Recently, the World Economic Forum honoured 199 young leaders from 70 countries for their professional accomplishments and commitment to society.

Among the 70, six were Nigerians and according to a report the Young Global Leaders (YGL) Class of 2013 is made up of honourees representing all sectors of society. 50 percent was taken from business while the remaining 50 percent was shared around arts and culture, academia, civil society, government, media and non-profits; 42 percent are women.

Here is a brief profile of the six Nigerians; Ndubuisi Ekekwe, Amy Jadesimi, Alex Okosi, Ola Orekunrin, Cobhams Asuquo and Tara Fela-Durotoye that made the list.


Cobhams Asuquo, Founder and CEO CAMP (Nigeria)

Cobhams Emanuel Asuquo is a Nigerian song writer/music producer per excellence who started his professional training as a lawyer, but later branched into music full-time. Today, he is known for producing some of the finest artistes in Nigeria. Noteworthy among these artistes is the Nigerian soul-singing sensation, Asa, whose 2007 debut album became an international hit. In addition to producing the album, Cobhams wrote and co-wrote several of its hits songs. In 2005, Cobhams signed on to Sony ATV London as a songwriter. Today, he is CEO/ Head of Productions of CAMP (Cobhams Asuquo Music Productions), an all-encompassing entertainment company that discovers, nurtures and exposes great talents. Cobhams has won multiple local and international awards for his creative and entrepreneurial contributions to the Nigerian music industry.


Alex Okosi, Senior Vice-President and Managing Director Viacom International Media Networks Africa (formerly MTV Networks Africa) (South Africa)

Nigerian-born, US-educated media executive Alex Okosi is the senior vice president and Managing Director of MTV Networks Africa. He championed the MTV’s move to set up MTV Base in Africa in February 2005, at a period when many didn’t believe there was opportunity on the African continent.

He has also spearheaded the launch of other localized Viacom brands in Africa encompassing Nickelodeon and Comedy Central. Okosi’s mission in Africa, has always been to develop content and experiences for audiences that not only entertains and showcases the best of African music and entertainment; but also serves to socially empower audiences in Africa and around the world. Currently, he is responsible for managing the growth and development of the Viacom International Media Networks Africa business – a multichannel portfolio that reaches over 100 million viewers and includes MTV, MTV base, Nickelodeon, VH1, BET International and Comedy Central. Okosi is the creative force behind the MTV Africa Music Awards, a high-profile event that has helped talented African artists raise their international profile and status.


Tara Fela-Durotoye, Founder and Chief Executive Officer House of Tara International (Nigeria)

Tara Fela-Durotoye is a leading Nigerian makeup artist and lawyer. A pioneer in the bridal makeup profession in Nigeria, and wife to prolific Business Strategist and Corporate Activator, Fela Durotoye, Tara launched the first bridal directory in 1999, set up international standard makeup studio, and established the first makeup school in Nigeria.

She is the founder and current CEO of House of Tara International.

In 2007, She was awarded the Africa SMME Award and the Entrepreneur award in South Africa

Ndubuisi Ekekwe, Founder and Chairman First Atlantic Semiconductors and Microelectronics Nigeria

Ekekwe has authored four books and holds a U.S. patent. A regular contributor to Harvard Business Review, he founded First Atlantic Semiconductors & Microelectronics – West Africa’s leading embedded systems company with design services partnerships with Altera and Microchip. Dr. Ekekwe, an MBA graduate, was formerly a Banking Executive with Diamond Bank Lagos and has spoken in leading conferences on technology, entrepreneurship and Africa.

He’s also the founder of African Institution of Technology (AFRIT), an institution.


Amy Jadesimi, Managing director LADOL (Nigeria)

Dr. Jadesimi received her first degree from Oxford University, where she earned a BA in Physiological Sciences. She then attended Oxford University Medical School, from which she graduated as a medical doctor (MD).

 After Oxford, Dr. Jadesimi joined Goldman Sachs International in London as part of the Investment Banking Division, specializing in corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions. She then attended Stanford Business School, from which she earned her MBA in Business Administration. While at Stanford, Amy completed an internship with Brait Private Equity in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she worked as a transaction executive in Private Equity. 

After graduating from business school Amy moved to Nigeria where she set up a financial consultancy firm before joining the Management Team of LiLe as Managing Director.


Ola Orekunrin, Founder The Flying Doctors (Nigeria)

Doctor Ola Orekunrin is the founder of West Africa’s first emergency air ambulance service, The Flying Doctors. Raised in the United Kingdom by foster parents, Dr Orekunrin became widely known for becoming England’s youngest doctor at age 21. In a tragic loss, one of her younger sisters died from a sickle cell anaemia crisis. Ola knew that her sister’s death could have been prevented if there had been adequate emergency care and an air ambulance, so setting out to reduce the numbers that die in the same manner, she started The Flying Doctors. Despite the enormous challenge of gathering both government and private support, overcoming rejections and raising funds, Ola has established a business of great social impact. She is the recipient of several awards and honours.

Full list http://www3.weforum.org/docs/YGL13/WEF_YGL13_SSA_Honourees.pdf

Wao!
Very nice seeing nigerians representing and flying the flag of the nation.

Great achievement by Great young Nigerians. ..by the way last time I checked most of these guys are self employed , even the blind producer is among them.

That is kind of news we want to hear not when JTF kill only 20 Boko boys instead of killing all of them and that thing they believe in

I know that our oga patapata at the top will be proud of you people.....because if he's proud of you people,that all.

Wow great people indeed!! So amazing non of them have big stomach like an ordinary greedy rich nigerians. looking healthy and happy . Im really happy for that flying ambulance doctor, thumbs up for that.

These are great young Nigerians who refuse to look at anything called obstacle.
Weldone brothers and sisters.
We the young ones are the people that will change Nigeria for better. Represent us well where the old ones had failed.
Bravo.

chingyjant: I do tell anybody that cares to listen If you are black and you are not a Nigerian then you don't know what you are missing.Indeed Nigeria is blessed.Bad Leaders can't hold us back

Nope you get it wrong! Worst thing has also happen to nigerians than good. Go figure!

WoW!!! This is impressive! See young minds achieving great feats.

On a lighter mood, I love that girl's name, "Orekunrin"

this is great news to the ears, mind, body and soul.....makes u proud to be a Nigerian once more

gen2briz: I know that our oga patapata at the top will be proud of you people.....because if he's proud of you people,that all.

Please stop this 'oga at the top' thing jare, I am even feeling for the man and his family, if we all think it is his fault, we are wrong, it is the system that is faulty, please tell me what will happen if the foundation/system isn't good. Please stop it.

While Nigerians are doing the nation proud, our President and his corrupt team are busy tarnishing the image of this country by granting presidential pardon to convicts. smh

Naija rock! Out of the woes of the govt, Nigerians are still keeping it real in almost every sphere of live. Shame unto those that put her name into disrepute!

kudos to these nigerians,unlike some useless ones n nairaland,fond of tribalizing issues and are mostly disgrace to dis country

Didn't know Ola Orekunrin was female before now even though i knew a little about her works.

well done guys!

Great news more to come

Ndubuisi Ekekwe is the man!!!!!!!!!!!!
That guy got vision, He's presently trying to build up a university in his home town and I believe He will.


A True Brain Box.

Ndubuisi Ekekwe is undoubtedly a man that has carved a niche for himself in the world of electronic development, though he has a soaring popularity in United States, few knew about this genius in this part of the world. In this interview with SADIQ ABDULLATEEF, he lays it bare:

Who is Ndubuisi Ekekwe?
Ndubuisi Ekekwe was born in Ovim, Abia state. He attended Secondary Technical School, Ovim where he passed the SSCE/WASC with 8 distinctions including A2 in Further Mathematics and set his school all-time best result in that examination. Ndubuisi was so gifted that while in SS1, he self-prepared himself for none-science subjects and passed them with distinctions in GCE. He continued in school because of his passion for sciences. He obtained bachelor in engineering degree from Federal University of Technology, Owerri as the best student in the department of electrical & computer engineering with specialization in electronics/computer engineering in 1998.

[size=15pt]He holds four masters degrees: MBA (University of Calabar), MTech (Federal University of Technology, Akure), Ms (Tuskegee University, USA), MSE (Johns Hopkins University, USA) and two doctorates in management from St. Clements University and Electrical & Computer Engineering specializing in microelectronics & medical robotics engineering, at the Johns Hopkins University, USA in March 2009. His research involves making integrated circuits with applications on alternative energies, medical robotics, biomedical systems and neuromorphics-an area that involves creating artificial human organs like retinas, cochlea and brain.

Ndubuisi began his doctorate in the Johns Hopkins University, USA after completing his Ms at Tuskegee University, USA with a CGPA of 4/4 in electrical engineering. That academic brilliance gave him the prestigious United States ERC/National Science Foundation and Johns Hopkins University fellowships. During his masters, he received the United States EMCWA scholarship and worked on the NASA’s Jet Propulsion project that focused on distribution of high frequency in the space environment. He has received many awards including the United Kingdom Congress on Computer Assisted Surgery and nomination for the Johns Hopkins Institutions Diversity Recognition Award. In June 2007, the Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering awarded him the SAMSTAG fellowship for ‘outstanding performance by a graduate student’.

Ndubuisi is certified in many key technologies and has published many technical papers in leading journals and conferences. His working experiences include NNPC and Diamond Bank. He holds two pending patents on microelectronics and has consulted for universities, World Bank, and firms. He also holds visiting appointments in two African universities and presently the principal investigator of emerging Africa’s first microelectronics institute. He is attending the African Union congress in Kenya this March and will join a leading US semiconductor firm as a team shaping the future of computing.

Ndubuisi is the Founder/President of African Institution of Technology. He is selected for inclusion in the Marquis Who’s Who in America (2010 edition) and Strathmore’s Who’s Who Worldwide (2009). His first book, Nanotechnology and Microelectronics: Global Diffusion, Economics and Policy, by IGI Global, USA will be ready early next year.[/size]

What is www.afrit.org?
Afrit stands for African Institution of Technology. Our mission is to provide practical educational support, enable technology policies, and facilitate bottom-up creative technology diffusion in African economies. My vision on this organization is simply to provide support to tertiary institutions interested in introducing cutting edge programs in their curricula. We understand that many African schools do not have the human skills to properly educate their students on these areas. What we do is to work with these institutions to develop the courses, lab manuals and necessary experiments that will facilitate practical academic experiences for the students. We do not charge for our services; they are free and open to all institutions in Africa. We focus mainly on microelectronics, semiconductors, computing (hardware), and robotics. We also source for textbooks from Western publishers and donate to schools. These books are usually technical textbooks. We have members across Europe, Canada and USA.

Another important area of our work is provision of computer aided design (CAD) tools. CAD tools are software programs created to facilitate design and automation in science and engineering. They are very expensive to acquire and license and certainly beyond the reach of our schools. However, even in the United States, schools do not buy some of them from their vendors or manufacturers. The companies simply donate them as part of their strategies to ensure that students get used to their products. Afrit has written many of these companies and they are simply ready to help our schools. For the really cheap CAD, they give us the permission to use them in teaching. These are the activities of Afrit. When a school needs a CAD, we can help them get free license for some of them for their educational and research needs.

Afrit has also worked with foreign partners to enable us fabricate integrated circuits designed by students in Africa. For instance, if a student designs integrated circuits (or chips) for camera, brain interface, cell phone, calculator, etc, we have the capacities to fabricate those chips and send back to the student for testing. The goal is to help our students experience the complete design cycle: from design to testing.

What are the aims and objectives of www.afrit.org?
Our major objective is to help African nations, especially Nigeria, to transfer and diffuse cutting edge technologies like microelectronics and nanotechnology. We believe so much that the hope of Africa will be by creating knowledge and training armies of knowledge workers towards diversifying our mineral- or hydrocarbon-based economies. Based on this motivation, we work to create awareness on the need to focus on these technologies and not just information technology (IT). Many African governments have IT policy and no technology policy; in short across African many people think that IT is synonymous with technology. For us, we want to push the notion that IT, though a great technology, is not the only technology. Without microelectronics, there will be no IT as the computers must be designed before we can experience the IT. Fortunately, the wealth comes from microelectronics and IT design and not the consumption as we presently have in Nigeria. We consume IT as we do not create it. By consuming IT, we waste lots of resources that would have been saved if we can develop some of the IT infrastructures. Microelectronics is the bedrock to making routers, switches, computers , etc as it is the engine of modern commerce that continues to revolutionize all aspects of our lives. We have developed what we call Afrit-model to diffuse microelectronics in Africa.

To realize these goals, we focus on three constituents: governments, schools and small and medium enterprises (SME). We help schools improve their programs. For governments, we provide experience to help them develop policies on technology transfer for these technologies. For SME, we help them identify areas where they can contribute towards facilitating the diffusion of microelectronics. For instance, we note that the computer business center model was very successful in advancing IT in Nigeria. We can create a program that can help graduates to start programming microprocessors and FPGA instead of wasting time on computers composing 419 emails.

As we do these, we connect Nigerian students to scholarship opportunities; give our schools information on grants, provide collaboration linkages with foreign schools.

What are Afrit challenges and success?
Our major challenge is simply reaching our audience: schools, small and medium enterprises, and governments. For the schools, we have made attempts in the past to send CDs containing the CAD tools, but without our presence, we noticed that some of the schools were unable to properly use them. The challenge is having the time to train at least the teachers on the software as they apply to IC or chip design. For governments, Afrit is truly committed to assist them develop infrastructures like semiconductor institutes that will become the bedrock to diffuse this technology. Also, being students, it is natural that we do not have enough funding for travel we make. However, since our organization does not distribute hardware, rather, ideas, we try to cope. When we ask a firm to send us their tools to help schools educate, it does not cost us anything, except time. One area we would have made more impacts if we have money is buying development boards and donating to schools. Some of these boards cost less than $20 in US and can add values to education. The same goes with biomorphic robots, which go for $36 and can help students understand how to design systems that mimic nature and push human towards immortality.

We have had successes across the continent. We are working on projects with African Union, World Bank, Nigerian universities, and other African schools. I hold visiting appointments in some of these schools. We have attended conferences in Hungary, Canada, many cities in the US and have CAD licenses to train with. I will be going to one in Kenya next month organized by African Union. Our publication is also extensive. We are working on two books right now. One is focusing on how technology will be used to turn brain drain into brain gain. In other words, I do not need to live in Nigeria to make contributions in Nigeria. While in the US, I can continue to advance my skills and using the right mix of technology, can help my nation. Afrit is also working on a project that will offer the blueprint on how Telepresence can be deployed in Africa. Yes, having the capacity to teach at Bayero University from my house in the United States. We want to see that schools have these facilities for collaborations. We have helped universities in Nigeria prepared international grants to foreign agencies to meet the best standards. While it may not be wise to give names of schools, we have developed microelectronics curricula for many universities across Africa.

How do you intend to overcome those challenges?
Simply, by reaching schools, small businesses and governments and telling them what we can offer to them. That is why we appreciate this exposure Triumph newspaper is giving us. Thank you very much. We want to see relationships from schools in the Northern part of Nigeria. We are yet to have a project from this region. We missed an opportunity to work with one of the schools in the North few years ago. The period we planned to arrive, lecturers started strike and it was cancelled.

http://www.triumphnewspapers.com/ho1122009.html
http://afrit.org/si.aspx
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate, ng_ted_22.html
http://etienne.ece.jhu.edu/people/nekekwe/index.html
http://naijatechtalk./2009/02/20/how-to-develop-africas-infotech-policy-by-ndubuisi-ekekwe/

I have heard about that Ndubuisi ekwekwe at a seminar some time ago.
A Very brilliant mind.

Nobody from the North o ma a se o.

nice.

ijebabe: Ndubuisi Ekekwe, Founder and Chairman First Atlantic Semiconductors and Microelectronics Nigeria

Ekekwe has authored four books and holds a U.S. patent. A regular contributor to Harvard Business Review, he founded First Atlantic Semiconductors & Microelectronics – West Africa’s leading embedded systems company with design services partnerships with Altera and Microchip. Dr. Ekekwe, an MBA graduate, was formerly a Banking Executive with Diamond Bank Lagos and has spoken in leading conferences on technology, entrepreneurship and Africa.

He’s also the founder of African Institution of Technology (AFRIT), an institution.


Amy Jadesimi, Managing director LADOL (Nigeria)

Dr. Jadesimi received her first degree from Oxford University, where she earned a BA in Physiological Sciences. She then attended Oxford University Medical School, from which she graduated as a medical doctor (MD).

After Oxford, Dr. Jadesimi joined Goldman Sachs International in London as part of the Investment Banking Division, specializing in corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions. She then attended Stanford Business School, from which she earned her MBA in Business Administration. While at Stanford, Amy completed an internship with Brait Private Equity in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she worked as a transaction executive in Private Equity.

After graduating from business school Amy moved to Nigeria where she set up a financial consultancy firm before joining the Management Team of LiLe as Managing Director.


Ola Orekunrin, Founder The Flying Doctors (Nigeria)

Doctor Ola Orekunrin is the founder of West Africa’s first emergency air ambulance service, The Flying Doctors. Raised in the United Kingdom by foster parents, Dr Orekunrin became widely known for becoming England’s youngest doctor at age 21. In a tragic loss, one of her younger sisters died from a sickle cell anaemia crisis. Ola knew that her sister’s death could have been prevented if there had been adequate emergency care and an air ambulance, so setting out to reduce the numbers that die in the same manner, she started The Flying Doctors. Despite the enormous challenge of gathering both government and private support, overcoming rejections and raising funds, Ola has established a business of great social impact. She is the recipient of several awards and honours.

Full list http://www3.weforum.org/docs/YGL13/WEF_YGL13_SSA_Honourees.pdf

i wud be among these guys very soon! #hardwork

42% are women.
That is more than 35%!
I'v always said that women are administratively more cohorent.
I prefer in administration to men, because of thier innate nature of being humane.
By 2023, i pray it then be 57% for women, 43% for men. Our society will be better for it.

CONGRATULATIONS to all the awardees from Naija

Humanbeings self, see as everybody dey rejoice now together becox dis guys do beta tin if to say na bad tin dem do some people for don dey abuse one tribe. Tru tru suCcess get many hungry friends o!!!! I must do beta tin for my country hoha

See award and achievement, our own government na to award contractors, election riggers and plain thieves. Congrats guys jare.

Space keeped.

who are these people?

nitrogen:
Please stop this 'oga at the top' thing jare, I am even feeling for the man and his family, if we all think it is his fault, we are wrong, it is the system that is faulty, please tell me what will happen if the foundation/system isn't good. Please stop it.

Seconded! Especially, for the sake of the children, the humiliation, bullying just think about it. Let's give this man and his family a break, pls.


Op
I love the flying Doctors concept. It's such a beautiful idea..Bravo!!! to all of them for representing us well

I was almost becoming angry that the OP failed τ̅☺ mention that Ndubuisi Ekekwe was trained in FUTO NIGERIA until one of the posters posted a detailed biography of him.That guy set a record of the highest CGPA a student has graduated with from the Electrical/Electronics Engineering dept of FUTO and till date no one has broken that record.Talk of a First class material with a difference then this man is your right guy.Congrats bro and also to the rest of them.keep making the green flag fly high.GREEN-WHITE-GREEN I LOVE MY COUNTRY