LEADING THE CHARGE

AS 2020 USHERS IN A NEW DECADE AND A NEW SET OF DAUNTING CHALLENGES FOR THE WORLD – CLIMATE CHANGE, THE CORONAVIRUS – IT’S ALL THE MORE IMPERATIVE THAT THE WORLD’S YOUNGEST CONTINENT RISES TO THE CRISES AND SEES OPPORTUNITIES WHERE THERE SEEM TO BE NONE. THESE ARE THE MEN AND WOMEN FORGING AHEAD WITH CREDIBLE, CREATIVE AND PROFOUND STRATEGIES TO SHAPE OUR TOMORROW. CELEBRATING SIX YEARS OF THE FORBES AFRICA 30 UNDER 30 LIST, THEY ARE THE CONTINENT’S REVOLUTIONARY THINKERS REVITALIZING IDEAS AND INDUSTRIES WITH FRESH BUSINESS MODELS AND INNOVATIVE LEADERSHIP.

- KAREN MWENDERA

OVER 3,000 nominations flooded into our inboxes and landed on our desks from the start of 2020 for this Under 30 list. And the mammoth task? Whittling it down to 30 names.

While last year, we had 120 in total, with 30 finalists each in the categories of business, technology, sports and arts, this year, we chose to stay with 30: the best of the best spanning all industries. Our youngest list-maker this year is just 16!

In a continent pregnant with opportunities, and at a time a virus pandemic grips the world, young people are the only hope. They are able to step in to offer new and innovative solutions for the problems confronting Africa.

And big business salutes their potential. “Leaving an ordinary career path to start something new and original is difficult and lonely, and success is not linear. Making the list must also be an incredible encouragement to the brave young people who’ve struck out on their own,” says Fran Luckin, Chief Creative Officer at Grey Africa, a global advertising giant. The odds stacked against them are great, such as access to funding and institutional and historical inequalities that mean there’s probably very little family wealth or savings for the average young entrepreneur to draw on, adds Luckin.

“If you look at the development from youth-owned businesses and those featured on the 30 Under 30 list, you will realize that Africa has amazing potential,” says Ashok Gupta, Chairman & Founder of Kalyan Group, a diversified business with portfolios in hospitality and agriculture based in Togo.

In the following pages, this is what we will see: the potential of Africa’s future and the people who will lead us.