14. Bassey Eyo, Nigerian – PayPorte Global Systems
Nigerian-born entrepreneur Bassey Eyo, is the founder of one of Nigeria’s most successful e-commerce companies, PayPorte Global Systems, with headquarters in Lagos, Nigeria. Launched on the 25th day of September, 2014, PayPorte has since thrived to ensure it caters to a wide demographic that ranges from the youths and to the young urban professionals, providing a wide variety of products including fashion and accessories, fabrics, furniture, home appliances, tech gadgets and more. The company was voted as ‘E-Commerce Company of the Year’ at the Central Bank of Nigeria Cashless Card Expo 2016. It boasts of being the face of Africa’s online market.
15. Audu Maikori (Chocolate City)
Born on 13th of August 1975, Audu Maikoro, a Nigerian lawyer, is the founder/CEO of Chocolate City Entertainment, and is well known in Nigeria as a former Idol series judge. He founded the record label in 2005, alongside Paul Okeugo and Yahaya Maikori. Generally regarded as one of the biggest and most successful urban record labels in Africa, Chocolate City Music operates as a subsidiary of Chocolate City Group, one of the biggest entertainment conglomerates in Africa.
The label is home to recording artistes such as M.I, Ice Prince, DJ Caise, Pryse, Nosa, Victoria Kimani, and Enzo, among others. Other artistes formerly signed to the label include Brymo and Jesse Jagz.
16. Linda Ikeji (Lindaikejisblogs.com)
The highest paid blogger in Nigeria, Linda Ikeji is a household name, synonymous to hot entertainment, celebrity, political and lifestyle gist.
Aged 36, Linda is a successful entertainment blogger, who has always had an interest in the media, which is evidenced in the vigour she brings to her content, despite the fact that they are mostly gossips. After graduation, Ikeji started blogging in 2006. She became an active blogger in 2007, using a blogger sub-domain and later obtained her custom domain www.lindaikejisblog.com. In August 2012, Forbes Africa dedicated itself to celebrating African women in that month’s issue. In that issue, Forbes profiled Africa’s 20 Most Prominent Women and the issue featured profiles on two young Nigerian women: Linda Ikeji, as well as Chibundu Onuzo. Linda Ikeji was the biggest Google Search trend in Nigeria for 2014. The name Linda Ikeji was the most searched item by users of Google in Nigeria
17. Ola Orekunrin (Flying Doctors)
27-year-old Ola Orekunrin is a medical doctor and the founder of Flying Doctors Nigeria Limited, the first ever air ambulance service provider in West Africa’s health care history. Following the death of her 12-year old younger sister, who she believed could have survived if she was moved fast enough to a hospital South Africa that had the capacity to attend to her condition, Ola, in 2010, came up with the air ambulance service to intervene in the event of such critical situations, setting up the first of its kind, not only in Nigeria, but also in West Africa.
18. Jason Njoku (iROKOtv)
Jason Njoku is the CEO/Founder of iROKO Partners, parent company of popular Nollywood movie streaming site, iROKO TV. Jason, to add, heads SPARK, a company focused on providing funding to Nigerian Internet start-ups. In 2012, Njoku, raised $8 million in venture capital from Tiger Global Management. Barely three months after, his company closed in on another round of $2 million funding from Swedish-based Kinnevik, with the aim of using the money to grow iROKO Partners’ operations in New York, London and Lagos, as well as to purchase more content for iROKOtv.
19. Kelvin Nyame, Rashad Seini and Kofi Amuasi, Ghanaians – Co-founders, MeQasa
MeQasa, one of Ghana’s leading online real estate classifieds businesses, was founded in 2013 by Ghanaian entrepreneurs, Kelvin Nyame, Rashad Seini and Kofi Amuasi, who are all graduates of the tech entrepreneurship training program at the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) based in Accra, Ghana. MeQasa provides a free service that helps brokers, landlords and other real estate industry professionals to conduct business efficiently online, while simplifying the search experience for prospective tenants and buyers. Last October, MeQasa secured a $500,000 investment from Frontier Digital Ventures, a global VC firm headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
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