Every year, Forbes Magazine releases its “30 Under 30” 2022 list, which features trailblazers that cut across all industries and span from the United States of America down to Africa. The list highlights revolutionaries and innovators who are changing the world in the areas of media, art & style, food & drink, education, science, music, sports, healthcare, and a number of other industries.
To compile this year’s list, Forbes writers and editors evaluated more than 12,000 candidates on factors including funding, revenue, social impact, inventiveness, and potential. The 600 who made the cut are both an inspiration and a challenge to conventional wisdom.
Below is the list of Africans and people of African descent who are doing extraordinary things in the world:
Art & Style
Nigerian-Canadian creative director Josef Adamu made headlines with his live photography exhibition ”The Hair Appointment” in 2018, which celebrated Black braiding salons. It was viewed more than one million times and earned praise from Ava Duvernay, Tracee Ellis Ross, Vogue, Essence, and more. Since then, he’s spearheaded Nike’s Yardrunners campaign, which celebrates HBCUs, and produced shows alongside Kevin Durant and Tina Knowles.
Josef Adamu (29, Founder, Sunday School Creative)
Flo Ngala (27, Photographer)
A daughter of Cameroonian and Nigerian immigrants, Harlem-based photographer Flo Ngala was already working with Cardi B and Gucci Mane when she landed her first New York Times cover in 2019. This year, she made history as the first Black woman hired by Vogue to shoot the Met Gala.
Hollywood & Entertainment
Ayo Edebiri (27, Actor)
Only a few years ago, Edebiri was torn between a career in education or showbiz, studying to be a teacher at NYU and interning with improv group Upright Citizens Brigade. Comedy won. In 2019 she appeared on Comedy Central’s stand-up series “Up Next,” but it was her scene-stealing performance as an ambitious chef in 2022’s comedy-drama series “The Bear” that won praise from fans and critics. Says Edebiri: “Even if you’re at the highest level in your field, in the arts you’re always a freelancer. You’re always trying to make your own lane and your own path.” New projects include starring in the film “Bottoms,” a queer comedy set to release in 2023.
Eni Akintade (28, Motion Picture Literary Agent, United Talent Agency)
Eni Akintade is a motion picture literary agent at UTA representing Ziwe Fumudoh, Malala Yousafzai, Lili Reinhart, and others. Her recent deals include Adamma and Adanne Ebo’s film debut ‘Honk For Jesus, Save Your Soul’ to Focus Features and Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions (a high seven-figure deal following its Sundance premiere). She’s also behind ‘Secret Daughter,’ based on the New York Times bestseller, which Priyanka Chopra Jonas will produce for Amazon Studios.
Retail & Ecommerce
Kimiloluwa Fafowora (26, Founder of Gander)
As a Harvard undergrad, Kimiloluwa Fafowora helped the admissions office recruit more diverse students. Now she runs Gander, which works with brands to display user-generated videos on their websites so shoppers can visualize products used by a variety of people in real life. The company has raised $4.2 million in funding from Harlem Capital, Crossbeam Venture Partners and others.
Selom Agbitor (26, Cofounder of Mad Rabbit)
When Oliver Zak (also a co-founder of Mad Rabbit) couldn’t find good skincare products for his tattoos — petroleum jelly just didn’t cut it — he decided to start Mad Rabbit with college classmate Selom Agbitor. The company sells products that numbs skin while getting a tattoo, and then brightens, preserves and soothes inked skin afterwards. Mad Rabbit has raised $7 million in funding from billionaire Mark Cuban and others, and revenue is expected to top $16 million in 2022.
Healthcare
TJ Ademiluyi (27, Cofounder of Alaffia Health)
In the US, around $300 billion is lost to medical fraud every year, so TJ Ademiluyi cofounded Alaffia Health, which uses AI to protect patients from erroneous medical bills. The company currently has over 300,000 members and $6.6 million in funding. The company claims it’s on track to save its customers $15 million by the end of the year.
Sports
Arike Ogunbowale (25, Guard, Dallas Wings)
Nigerian-American basketballer, Arike Ogunbowale hit two of college basketball’s most iconic shots ever while at Notre Dame in 2018 and has gone on to become a WNBA scoring champion, in 2020, and a two-time All-Star. She is a founding member of LeBron James’ “More Than a Vote” initiative and is an investor in media startup Just Women’s Sports.
Marketing & Advertising
Chidera Ufondu (29, Creative Lead for Brand Partnerships, Netflix)
Chidera Ufondu oversees creative for Netflix’s brand partnerships, which have included working with brands on campaigns for the streaming service’s releases of Bridgerton, Stranger Things and Emily in Paris. Ufondu’s goals also entail partnerships for Netflix’s diverse projects and titles. The company has partnered with brands like Mielle, a Black haircare company, as a result.
Social Media
Elsa Majimbo (21, Comedian)
After growing up in Kenya and becoming one of her first family members to go to college, Elsa Majimbo dropped out to pursue comedy. She found fame as a comedian during the pandemic, building large audiences on TikTok and Instagram by posting parodies of quarantine and indulgent, lazy life. The 21-year-old, who now has some 4 million followers on social media, has scored partnerships with Valentino, Beats By Dre and Bumble and won an E! People’s Choice Award and YouTube Streamy. Majimbo was ranked No. 49 on the inaugural Forbes Top Creators List in 2022.
Social Impact
Pelkins Ajanoh (28, Cofounder, CassVita)
CassVita has invented patent-pending biotechnology for increasing the shelf life of woody shrub cassava, primarily cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions, from 3 days to 18 months. Thereby, CassVita has raised the incomes of over 1,000 smallholder farmers by as much as 400% by minimizing post-harvest losses. Prior to founding the company, Cameroonian immigrant Ajanoh got his undergrad degree in mechanical engineering from MIT and a joint MS in Engineering/MBA from Harvard.
Olamide Oladeji is a big believer in the ability of technology to bridge divides in economic development and ultimately, end poverty. That’s why he and his two cofounders, Abuzar Royesh and Izunna Okonkwo, founded Pastel to provide offline-enabled software tools for small businesses. Pastel has helped over 120,000 small businesses around the world access software to manage their business, make payments and receive low-cost financing. They operate in 40 countries and have raised $6.1 million.
Enterprise Technology
David Iya & Joshua Nzewi (29, Cofounders of EZE)
Nigerian American best friends David Iya and Joshua Nzewi launched Eze in 2020 as a B2B wholesale marketplace for used smartphones and other electronics. The startup validates the quality of products for buyers, countering the common issue of fraud in used electronics. Eze has been used in 10 countries and is on track to make $2.3 million in 2022.
A first-generation immigrant from Nigeria, Valentine Nwachukwu started programming at the age of 12 when his dad decided to teach him C++ instead of buying him a PlayStation 2. He started Zaden in 2020, a combination of his prior experiences working in the defence sector and at Amazon as a program manager. The bootstrapped, Alabama-based company helps defence firms to set up their software infrastructure more quickly. Thanks to customers like Boeing and Northrop Grumman, it made more than $2 million in revenue in 2022.
Food & Drink
Bethany Oyefeso & Oluwakolapo (Tobi) Smith (27 & 29, Cofounders of AllIDoIsCook)
Living in North Texas, the only access to Nigerian food that Oluwakolapo (Tobi) Smith had was a store 40 minutes away–a problem he says was felt by fellow Nigerian immigrants in the U.S. So in 2018, he dropped out of college to found direct-to-consumer Nigerian food and beverage box AllIDoIsCook, along with partner Bethany Oyefeso. Today, they’ve shipped over 10,000 boxes of their meat pies and stews to more than 3,000 customers and expect to generate nearly $1 million in revenue this year.
Education
Sefunmi Osinaike (27, Cofounder of Co.Lab)
Sefunmi Osinaike and Helen Huang cofounded and run Co.Lab, an online school that helps provide non-traditional tech talent with a space for learning by doing, collaboration, community and confidence-building. Co.Labs boasts a 95 per cent completion rate and has helped more than 550 people in 35 countries switch careers and land roles at Apple, Google, Amazon and more.
Chinemelu Okafor (29, Founder, The Research in Color Foundation)
A Harvard PhD candidate of Nigerian descent, Chinemelu Okafor founded and runs the Research In Color Foundation. The nonprofit supports and propels aspiring economists of color–and therefore, more inclusive economic policy. Since 2019, 74 diverse scholars have benefited through financial assistance and mentor-mentee pairings in partnership with the Federal Reserve, World Bank and more.
Finance
Ham Serunjogi (28, Cofounder, Chipper Cash)
Five million-plus customers use Chipper Cash to zip money among seven nations including Uganda, South Africa, Nigeria, the U.K. and the U.S. Customers can pay bills, as well as trade stocks and crypto. Raised in Uganda, Serunjogi was a junior Olympic swimmer before attending Iowa’s Grinnell College, where he met his Ghanaian cofounder, Maijid Moujaled. “We had seen firsthand how difficult it was to send money from one country to another within Africa,” Serunjogi says. In 2021, San Francisco-based Chipper made more than $75 million in revenue, mostly from foreign-exchange fees. The pair launched it in 2018 and have raised $300 million, hitting a peak valuation of $2.2 billion in November 2021.
As Vice President in the Energy practice of $82 billion private equity firm Warburg Pincus, N’Komba focuses on investing in technologies to create a more sustainable future. He leads the firm’s investments in environmentally transformative and economically sustainable businesses that offer decarbonization solutions without taxing a “green premium” to investors. As the most senior Black investment professional at Warburg Pincus, N’Komba champions increased representation internally and across the industry, serving on the firm’s Diversity Equity & Inclusion Council.
Games
Oyin Egbuson (27, Marketing Manager, Epic Games)
Oyin Egbuson is one of the youngest members of the “Fortnite” marketing team, and was the first black female. She focuses on sports, music and fashion collaborations, bringing the first female athlete (Naomi Osaka), Asian American athlete (Chloe Kim) and the first Latina and member of the LGBTQIA+ community (Chica) into the game. She’s worked on other collaborations with Lebron James, Jordan brand, and J Balvin, and develops the marketing strategy to bring these collaborations to market. Previously she worked as a marketing manager at Microsoft on the “Minecraft” team and Xbox, where she restructured the content creation program and increased their viewership.
Matthew Musey (22, Associate Narrative Designer, Sledgehammer Games)
Matthew Musey is the first African-American narrative designer at any of Activision’s studios, and one of the youngest people ever to get a writers credit on a AAA game. He was admitted into the Writers Guild of America West at the age of 21 for his work on “Call of Duty: Vanguard.” Musey is also developing his own multimedia company STMT Media, a collection of story series focused on uplifting women, minority, & international voices in multimedia.
Osunde did not take her comment lightly. She retorted, saying, “We’re tired of seeing your face too in your office. Damn! I hope they sack you.”
Enioluwa then took to X to address the notion of Nollywood using familiar faces in films. He stressed that it happens because of finances.
He wrote,
“People often say they’re tired of seeing the same faces in Nigerian films. However, unlike in Hollywood, actors in Nigeria can’t afford to do just one film a year—how much are they paying? The industry currently can’t support as many newcomers as people might expect because, realistically, many of them wouldn’t be able to meet even their basic needs. No one wants to be famous and financially unstable.”
In response, another X user asked him for practical solutions, urging him to suggest actionable steps rather than just highlighting the problems. “You made a crucial point there but you didn’t suggest any solution,” he commented.
Enioluwa then explained,
We don’t have the buying power yet; it’s growing because streaming platforms have come in and people have made more records in the box office. Nevertheless, you can’t equate it to Hollywood, an Avengers that made over $2 billion that can pay its actors millions of dollars and still have enough profit.
People often say they’re tired of seeing the same faces in Nigerian films.
However, unlike in Hollywood, actors in Nigeria can’t afford to do just one film a year— how much are they paying.
The industry currently can’t support as many newcomers as people might expect because,…
Nollywood filmmaker John Njamah recently voiced his concern about the prevailing casting practices in the industry. He argued that casting decisions should prioritize an actor’s talent over their physical appearance or social media popularity.
In an exclusive interview, Njamah, a Nollywood veteran, gave insightful commentary on the current state and future trajectory of Nigerian cinema.
Known for his role as Rabiu in the popular TV soap opera “Fuji House of Commotion,” Njamah has also graced the screens of numerous television shows.
Interestingly, the shows he has featured in include “Tinsel,” “Living In Lagos,” “Solitaire,” “Casino,” “Emerald,” “Tide,” and “My Flatmates.”
During the interview, Njamah talked about his filmmaking journey. He emphasized his unwavering passion for the industry and his aspirations for its continued development.
“What is fuelling me is beyond passion. There’s that knack and need to grow with every month, whatever year. There’s that need to.do something different. This industry of ours is for you to do whatever you want to do and not join the bandwagon. So for me, it’s the originality in me and the need to do something right that is fuelling me Basically, it’s the ever-creative venture in me,” he said.
Njamah discussed how African stories are evolving. Furthermore, he emphasized that positive and negative changes have happened over the years.
“There’s a positive aspect and there’s a negative aspect. There’s a technical input. We’re telling our stories better technically. We’re telling better and bigger stories. The negative is that we are beginning to lose our originality. We are beginning to join the bandwagon to tell what is peculiar to other people and not to us. We are beginning to lose a bit of our identity cos there’s no longer us,” he said.
What’s more, Njamah spoke about casting in the industry. He pointed out differences between the industry during his time and the current climate, especially with casting.
“Fuji House was a one-camera shoot with hungry and passionate people. Now we have people who cast people who are beautiful and with Barbie bodies and followership and not necessarily for your talents. Some of us try to be that original because that’s where better stories are told. You want to tell stories with passionate people. Whether you like it or not, it’s a long shot but it’s possible. You want to give the actors that are worthy of the job and not the ones that are based on Instagram followers. We borrow from society and give back to society by way of entertainment and pedagogical values.”
Further, he criticized the lack of professional work ethic among filmmakers in Nollywood. He highlighted the absence of a robust system to evaluate the performance and accountability of producers within the industry.
“Professionalism is lacking. Respect for those in charge, humility and the like is lacking today. The industry lacks checks and balances. Every Tom, Dck and Harry can wake up and call themselves a producer and just get on board and be doing stuff without being checked and of course, the guild system is not working so they can’t check. There are no criteria for who should become a producer. The system is also not working. Let’s just be mindful as producers, directors and actors,” he added.
In conclusion, John Njamah acknowledged the unique character of Nollywood. Meanwhile, he proposed the creation of a domestic platform to market and distribute Nigerian films. Consequently, this would reduce reliance on foreign streaming services.
“That thing that they don’t like about us is what makes us, us. I am tired of people saying they don’t want to come into the country for coproduction cos we’re that and that and why are we relying on the likes of the streamers? Why can’t we do something that is for us by us so that they will come to us and ask for these things? We are solely depending on them to licence our movies, for survival. Speaking of coproduction, if you tell me you don’t want to come into the country for any reason, I’ll tell you you’re wrong, cos there are amazing producers here that you’ve seen their work. All you need to do is come to them and agree on modalities.”
Nollywood actress Mercy Aigbe-Adeoti revealed one of the reasons she chose to marry Kazim Adeoti as his second wife.
During her appearance on “Nollywood on Radio”, Mercy Aigbe explained that her husband’s deep experience and dedication to Nollywood significantly influenced her decision.
Emphasizing that their marriage goes beyond a personal connection, she mentioned it also aligns with their shared professional ambitions.
She said of their shared ambitions, “That’s one of the reasons why I married him.”
She added, “Together we’re building an empire; we’re building a production empire and I felt like I needed someone like that. It’s a good thing that he’s in the industry so with his strength and my strength combined, the future of the empire is looking good already.”
Social media users slammed the actress after her revelation. Many criticized her decision. They pointedly reminded her about Kazim Adeoti’s first wife, who, according to reports, did not give her consent to their marriage.
A comment read, “Elesin! Empire wey he don already build with his first wife.”
“Mercy, you know that you betrayed this woman. If you and the first wife didn’t know each other, it is a different thing since she is a Muslim, but you are someone who can not be trusted,” another person said.
Mercy’s marriage to Kazim Adeoti sparked controversy from the very beginning. Reports claimed that she allegedly came between the filmmaker and his first wife, Funso.
However, Kazim clarified that he and Mercy had been friends and business partners for over ten years. This was before they began dating.
On the other hand, Mercy’s ex-husband, Lanre Gentry, accused her of being friends with Funso throughout that period. Eventually, she married Adeoti in 2022.
In April 2023, the actress surprised her fans on social media. She announced her conversion to Islam just before the start of Ramadan, introducing herself as Hajia Meenah Mercy Adeoti.
