Africa leaders have played a crucial role in helping the continent to advance in various sectors including Business, Entertainment, and others.
And 25th May has been designated a day called Africa’s Day (formerly African Freedom Day and African Liberation Day) to be celebrated both in Africa and around the world.
The Daily Page joins the world to celebrate the Africa’s Day. In this article, we are using this day celebration to shine a special spotlight on few African leaders who recent accomplishment and impact will inspire many generations to come.
From leading the world’s biggest financial body to breaking barriers and record in the world, below are the 7 inspiring African leaders:
1. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, first Nigerian, African woman to head The World Trade Organization
On 1st March 2021, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala became the first black, African, Nigerian woman to head the world’s biggest financial body, World Trade Organization.
Ngozi Iweala, born in Nigeria in 1954, talked about her appointment as Director – General of the World Trade Organization with Arise News correspondent, Eric.
In the interview, she said that she is very proud of course to be African, Nigerian, and for the continent, Africa.
She added that her mindset and goal is to deliver her position very well so as to make other women, Africans take the job after her.
Ngozi Iweala had twice served as Nigeria Finance Minister 2003 – 2006 and 2011 – 2015 and the first woman to ever hold the post.
She and spent good 25 years at the World Bank and also served as the managing director of the Bank.
Ngozi Iweala who studied at Harvard 1973-76 and earned a PhD degree at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1981, sits on the boards of Twitter, and the global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunization (Gavi).
2. Shola Akinlade
In Africa, Shola Akinlade is one of the entrepreneurs leading Financial Technology (Fintech) companies.
Shola, born in Lagos, Nigeria is into software development. In January 2016, Shola Akinlade and his co-founder of Paystack, Ezra Olubi launched Paystack, which became the first Nigerian company to be accepted into the tech accelerator Y combinator program.
Recently, the world’s largest Fintech company, Stripe acquired Paystack in order to accelerate online commerce across Africa.
3. Tony Elumelu
Tony Elumelu, born in March, Jos, Plateau, Nigeria, is a Nigerian Economist, Entrepreneur and philanthropist.
He is currently the founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation and chairman of Heirs Holding and the United Bank of Africa.
His success in the economic and finance Industry made him named in Time 100 most influential people in the world.
4. Linda Ikeji
In 2006, Linda Ikeji after she graduated from University of Lagos with a bachelor degree in English language, started blogging as a hobby.
And at that time, the internet was not as prominent in Nigeria, making her to post and publish articles at a cyber cafe.
Now, Linda Ikeji’s success in blogging is now an inspiration to a lot of bloggers in Nigeria. She now owns an online TV network, Linda Ikeji TV alongside other brsnds.
The 40 years old mother of one is one of the highest paid blogger in Nigeria.
5. Davido
Davido, born in November, 1992, Atlanta, Georgia United States of America, is one of the most influential artists in Africa.
As of 23rd May, 2021, Davido has achieved total of 885 million views on his music video content on YouTube.
He rose to fame after releasing “Dami Duro” and now he is the most followed artist on Instagram and other social media platforms.
6. Burna Boy
On 14th March, 2021, Burna Boy took Africa to the world as he won Best Global Music Album Award at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards.
Burna Boy is one of the African Artists making it big internationally as he has the whole world listening to his song.
His popularity has continued to spread worldwide and globally. In May 2021, Burna Boy became the first African Artist to reach 100 million streams on Spotify, making him the most in demand Afro beats Artist.
7. Wizkid
From Ojuelegba to now the most decorated Nigerian Artist ever ( the most decorated African artist internationally) and the one of the most revolutionary Afro Pop artists of the modern era.
Wizkid also made Nigerians proud as he won a Grammy Award for Best Music video for his contribution to Beyonce’s project on The Lion King: Brown Skin Girl.
