http://www.siliconafrica.com/most-powerful-it-guys-in-africa/


Most Powerful IT Guys In Africa
By: Mawuna Remarque KOUTONIN
Tuesday, December 13th, 2011 at 11:10 pm.

Only an estimated one percent of web and tech startups of Black CEOs and founders and it come as a shock that a much bigger part of the population is not included. However, with the growing popularity of smart phones and tablet computers, a new niche is opening for talented Africans and provides them a platform to show the world what they can do.

Mark Shuttleworth

Mark Shuttleworth is a South African and founder of Ubuntu. Shuttleworth founded Thawte in 1995 when he was just 22 years old. Thawte is a digital certificate and internet security firm which Shuttleworth later sold to VeriSign for more than five hundred million dollars and he used the proceeds to finance a venture capital firm for tech incubators. However, Mark Shuttleworth is famous for his Ubuntu operating system which his company distributed as an open source program for free.

Ubuntu is a well known Linux based OS available for desktop computers and servers worldwide. The aim of this precision engineered operating system is to provide a clean and user friendly operating system for customers including large scale enterprise operation.

Chike Maduegbuna

Recently, Chike Maduegbuna, the CEO of a new web startup Fans Connect Online and the brains behind the now popular Afrinolly App was named winner in G-Kenya conference sponsored by Google in the first Android Developers Challenge for Sub-Saharan Africa. Afrinolly is a Nigerian developed application who took the cash prize of $25,000 in category for Entertainment/Games/Media. The success of Afrinolly catapulted Chike Maduegbuna to fame and power especially in the IT industry. Today, Fans Connect Online, under the supervision of Maduegbuna is the leading digital marketing company in Africa not to mention its hand in social media and mobile app development.

Ory Okolloh

Another African who is making name in the IT industry in Africa is Ory Okolloh. She is Kenyan and a co-founder of Ushahidi. Okolloh is a Harvard trained lawyer, a blogger, and an activist who led the founding of Ushahidi. This is an open source crowd sourcing utility project that empowers citizens and eyewitnesses around the world to report violent incidents using mobile email, SMS, and other web platforms including Twitter. Ory Okolloh is now the Policy Manager for Google in Africa and is known as one of the most influential and powerful women in global IT.

Ndubuisi Ekekwe

Ndubuisi Ekekwe is an inventor who authored Adaptive Application-Specific Instrumentation and Control Microsystems and edited the Nanotechnology and Microelectronics: Global Diffusion, Economics and Policy which won the IGI Global 2010 Excellence in Technology Research for the Book of The Year Award.

Erik Hersman

Erik Hersman is technologist and a blogger who has been raised in Kenya and Sudan but now lives in Nairobi. He is also a co-founder of Ushahidi and the founder of AfriGadget.

Jonathan Gosier

Jonathan Gosier is both a designer and software developer who love data science. Gosier is also the co-founder of metaLayer.com. The website aims to enhance the way contents are managed and analyzed by atomizing and visualizing data.

Herman Chinery-Hesse

Herman Chinery-Hesse is a software engineer by profession. Herman also co-founded the SOFTtribe Limited nineteen years ago which has become among the leading software firms in West Africa.

Kwabena Boahen

Kwabena Boahen is a bioengineer from Ghana and is the chief investigator at the Brains in Silicon lab at Stanford. His current research is focused on creating a simulation platform the will enable the inner workings of the cortex to be replicated in detail.

Mo Ibrahim

Mo Ibrahim is a mobile communications tycoon and a Sudanese billionaire and the founder of Celtel. The Celtel has more than twenty four million mobile phone subscribers distributed in fourteen African countries before it was sold in 2005 for $3.4 billion.

Bright B. Simons

Simons is both a social entrepreneur and a technology innovator. He is also a development activist who is an Executive at IMANI which is an Accra based think tank. Simons is also the president of mPedigree Network and initiated a system that enables consumers to verify immediately whether a particular medicine is safe or not via free text messaging.

Mawuna R. Koutonin, is the founder of Goodbuzz, a social marketing platform with activities worldwide. He is a world peace activist who relentlessly works to empower people to express their full potential and pursue their dreams, regardless of their background.

Born in Togo (West Africa) in a small village 200km from the capital Lome, Koutonin was the first of his father 36 children to attend University and graduated with two Master degrees (Master in Philosophy and Master in Business Administration).

In 1993, when Koutonin was forced to walk ten miles a day to go to school, he discovered a formula that completely changed his life.

In 1994, he traded his basic food allowance to pay for his first class in computers while studying art and philosophy at university. With friends, he created one of the first Togo news website on the Internet in 1995.

Koutonin’s passion for the Internet coupled with his wish to make his father be proud of him gave birth to his company.

At a deepest level, the mission of his company is to preserve and advocate the belief that “We are on earth to serve each other”. And, he envisioned a future where his company’s tools make each individual on earth an active and generous sponsor of the success of others.

Koutonin’s ultimate dream is to open a world-class human potential development school in Africa in 2017. If you are interested in learning more about this venture or Koutonin’s other projects, you can reach him directly by emailing at mk@linkcrafter.com.

Kudos to them.

thats gud!

Nigeria deserves better

I guess Africa arrived late in the IT world but with our ingenuity you can never rule us out,i believe in the nearest future so much will be expected of Africa and now is the right time for we to key into the great IT revolution going on...it wont be a bad idea if government in various African countries can map out a Technological Zone where concentration of high tech industries will be located,weavers can be offered to such companies,including cheap land,adequate electricity,Tax weavers,security,low interest loans etc as for Nigeria we can also grant major weavers to companies like Zinox computers etc in otner to attract similar industries to our shores!....this is the idea behind Silicon Valley in USA located in a region in California,to the south of San Francisco.

Jelani Aliyu
Inventor & Auto Developer
Detroit, Michigan, United States.

Industry: Science & Tech.
Age: 50 years
Gender: Male

Creating a Breakthrough Auto Concept

Jelani Aliyu is the Nigerian born prodigy who designed the Chevrolet Volt, a state-of-the-art electric car, for General Motors. Aliyu began his career with General Motors in 1994 with a degree in automobile design received from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan. He was born in 1966 in Sokoto State in Nigeria. From a large family, Aliyu was the fifth of seven children born to the same parents, and has two more siblings from his father’s second marriage. Both of his parents are deceased and did not have the fortune of witnessing their fifth child rise to greatness with General Motors.
Jelani Aliyu attended the Federal Government College in Sokoto, Nigeria, graduated in 1983 and received an award for Best in Technical Drawing. He then studied design at two other colleges in Nigeria and received his Associate’s degree in Architecture from Birnin Kebbi Polytechnic in 1988, where he was recognized as the Best Student. In 1990, Aliyu moved to Detroit, Michigan to enroll at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit where he received his degree in automobile design in 1994 before beginning his career with the design staff of General Motors. He worked on the Buick Rendezvous and was the lead exterior designer of the Pontiac G6. He also worked on the Astra with General Motors’ Opel Division.
With his brilliant work on the design of the Chevrolet Volt, which was unveiled in 2007, Jelani Aliyu is considered by many to be the super star of the General Motors renaissance.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqx-xKGeDCA

I am proud that 2 Nigerian are amongst the most powerful IT people in the world!

That is really great news ..

Hold on a sec. Did you say in Africa? why is this even news

Next you going say two Nigerian are amongst most powerful in Abuja

Just two?

wow I saw three Ghanaians there, I'm happy.
Herman Chenery-Hesse,Bright Simons and Kwabena Boahene

And our boss who keep hiding posts and banning people will not make the list? do you know why?

He is not business minded, I'm not trying to be 'tribalistic' but believe me if it were to be an igbo man that owns Nairaland it would be competing with the best forums in the world!!

Tho I don't know how this things work but I feel seun is not doing much for his business

How many of us here can write a page biography of Mr osewa? lailai!!

see yeye Linda of yesterday is going places with ordinary gossiping on Google's blogger


seun dey ogun state dey rear dog and hid and ban and create share button and remove the button the nxt day and...

Bros na joke oo



but seriously you need to step up, come off your closet and make money from your hardwork!!


Godbless you, Bless Nairaland and all Nairalanders!!

Where are the Kongas and Jumia

Yungwizzzy: And our boss who keep hiding posts and banning people will not make the list? do you know why?

He is not business minded, I'm not trying to be 'tribalistic' but believe me if it were to be an igbo man that owns Nairaland it would be competing with the best forums in the world!!

Tho I don't know how this things work but I feel seun is not doing much for his business

How many of us here can write a page biography of Mr osewa? lailai!!

see yeye Linda of yesterday is going places with ordinary gossiping on Google's blogger


seun dey ogun state dey rear dog and hid and ban and create share button and remove the button the nxt day and...

Bros na joke oo



but seriously you need to step up, come off your closet and make money from your hardwork!!


Godbless you, Bless Nairaland and all Nairalanders!!

I hope u have another monicker?
lwkmd

Ok

Yungwizzzy: And our boss who keep hiding posts and banning people will not make the list? do you know why?

He is not business minded, I'm not trying to be 'tribalistic' but believe me if it were to be an igbo man that owns Nairaland it would be competing with the best forums in the world!!

Tho I don't know how this things work but I feel seun is not doing much for his business

How many of us here can write a page biography of Mr osewa? lailai!!

see yeye Linda of yesterday is going places with ordinary gossiping on Google's blogger


seun dey ogun state dey rear dog and hid and ban and create share button and remove the button the nxt day and...

Bros na joke oo



but seriously you need to step up, come off your closet and make money from your hardwork!!


Godbless you, Bless Nairaland and all Nairalanders!!

yungwizzzy so your head dey work.

anyway you're kinda right but watch your back... before Oga comes after you