schorpion (co-Founder & Partner) and their seasoned leadership team. Congratulations, Josh!
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Visit our website
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