Opeyemi Awoyemi, Ayodeji Adewunmi and Olalekan Olude, founders of jobs site Jobberman. Photograph: Jobberman Africa’s digital transformation would be nothing without the tens of thousands of people who have invested, and continue to invest, energy into propelling it forward.
They are the leading lights driving change in infrastructure, mobile connectivity, online activism, e-commerce and financial services. Some are opening up digital cultural spaces or working to bring in investment for tech startups.
As part of the Guardian’s focus on technology in Africa we’ve listed 10 individuals who’ve been pioneers in the transformation from Tanzania to Tunisia, with the three of sub-Saharan Africa’s big tech hitters – South Africa , Nigeria and Kenya – particularly well represented.
And in a bid to look forward we asked each of the 10 pioneers to predict the next development in Africa’s digital transformation and to each nominate an emerging talent to watch. Photograph: Jason Njoku The British-Nigerian entrepreneur founded iROKOtv which hosts the most extensive online catalogue of Nollywood content in the world. Nicknamed the Netflix of Africa , iROKOtv is one of the continent’s biggest internet TV providers and has raised over $35m in international investment. He says
Africa’s digital transformation is ahead of us. By my calculations, we haven’t even really started, we’re still building, we’re still scaling.
Everything is to play for – the majority of Africa’s potential digital population aren’t properly online yet, but it’s not going to be an easy ride. We need homegrown investors to get behind the tech sector and understand the opportunities that are under our noses. He nominates
Fikayo Ogundipe, co-founder of ToLet.com.ng which has completely reshaped Nigeria’s property market, starting with Lagos. Buying, selling and renting houses in the city isn’t for the faint-hearted but Fikayo and his team have painstakingly researched the market, pouring their findings […]
