Nigeria at 60: Top sixty Nigerian tech entrepreneurs that deserve to be celebrated

On October 1, 2020 Nigeria celebrates sixty years of independence from colonial British rule. The Benjamindada team is using this independence day to celebrate sixty entrepreneurs that we believe have done wonderfully.

These Nigerian entrepreneurs have succeeded in harnessing the power of technology to provide solutions to local and international problems. More importantly, the work they have done, and are still doing is paving the way for many young Nigerians to make a difference too.

We’ve split the list into three batches of 20 that we’ll be bringing to you over the next few hours. Meet the giants of Nigeria’s blossoming tech industry:

1. Funke Opeke – Founder & CEO at MainOne, West Africa’s biggest broadband infrastructure company.
   
   

   Funke Opeke

   

2. Olugbenga Agboola – Cofounder & CEO at Flutterwave, Nigerian fintech focused on providing payment solutions for businesses.

Olugbenga Agboola, founder and CEO of Flutterwave

3. Mark Essien – Founder & CEO at Hotels.ng, an online travel agency that helps travelers with hotel bookings

Mark Essien

4. Tito Ovia – Cofounder and Head of Growth at Helium Health, a healthcare technology provider in headquartered in Nigeria.

Tito Ovia

5. Yemi Keri – CEO of Heckerbella Limited,  a business transformation firm delivering information technology solutions to businesses in Africa. She’s also an Angel Investor

Yemi Keri

6. Etop Ikpe – Cofounder and former CEO at Cars45, now CEO and co-founder at Autochek

Etop Ikpe

7. Eke E. Urum – Founder and CEO at Rise vest, a investment company that provides dollar investment services for Nigerians. Ex Cofounder and Business Lead at Buycoins

Eke E. Urum

8. Ire Aderinokun – Cofounder and COO at Buycoins, a service that allows instant trade of cryptocurrencies by users.

Ire Aderinokun

9 Chijioke Dozie – Cofounder & CEO at OneFi, a fintech company focused on democratising access to finance through lending. OneFi is the parent company of Carbon.

Chijioke Dozie

10. Sim Shagaya – Founder & CEO at uLesson, an ed-tech startup focused on helping students maximise their academic performance. He was formerly CEO and cofounder at Konga

Sim Shagaya

11. Jason Njoku – CEO & Founder at IrokoTV, a web platform that provides paid-for Nigerian films on demand.

Jason Njoku

12. Maya Horgan Famodu – Founder of Ingressive Capital, one of Nigeria’s biggest VC firms and investors in Nigerian startups.

Maya Horgan Famodu

13. Temie Giwa-Tubosun – Founder & CEO of Lifebank, a healthcare and logistics company based in Lagos, Nigeria.

Temie Giwa-Tubosun

14. Oluwatomi Solanke – CEO & Cofounder at Trove, a startup that helps to democratise access to local and international stocks and equities for Nigerians.

Oluwatomi Solanke

15. Oluyomi Ojo – CEO & Cofounder at Printivo, an online print provider based in Nigeria.

Oluyomi Ojo

16. Bosun Tijani – co-founder & CEO of Co-Creation Hub, an innovation centre that helps with acceleration for startups.

Bosun Tijani, CcHub CEO and a nominated minister in Tinubu’s cabinet

17. Oluwatosin Olaseinde – Founder of The Money Africa, a financial literacy ed-tech.

Oluwatosin Olaseinde founder Money Africa

18. Ugodre Obi-chukwu – Founder of Nairametrics, a financial resource company with a focus on financial literacy and investor advocacy.

Ugodre Obi-chukwu

19. Babs Ogundeyi – Founder & CEO at Kudabank, a mobile-only bank.

Kuda co-founder and CEO, Babs Ogundeyi

20. Edmund Olotu – CEO, Tech Advance, a payment application company with a strategic focus on developing niche payment companies.

Edmund Olotu

This list is the first in a series of three. You can find the rest of it here and here.