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.
Singer Brymo sparked a debate online after leaving a comment on the latest Instagram post by Tiwa Savage. Tiwa had shared a glamorous photo with the flirty caption, “You’re in my head, Papi.” However, Brymo shifted the focus by commenting on her recent collaboration with Simi, “Men Are Crazy.”
Brymo took issue with the song’s title and lyrics, specifically the line “Men Are Crazy.” He argued that male musicians rarely write songs generalising women in such a way. Brymo’s comment questioned Tiwa’s motivations behind the song’s theme and lyrics. This sparked discussion and debate among fans about the portrayal of gender in music.
He commented, “Hey @tiwasavage. I’d like to know the thoughts behind the … “men are c***y” line…. because it’s the one crazy” thing boys say most in private spaces about your gender, and none of us ever made a song exclusively about how deranged y’all are… Yet you did with Simi, and you are the first of both that I am seeing post from since then… So I ask; did you play reverse psychology on us and make the song a projection? and gaslighting the shit out of me by that??? …. or have real reasons to say so?? and if it be the latter, expand it for me, please!!”
Tiwa Savage and Simi haven’t responded to the comment Brymo left so far.
This all comes just after they released their new song together, “Men Are Crazy,” on April 5, 2024. It’s the first time these two popular singers have collaborated on a song.
Nigerian chess champion Tunde Onakoya is trying to break the world record for the longest chess marathon! The record he is set to break is 58 hours.
Tunde Onakoya has already been playing in the chess marathon for approximately 44 hours straight. This is at the time of this writing. Starting on April 17th and going until April 19th, the event is happening in the famous Times Square in New York City.
Onakoya’s manager, Taiwo, says the official rules allow for 5-minute breaks every hour. But Onakoya only took a total of 30 minutes of rest after playing 12 people in a row for 15 hours! That’s intense! He said he’s playing two sets of games at the same time, and he can’t lose any of them to win the record.
He wrote,
“The opponent on the first set is Shawn Martinez, a US National Chess Master, and he will play with Tunde throughout the attempt.
“Opponents in the second set are random players. He can’t lose any game on either set.
“Only Tunde’s match against Shawn Martinez is considered valid for the record. He is not competing in his simultaneous play against random opponents in the second set. NYC, come out and play regardless.”
Nigerian music fans, hold onto your hats! The clash of the titans between Afrobeat stars Brymo and Burna Boy is back for another round on social media.
Brymo launches an offensive attack
The drama unfolded when Brymo took to his Instagram story with a scathing critique of Burna Boy. He essentially claimed his musical talent reigns supreme and that Burna Boy would be better off venturing outside the pop music scene.
The insults didn’t stop there; Brymo even went in on Burna Boy’s vocals, implying a lack of singing ability.
The plot thickened when Brymo took an unexpected turn, suggesting a rather inflated perception of himself. He alluded to being a superior musical entity, and that this self-proclaimed status is the reason why Burna Boy, despite his massive achievements, can’t seem to detach himself from Brymo.
Help with strings attached?
Brymo ended his online tirade with a curious proposition. He offered to assist Burna Boy, but with one key condition: Burna Boy must ask respectfully. This public display of “helpfulness” casts doubt on Brymo’s sincerity, hinting at a potential ulterior motive for the offer.
While Brymo maintains he won’t stoop to mentioning Burna Boy directly in his music, his online activity paints a different picture. By tagging Burna Boy and posting pointed critiques, Brymo seems to be actively participating in an online brawl.
This back-and-forth exchange suggests neither musician is ready to let this social media beef simmer down. Their fans, on the other hand, might be left wondering if this is a publicity stunt or a genuine musical rivalry reignited.
