The 2018 list of World’s Top 50 Women In Tech features serial entrepreneurs whose love for STEM has enabled them to build successful businesses, promote innovative ideas, and mentor the next generation of change agents.
This is the final list of the Forbes three-part series of the Top 50 Women in Tech and it features women with experience across multiple tech sectors.
The 2018 global list introduces 11 new faces from Kenya, Nigeria, New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, China, Israel, and the UAE, all of whom are influencing the world in their various areas of interest.
It has been a great year for Kenya and Nigeria as 3 women in the list hail from these countries: 1 from Kenya and 2 from Nigeria. The three women are Charity Wanjiku from Kenya, Funke Opeke and Amy Jadesimi who are both from Nigeria.
Meet the three women
Name: Charity Wanjiku
Age: 38
Residence: Kenya
Citizenship: Kenya
Education: Graduate, Babson College; Master of Architecture, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology
Charity Wanjiku is the COO and co-founder of Strauss Energy.
Wanjiku and her brother Tony Nyagah were inspired to cofound Strauss Energy by an abundance of sun and the fact that hydropower was often crippled by drought. In 2017, Tesla started taking orders in the U.S. and UK for its own solar tiles in 2017. However, the company’s patented solar tiles were already powering off-grid areas in rural Kenya by then.
Her background in architecture is helping her working towards a future with solar cells as an integrated part of the construction process.
Name: Funke Opeke
Age: 57
Residence: Nigeria
Citizenship: Nigeria
Education: Master of Science in Engineering, Columbia University
The next African who made the cut is Nigeria’s Funke Opeke who is the CEO and founder of Main One.
After 20 years working in U.S. telecoms, Funke Opeke returned to her native Nigeria and began correcting the country’s connectivity problems. The former Verizon executive joined public telecoms company NITEL and learned that satellites were just part of the problem.
Thanks to her engineering background, she was able to identify a solution in the ocean, raised $240 million in funding and laid 4,400 miles of fibre optic cable from Nigeria to Portugal. Big business quickly adopted this. Online banking, booking services, and retail websites helped build Nigeria economy. Nigeria’s Internet presence is now a growing space for international business opportunities. Opeke is often credited for this change.
Name: Amy Jadesimi
Age: 42
Residence: Lagos, Nigeria
Citizenship: Nigeria
Education: Associate in Arts/Science, Oxford University; Medical Doctor, Christ Church, Oxford University; Master of Business Administration, Stanford University
Another Nigerian is Amy Jadesimi, CEO of Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics Base (LADOL), one of West Africa’s largest logistics and engineering facility operating in a free trade zone.
LADOL is guided by UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) particularly with regard to job creation. The company is expanding service to sectors outside the oil industry and creating tens of thousands of jobs.
In addition to being an Oxford-trained medical doctor and working at Goldman Sachs, she also attended Stanford Graduate School of Business before working her way up the ladder at LADOL, a company founded by her father Oladipo Jadesimi in 2000.
She’s also served as an Archbishop Tutu Fellow, working to reduce maternal mortality. Jadesimi was named Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, this is just one among her many accolades.
To see the full list of Forbes’ top 50 women in tech 2018, click here.
Congratulations to the women! We look forward to seeing more movers and shakers from Africa come 2019!
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