African Leadership Institute has selected exceptional emerging African leaders for the 2023 Class of the Tutu Fellowship.
With more than 380 nominations of outstanding quality from across Africa, the AFLI cohort has a rich diversity of people from Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda in the 2023 cohort. The selected candidates span the worlds of consulting, banking, civil society, renewable energy, public sector, policy and entrepreneurship.
Meet some of the 2023 programme participants
Amandla Ooko-Ombaka
Amandla Ooko-Ombaka is a development economist focused on agriculture and food, and a partner at McKinsey & Company. She co-leads McKinsey’s global food security initiative and the agri-food practice in Africa, where she collaborates with clients across the globe to better serve their farmers and customers.
Amandla is also a board member for Harvard Center for African Studies which she chairs; and a board member for Fresh Life; Emerging Public Leaders-Kenya; and LendHer Capital. She believes that to transform economies – particularly emerging ones – governments serve a critical role setting the development agenda and enabling private-sector-led growth.
A co-author of several of McKinsey’s acclaimed Africa publications, her work has been featured in various media including Africa.com, BBC, Business Daily, CNBC, CNN and others. She is a frequent speaker and moderator at global fora alongside heads of state and CEOs of leading global businesses. She was named to the 100 Most Influential in Africa(New African) as a Change Maker.
Folawe Omikunle
Folawe Omikunle is the Chief Executive Officer of Teach For Nigeria, a nonprofit organization dedicated to building a movement of leaders who will eliminate inequity in education. Since 2016, Teach for Nigeria has recruited and placed almost 2,000 of Nigeria’s most talented graduates to teach in more than 300 underserved schools in Nigeria.
A social entrepreneur with more than 10 years of experience in education, development, non-profit management, fundraising, and sustainability, she has received a number of awards and has been recognised for the work she has done.
Oluseyi Adisa
Oluseyi Adisa is a member of the Oyo State House of Assembly representing the Afijio state constituency. He is a public administrator, lawyer and policymaker with 11 years of experience in the legislative and executive arms of government. He says his political ideology is centred on participatory governance for sustainable development. Seyi is committed to building the next generation of political leaders to solve underdevelopment in Africa and he uses his Politics of Development podcast and the Seyi Adisa Political Show to demystify politics and encourage younger audiences to join politics.
In October 2020, Seyi was recognised as one of the Most Influential Persons of African Descent (MIPAD) under 40 worldwide in the Politics & Governance category by the UN affiliate, The MIPAD 100. In August 2022, he was nominated as the Most Influential Young Person in Oyo State under the Governance category by the Oyo State Youth Awards.
Temilade Denton
Temilade Denton is Head of Social Impact and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) at Alitheia Capital, her investment speciality. In this role, she is responsible for identifying and realizing opportunities for sustainability and value creation through private equity investments and ensuring coherence between the investment and the impact objectives of the firm in achieving superior returns. She says that in this role, her goal is to make the world a better place by creating systemic and sustainable social impact through investments in equitable and scalable businesses.
Prior to her work at Alitheia Capital, she was a Project Consultant at UNESCO, where she helped develop, promote, and market an e-learning tool titled Women in African History. She has also been a consultant to a project in The Gambia on a research paper on the role of knowledge systems in mapping, understanding and addressing environmental change in the country and a programme officer at the Growing Businesses Foundation, where she led efforts to build capacity to assist young entrepreneurs succeed.
Mary Izobo
Mary Izobo is the Founder and Executive Director of The Amazon Leadership Initiative (TheALI). TheALI empowers women and girls, fosters inclusivity in leadership roles, and provides mentorship and education to alleviate gender inequality. She is an international human rights lawyer, gender equality advocate, and governance specialist.
Prior to starting up TheALI, Mary was the Legal Advisor of the African Peer Review Mechanism, an organ of the African Union, and has worked for the United Nations; the Institute for Strategic Litigation in Africa; and the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa.
Mayowa Kuyoro
Photo from McKinsey
Mayowa Kuyoro is a Partner in McKinsey’s Lagos office, where she leads McKinsey West Africa’s Financial Institutions practice. She also co-leads the firm’s business building across the continent, especially fintech companies. Mayowa leads the work the firm does on gender research in Africa and is feels strongly that access to finance can play a key role in Africa’s growth and development. She has extensive experience across the continent serving major public private and social sector institutions.
Mayowa has co-authored several published research reports and articles that have obtained extensive press coverage, including The Economist, Quartz, the Financial Times, CNN and financial tech in Africa. Some titles include The End of the Beginning; and, The Power of Parity: Advancing Women’s Equality in Africa.
Adetayo Bamiduro
Photo from Business Insider
Adetayo Bamiduro is a mobility-technology pioneer, social entrepreneur and co-founder at MAX, a platform which provides Africans access to income-generating vehicle subscriptions and zero-emission vehicles. He is an internationally-recognized leader in the field of technology entrepreneurship, with a graduate degree from MIT.
Adetayo seeks to build labour justice, provide sustainable living wages, and fight unemployment throughout Africa by enabling commercial drivers to finance their own income-generating assets such as motorcycles, tuk-tuks, cars and minibuses.
See the full list here:
Benjamin Mbana
Doussouba Konate
Hangwi Muambadzi
Hannah Subayi Kamuanga
Karabo Rajuili
Marie-Alix de Putter
Melvyn Lubega
Mugwe Manga
Njabulo Ngubane
Dr Patrick Gatonga
Prudence Mashalane
Shazia Shariff
Sijh Diagne
Dr Stellah Wairimu Bosire
Theodros (Teddy) Roux
The selected candidates demonstrate the incredible wealth and breadth of leadership talent that exists in Africa’s young people, which bodes well for Africa’s future.
