They include Ronald Tagoe, science and technology entrepreneur, Nelson MadibaAmo received the people’s choice award, Kofi AmoaAbban, oil and gas entrepreneur and Bernard Kofi Bonarparte for his contributions to social entrepreneurship.

They received the awards at the ‘40 under 40 Africa Awards’ event, held in Accra and aimed at celebrating the achievements of young entrepreneurs.

Some other 36 young African entrepreneurs from 16 different African countries and operating in various sectors such as banking and finance; energy; agriculture; theatre and arts; journalism; health; fashion; law; sports; events management; technology and innovation also received various awards for their contributions.

Notable among them was Zimbabwean serial entrepreneur, ShakemoreTimburwa, who received the overall best award dubbed “First among Equals” and an award for contribution to the energy sector. 

Robert Ssentamu popularly known as Bobi Wine from Uganda received an award from the governance and government agencies category while Janet TayoFaremi from Nigeria took an award in the sales and marketing category.

Mohammed Ezzeldin from Egypt received an award in the hospitality category; Toseef Din from Kenya for her contributions to health and wellness.

The Deputy Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Mark Okraku-Mantey, in his address reiterated the need for African businessmen and women to seize the opportunity to contribute towards the development of the African continent.

He said Africa was well-positioned as about 65 per cent of its population was under the age of 30.

He added that, the government as part of its contribution towards the development of Africa, introduced the Free Senior High School to reduce the illiteracy rate in the country and also the introduction of various digitisation programmes such as the National Identification and the Digital Address system to put Ghana on the part of development in Africa. 

Mr Okraku-Mantey charged the Ghanaian youth to explore business opportunities in the tourism, arts and culture sector. 

The Deputy Minister tasked the various awardees and nominees to adopt innovative and creative ideas that have guided their businesses to support policy initiatives in their respective countries towards the development of Africa.  

The Chief Executive Officer of Xodus Communications Limited, Richard Abbey Jnr, organiser of the event, said the objective of the Awards was to recognise and celebrate emerging leaders under the age of 40 who demonstrated exceptional leadership whilst proving to the upcoming youths of Africa that “excellence could be achieved at a very tender age.” 

He expressed excitement as the nominees emerged from 16 countries over the continent saying that moving forward “we would have over 30 countries participating in the awards scheme.”   

Mr Abbey added that the award was a means to market Africa to the world and show the world what the African continent was capable of. 

Mr Timburwa, on his part, charged all young Africans to seize every given opportunity to make an impact explaining that “it is possible to be born in a very primitive area of Africa and become whatever you desire to become.”