Author: Broader

On any given morning in Lagos, the roads tell a familiar story: horns blaring, buses crammed beyond limit, a thousand people late before 8 a.m. But quietly disrupting the chaos is a woman who, rather than accept this daily disorder, decided to rewrite the narrative. Damilola Olokesusi didn’t set out to become a tech founder. Trained as a chemical engineer, she knew how to solve problems methodically but nothing in her education quite prepared her for the mess of Lagos transportation. It was personal for her. Years ago, one of her sisters boarded what she thought was a public bus…

When Sangu Delle returned to Ghana after degrees from Harvard, Oxford, and Birmingham, he didn’t come back to simply lead, he came back to build. Two institutions, in fact: a venture investment firm and a pan-African healthcare network. That dual mission has made him one of the continent’s most consequential architects of systems change. In 2006, he founded Golden Palm Investments (GPI), a holding company with a mission to build world-class African tech companies. At the time, most capital came with foreign mandates and short timelines. GPI took the long view. Early bets on companies like Andela, Flutterwave, and mPharma…

Lennox Omondi didn’t just set out to build a startup – he set out to solve a problem that had been hiding in plain sight for years. As a university student in Kenya, Omondi was confronted with a heartbreaking reality. Nearly one-third of female students in the country regularly missed school because they could not afford sanitary products. For many, this meant falling behind in their studies, missing out on opportunities, and being forced into a cycle of disadvantage that was difficult to escape. For Omondi, this statistic wasn’t just another development challenge to read about in a report –…

Africa’s economic future hinges on its ability to move goods and people efficiently. For decades, the continent’s logistics and mobility sectors have been hampered by fragmentation, inefficiency, and a lack of reliable infrastructure. This has created massive friction, raising the cost of doing business and limiting economic opportunity for millions. Yet, where others see problems, a new generation of entrepreneurs sees possibility. These visionaries are harnessing technology to create smart, scalable solutions that are not just profitable but are fundamentally rebuilding the continent’s connective tissue. From digitizing long-haul trucking to electrifying public transport and building integrated super-apps, these three innovators…

Africa’s agricultural sector, a cornerstone of livelihoods and economies across the continent, is undergoing a profound transformation. Driven by a new generation of tech-savvy entrepreneurs, AgriTech is blossoming, offering solutions to enhance productivity, improve market access, and build resilience against climate change. These three individuals are at the forefront of this revolution, leveraging technology to cultivate growth and ensure a more food-secure future for Africa. 1. George Boateng – Farmerline (Ghana) At the heart of Ghana’s cocoa belt, George Boateng co-founded Farmerline in 2013 with Alloysius Attah, driven by a mission to empower smallholder farmers with the information and resources…

Sustainable development on the African continent is being driven not by theoretical frameworks, but by individuals who are building, funding, and scaling solutions that improve daily life. The five entrepreneurs highlighted here combine technical ingenuity with a deep understanding of local realities, delivering practical, scalable, and community-rooted solutions for energy, water, healthcare, and the circular economy. Strive Masiyiwa — Distributed Power Africa / Econet Strive Masiyiwa is one of Africa’s most prominent business leaders and philanthropists. In addition to founding Econet and Cassava Technologies, he has placed significant emphasis on renewable energy through Distributed Power Africa (DPA), a Cassava Group…

The retail landscape across Africa is undergoing a profound transformation. A new wave of entrepreneurs is dismantling long-standing inefficiencies, whether in payments, supply chains, or data insights; by introducing agile, tech-driven solutions that empower retailers and brands across urban and informal markets. Below are three visionary leaders driving this change in 2025 1. Onyekachi Izukanne – TradeDepot Founded by Onyekachi Izukanne, TradeDepot is a Nigerian B2B e-commerce platform that is revolutionizing the informal retail sector by digitizing the supply chain for fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs). The platform directly connects consumer goods brands to a vast network of informal retailers, bypassing…

Walk through Lagos on any given day and the story of African retail reveals itself in plain sight. Small kiosks selling sachet milk and bottled drinks, open-air stalls piled with yams, and market women weaving through traffic with baskets balanced on their heads. This isn’t an alternative to retail. It is retail. The International Labour Organization estimates that more than 80 percent of non-agricultural employment in sub-Saharan Africa is informal, with even higher proportions in many countries outside Southern Africa. For generations, these networks have fed families, employed millions, and circulated the bulk of consumer spending. Yet they are still…

In early 2023, Nigeria’s economy experienced one of its most severe financial disruptions in decades. The naira redesign collided with an election season and fuel scarcity, creating a perfect storm that rewired how Nigerians spend, trade, and trust money. Cash disappeared almost overnight, and queues outside banks stretched for hours. Automated Teller Machines became battlegrounds. Transfers through legacy banking apps failed as servers choked on unprecedented traffic. For millions, it was the first time in their lives that they had money in the bank but couldn’t access it. The informal economy, where most Nigerians live, trade, and survive suddenly had…

In the bustling cities of Lagos, Nairobi, and Accra, the informal economy isn’t just a sideshow, it’s the main act. With an estimated 85.8% of employment in Africa coming from the informal sector, according to the International Labour Organization, these enterprises ranging from roadside vendors and mechanics to mobile money agents have built a resilient ecosystem that fuels livelihoods and urban economies alike. While often dismissed by policymakers and economists as unscalable or risky, informal entrepreneurs are master tacticians. They have developed homegrown business strategies born out of necessity, community dynamics, and deep market understanding, lessons that formal startups and…