Leading Ladies Africa – 100 most inspiring women in Nigeria 2020

CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK

Now in its fifth consecutive year, Leading Ladies Africa in conjunction with YNaija presents its #100Women list, chronicling 100 of the most inspiring, influential, powerful and innovative women in Nigeria. “We’re thrilled to be able to show the world the diversity and multifacetedness of what it truly means to be a Nigerian woman,” says FRANCESCA URIRI, Founder, Leading Ladies Africa. “Nigerian women all over the world, in politics, business, social enterprise public policy, the corporate space, the creative sector are present and redefining what leadership and excellence means. This list reflects that diversity and acts as a catalyst to motivate a new generation of female changemakers, innovators and disruptors. This year, we are asking how we can actively challenge stereotypes, fight bias, broaden perceptions, celebrate and recognize the contributions as well as impact of Nigerian women. What do we need to do to help create and maintain a gender equal world? These and many more are what this 2020 list hopes to highlight,” she said

Grace Ihejiamazu
Founder of iKapture Networks, Grace has reached over 3000 young people since inception. One of the services offered by ikpature is the YLEAD, a six-weeks program aimed at equipping young people in their transitional years with necessary skills. She is also the founder of Opportunity Desk, a platform that provides mentorship, training and information on relevant learning and growth opportunities for youths.

Hajia Lami Tumaka
Former Director of Special Duties NIMASA. Before her retirement, Hajia Lami worked with NIMASA for 22 years. She joined the services of the then National Maritime Authority (NMA) as Chief Research Officer and saw her rise to the rank of Director has been characterised by several awards and accolades from within and without especially in the field of Public Relations which has defined most of her stay in the Agency.

During her leadership, she remedied crises that threatened to erode the confidence of stakeholders in NIMASA, the apex maritime regulatory Agency in the country. Her human-faced Public Relations practice even earned her international recognition when she won an award as one of the most outstanding Public Relations Practitioners in Africa.

Ifeyinwa Ighodalo
Upon realizing her passion for interiors, Ifeyinwa established Design Options Limited. in 1987. Since inception, it has grown to become and is now widely recognized as one of Nigeria’s very best in its area of expertise, in recognition of which it was honoured with the 2004 St. Moritz Style Award for Interior Design. She is a volunteer mentor for the mentorship programme of Fate Foundation.

Ijeoma Igbaji
Ijeoma is the founder/CEO of dynamic gifts and surprises company, White Rabbit Favours. Since being launched in 2013, the company has served over a thousand clients. The company packages and delivers cakes, fresh flowers, balloons, chocolates, jewellery, wine, champagne, cars, Spa vouchers, shopping vouchers, gift certificates etc for every occasion and celebration. WR Saxophone or violin serenade for classic birthday surprises is also included.

Intisar Bashir Kurfi
Founder of Ifrique Collections and Designs Limited. Intisar works to promote SDG 6, which is providing clean water and sanitation through Sustainovation Solutions. The company now produces interlocking tiles and eco-friendly toilets using wastes from pep bottles and used sachet water plastics. She is also the Founder and Managing Director of ICO Conferences & Events, an international conference production and event management company based in South Africa and Nigeria.

Irene Ochem
Irene is the Founder/Chief Executive Officer of Africa Women Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum (AWIEF), a non-profit women empowerment organization that works to promote and support women enterprise and innovation in Africa. She is also the Founder and Managing Director of ICO Conferences and Events, an international conference production and event management company.

Jade Rawa
Jade is the founder and creative director of the ready- to- wear Afrocentric fashion brand, Melia by Jade. Successfully making fashion that cuts across all social status, she gives a percentage of her sales to organisations that look after women with breast cancer.

Jadesola also has vast experience in media, television production and public relations spanning almost a decade across different organisations in Nigeria. She started out as the Media Officer at the Nigerian Economic Summit Group and currently works as a Policy & Partnership Associate at All On – a Lagos-based impact Investment firm.

Jemima Osunde
Jemima is an actress, model and presenter who came into limelight after playing Leila in the television series, Shuga. Jemima holds a degree from the University of Lagos in Physiotherapy, which she practices in addition to her acting career.

Joana Nnazua Kolo
Humanitarian, advocate of good governance and youngest serving commissioner in Kwara State, Joana is a 2018 graduate of Library Science from Kwara State University and is believed to be the youngest commissioner in the history of Nigeria. A grassroots mobiliser and an ardent advocate of community development, Joana was nominated for appointment two weeks before the end of completing NYSC.

Karo Omu
Karo is the founder of Sanitary Aid Initiative, a humanitarian and advocacy body promoting sanitary health of the girl-child. The organisation aims to provide free sanitary pads and other sanitary products to girls from low-income families across public schools in Nigeria and girls in Internally Displaced Persons Camps across the country. The organization has given out nearly 11,000 pads to girls and women across 9 Nigerian states – all in under 24 months.

Kehinde Smith
After graduating from theUniversity in 2012, Kehinde went on to run My Extensionz natural extensions beauty company in the United States and recently, in Nigeria. She intends to use her role as brand ambassador of Revolve Clothing to advocate for more diversity and inclusivity by working with both local and international brands.

Kiki Mordi
Kiki is a Nigerian journalist, media personality, filmmaker and writer. In 2016, she won the award of Outstanding Radio Program Presenter at the Nigerian Broadcasters Merit Awards. In October 2019, she and a team at the BBC Africa Eye released a documentary exposing sexual harassment of students by lecturers. Her documentary led to the proposal of a senate bill against sexual harassment in universities. She also produced the documentary, Life at the Bay which tells the story of the inhabitants and the survival and struggles of their women.

Laurie Idahosa
Laurie is a pastor, motivational speaker, author, co-founder, Big Ben Children’s Hospital and a mentor. She also trained as a missionary, an Emergency Medical Technician, First Aid and CPR instructor and a Disaster Relief Responder. She has owned several successful businesses. Most recently, she spearheaded the campaign to raise relief materials and funds for the support of Internally Displaced Children.

She was a University Faculty at New York University(NYU) SPS and a visiting professor at other universities. Rated by LinkedIn as Top 25 Marketing Professionals in Academia, and nominated by NYU students for the Teaching Excellence Award, Lilian is a doctoral candidate and researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Education.

Linda Nnodiogu
Linda is anti-rape and sexual abuse advocate and author of fiction centred on rape and child abuse. She is also a speaker and co-host of Anambra’s literary debate and individually hosts another literary debate club to encourage reading and communication among children.

Lolo Cynthia Ihesie
Lolo is a socio-behavioural communication specialist; gender, sexual and reproductive health advocate; UNHCR Media Influencer and founder of LoloTalks. She works on social issues bordering on social inequality, quality education, quality healthcare and social mobilisation, including a child and youth care while tutoring teenagers, local communities and correctional centres. She created a comprehensive sexuality education toolkit, My Body Is Mine, a human right based and gender-focused approach to sexuality education.

Mercy Chinwo
Mercy is a singer, songwriter and actress, rising to fame after winning Nigeria Idol Season 2 in 2012.

Michelle Bello
Michelle is an entrepreneur and award-winning filmmaker. In 2007,she produced and directed her first feature film Small Boy. In 2011, she moved back to Nigeria to be part of Nollywood.

Modupe Adefeso-Olateju
Mo is an education policy expert with several years of research experience spanning academic and private-sector research. She was Vice-Chair of the Technical Committee which designed, organized and reported the Nigerian Economic Summit (NES20) on Education held in March 2014. As a Centenary Scholar (Africa), she received a PhD in Education and International Development from the Institute of Education (IoE), the University of London.

Mofe Yejide Runsewe
Mofe created online travel company, Naija Nomads, after an eye-opening trip to Morocco in 2011 and started her travel platform in 2015 due to lack of Nigerian travellers’ stories. Naija Nomads has evolved from a blog to a full company that provides all kinds of travel needs from content to experiences.

Mofoluwaso Ilevbare
Mofoluwaso is a consultant, executive coach and women-in-leadership advocate with multi-cultural experience across Australia, Europe, U.S. India, Middle East, and Africa. Working with Procter & Gamble (since 2002) Australia & New Zealand as its Human Resource Director, her corporate career spans over 18 years. She’s also an author, coach, international speaker and mentor. She also runs Women Connected by Purpose which empowers women and disadvantaged kids in SouthWest Nigeria.

Nancy Isime
Nancy is a Nigerian actress, model and media personality. In 2009, she won the Miss Valentine International beauty pageant and began a career as an actress in the TV series Echoes in 2011.

Naomi Osemedua
Naomi is the author of Amazon Best Seller, Socially Speaking -My Periscope Miracles, inspirational speaker, reformer, positive change coach and advocate against domestic violence. In 2011, she founded the Nigerian branch of Making a Difference (M.A.D.) Positive International in Abuja to break the silence surrounding sexual abuse and domestic violence. In 2014, she organised Nigeria’s “1 Billion Rising for Justice” to protest against sexual assault against women and also demand justice.

Natasha Akpoti
Natasha is a barrister, social entrepreneur and politician. She ran for the post of Kogi Central Senatorial District seat under the Social Democratic Party in 2019 and also contested the Kogi State Governorship election which held in November 2019.

She is the Founder of Builders Hub Impact Investment Program (BHIIP), a social impact and sustainability firm that provides solutions for the government and corporations to maximise the impact of their social investments. She came to national prominence after presenting an investigative report to the National Assembly on March 1, 2018 on corrupt activities regarding the Ajaokuta Steel Mill. The report detailed the repetitive waste of government funds and embezzlement since the initial construction of the steel mill which has remained moribund despite multiple attempts to get it running.

Ngozi Ejedimu
Ngozi is a breast cancer survivor and the founder of WhatCancerNaija, a breast cancer awareness platform that covers everything from prevention and awareness about breast cancer to life after surgery. It evolved from the “Pink Gratitude Project”, an initiative where pink gift bags are given monthly to patients and survivors to encourage and support them during the journey.

Nkasi Obim Nebo
Nkasi is the founder of ‘PeachAid Medical Initiative’, an NGO which reduces maternal mortality rates amongst rural communities and Internally Displaced Person Camps by providing free antenatal care to vulnerable women. Her organisation has trained over 2,000 local birth attendants and has also started a free family planning service.

Nkemdilim Begho
Nkemdilim is the CEO of Future Software Resources Ltd. (Futuresoft). She is an Obama African Leader and a Forbes’s Top Ten Female Tech Founders in Africa. In 2019, she was appointed as a Non-Executive Director for Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc. She’s a recipient of many awards and regularly volunteers for mentoring and empowerment programmes often sharing her experiences with young Nigerians and less privileged children.

Nnenna Kalu Makanjuola
Nnenna is the founder and editor-in-chief of Radiant Health Magazine. Her lifelong commitment to improving health outcomes for Africans began with her work as a pharmacist. Wanting to make a larger impact, she transitioned to the public health sector starting as an intern at the World Health Organization (WHO). Nnenna served as a Global Health Fellow at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where she spent a year in Tanzania working to strengthen the laboratory system for HIV/AIDS diagnosis and treatment monitoring. She continued her public health work at CDC Atlanta and later as a consultant for the D.C. based Advocates for Youth before going on to launch Radiant Health Magazine.

Obis Oragwu
Obis inspires her followers every day with her posts. From DIY makeup and style tips for different body types to life lessons about being a mom, Obis helps women across her community and beyond gain confidence and look good while at it.

Obis is also a body positivity advocate and also hosts regular styling classes, shopping guides and skincare lessons for her community. She also helps expectant and new moms feel good about themselves and their bodies through her pregnancy and postpartum styling lessons. She is also the founder of Wardrobe Merchant, a fashion store which serves as an avenue to connect people who want to declutter their wardrobe with others who want to get stylish outfits.

Ogechukwu Anugo-Obah
Founder, Body Like Milk, Ogechukwu’s foray into business is an inspiring one. Due to financial instability and the inability to afford basic skincare products, Oge decided to make her own with the last money she had with her (N1,000). She packaged and sold to her first two clients. Fast forward to a month, she ended up selling 50 cups of the cream. Today, she has expanded her range from just skincare products to facial, hair, makeup and fragrances. With the rise in demand, she soon started delivering her products outside of West Africa.

Olarinde Olayemi Ayanfeoluwa
Olarinde is a Visual artist and photographer but is more famous for her style, Scribbling. She is a self-taught artist and illustrator who is inspired by a Peruvian artist based in Italy, Erick Centeno.

Olatowun Candide-Johnson
Olatowun is a seasoned oil and gas professional, lawyer and compliance specialist turned entrepreneur and Founder of GAIA, a member’s only business and social club for women. She is also the Non-Executive Director, Nigerian Norwegian Chamber of Commerce and Chairwoman, African Delivery Technologies. In 2019, she was appointed as the chairwoman of French start-up “Kwik” ” – an on-demand, last-mile bike delivery service focusing on providing logistic services in West Africa.

Omolola Aneke
Omolola is the executive director of the Comprehensive Autism and related Disabilities Education and Training Academy, known as the C.A.D.E.T. Academy, and also the founder of Dewdrops Community Centre for Special Needs, both located in Abuja. Since 2015, Lola hosts a weekly special needs radio show (which currently airs on Kiss FM Abuja), aimed at creating awareness and advocating for children with special education needs and empowering parents and caregivers with relevant information and resources. She has trained and empowered numerous parents, teachers and caregivers locally and internationally and recently authored two books, Special Needs Made Easy (Vol. 1) and Mastering Autism.

Omozino Eguh
Founder of Yudimy which uses psychological profiling to help people gain career clarity by matching their natural abilities to viable job roles and career paths, it also helps recruiters and employers make better hiring decisions by hiring candidates that are truly passionate for the role and help parents match their children’s natural abilities to suitable career pathways and subject combinations while preparing them for the future of work.

Oyinkan Braithwaite
Oyinkan is a novelist and writer. In 2014, she was shortlisted as a top-ten spoken-word artist in the Eko Poetry Slam and in 2016, was a finalist for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. She became a literary sensation after releasing her debut novel, “My Sister, the Serial Killer” in 2018. In less than a year, the book has been praised by The New York Times, The Washington Post, respected authors and was longlisted for the highly coveted Booker Prize.

Powede Lawrence-Awujo
Powede is a fashion and style influencer, ex-beauty queen, registered nurse and midwife, with a nursing degree from the Niger Delta State University, Bayelsa. The model is also an Aviation pilot with an excellent PR relation. She got certified by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA). Asides being a pilot and nurse, she is also the CEO of Tods and Kids, a retail children’s quality clothing store that renders the service of making baby shopping fun for grown-ups. She joined French luxury brand, Lancome in April 2019 as a global partner representing Nigeria. Powede also has a foundation called Powede Lawrence Foundation which aims to advocate for people living with disabilities and the less privileged in the society.

Rahama Sadau
Rahama is an actress, filmmaker, and singer. Born and raised in Kaduna, Rahama rose to fame in 2013 after joining the Kannywood movie industry with her first movie, “Gani ga Wane.” She has appeared in many Nigerian movies in both Hausa and English and is one of the few Nigerian actors that speak Hindi fluently. In 2017, she became the first Hausa celebrity to appear in the top ten Hottest Female Nigeria Celebrities.

Sharon Ikeazor
Sharon is the current Minister of State and Environment. She is also a lawyer, politician and management consultant. She is the former Executive Secretary of Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate. During her tenure at PTAD, she was able to identify areas in need of critical changes and took appropriate measures. As part of cleaning the system, she inaugurated the Anti-Corruption and Transparency Unit (ACTU) to help clean out the system internally by ensuring the activities of staff are internally checked.

Shola Lawal
Shola is an independent filmmaker and freelance West African correspondent for the Mail and Guardian, a South African-based newspaper. Her work focuses on development issues, women and the environment. Apart
from Mail and Guardian, Lawal’s work have appeared in Al Jazeera, TRT World and IRIN News.

Simi Nwogugu
Simi is the Executive Director of Junior Achievement Nigeria (JAN), a member of Junior Achievement Worldwide. Simi brought Junior Achievement to Nigeria in 1999 after she served as a volunteer in New York and realized that the entrepreneurial training programs were exactly what the large unemployed youth population in Nigeria needed. JAN has reached over 950,000 in- and out-of-school youth in over 29 cities across Nigeria, and some of its alumni are successful business leaders and social entrepreneurs who volunteer their time and resources to ensure JAN’s sustainability. She sits on the Advisory Council of the African Capital Alliance Foundation and is a member of the Global Advisory Committee for Teach For All.

Sola Adesakin
Sola is the lead coach and CEO of Smart Stewards. An experienced, versatile chartered accountant with 17 years experience in personal and SMEs finance, she is a personal finance coach, trainer and conference/seminar speaker. Through her blog and The Smart Stewards Academy, she has helped many men and women bounce back from stress to rest and from debt to wealth.

Sola Babatunde
Sola is the Founder/Creative Director of OSC Couture and OSC College of Fashion. She is also the Creative Director of One Stop Celebration LTD, a Pan African garment factory and fashion training school. She began her career at FATE Foundation, working through all the departments, and is the present National Publicity Secretary for Fashion Designers Association (FADAN), the Nigerian export promotion council certified exporter, who focuses on training, developing and producing celebrated fashion entrepreneurs that are celebrated in the industry.

Sunmbo Adeoye
Sunmbo is a multi-passionate entrepreneur, a Goldman Sachs scholar and an alumni of Lagos Business School. She is the CEO, Esobevents and founder, Esob Academy, where she trains budding event managers in the events planning and styling business. She is also the Founder of Inspiring Change Initiative, a platform where women can interact, learn, grow and those striving to take the lead in their respective businesses and career can be well informed and empowered.

Temi Ajibewa
Popularly called ‘The Electric Temi‘, Temi is a highly-sought-after author, speaker, trainer and result-driven coach in the business and personal development niche in Nigeria because of the way she ignites her audience and clients into possibilities. She is a two-time Amazon Bestselling Author and has published three books including A Millennial’s Guide to Mentoring and How To Make Millions Doing What You Love. She is the founder of Ignite Her Africa Community, an online community of over 15,000 savvy and passionate women who want to create wealth and impact doing what they love. She is also the President of The Millionaire Housewife Academy, a foremost edutech enterprise in Africa with the vision to empower housewives and stay-at-home mums to launch profitable online businesses from the comfort of their homes so that they can make empowered decisions, raise strong families and support causes they believe in.

Temi Olajide
Temi is a certified child sleep/potty training consultant and child psychologist. She is the co-founder of the Association of Child Sleep Consultants of Nigeria and a member of the International Association of Child Sleep Consultants. She is also the Founder of Mummyclinic, an online platform that provides strategies and result-driven solutions to the challenges of child-rearing and helps mothers successfully combine the requirements of life and motherhood while responding correctly to the peculiarities of the digital age. She is the author of Wi-Fi Kids and Analog Parents, a comprehensive book that equips parents on how to raise well-rounded kids in the digital age.

Temilade Openiyi
Temilade is a singer, songwriter and upcoming music producer. Better known as Tems, she is far from the typical breakout talents in the Nigerian music industry. She can be described as the Jane of all trades and master of all when it comes to music, because when she puts the act of singing, writing and producing specialities to work, she creates a musical masterpiece, as heard on her debut single, Mr REBEL released in 2019.

Tewa Onasanya
Tewa is a Publisher and Mindset Stylist as well as the Founder/CEO, Exquisite Magazine Services Limited, the publishers of Exquisite Magazine a fashion, beauty and lifestyle magazine for women. The magazine organises an annual cancer walk, an event aimed at increasing the awareness for cervical and breast cancer and free screening for people. In 2009, Exquisite magazine started an only female awards ceremony called the Exquisite Ladies of the Year (ELOY) awards. The ELOY Awards is aimed at celebrating women of excellence in different fields, empowering, motivating and inspiring others.

Titi Adewusi
Titi is a seasoned Management Consultant with over 18 years experience. She started in the banking sector before she joined one of the Big Four Multinational Audit and Consulting firms where she worked for over 10 years, providing business solutions to clients. She co-founded 9ijakids with two of her sisters with a vision of developing learning games and resources that make learning fun. She is currently the chairperson of Bethesda Child Support Agency, a Lagos based NGO that provides free education to children in poor communities in Nigeria.

Titilayo Medunoye
The desire to help new mums who found it difficult to lactate after delivery made Titi become a lactation consultant. Having gone through the same experience which led to depression, she decided to proffer solutions to new mums faced with such challenges; hence, starting Milky Express.

Tobore Mit Ovuorie
Tobore is an award-winning investigative journalist with a focus on women and child trafficking. Her investigations have led to policies being changed, as well as lives being impacted positively. For instance, her human trafficking story titled: “Rejected, stigmatized, trafficking survivors shun Libyan horrible experiences, ready to travel again” published April 2018, led to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) taking complete responsibility for all medical and surgical expenses of one of the Nigerian ladies she wrote about in the story. Her five-part series on “How Nigeria ‘Kills’ Children Living With HIV” has been instrumental in breaking the silence that surrounds HIV in the education sector and illustrates how stigma and discrimination still prevail for children living with HIV in Nigeria.

Tola Makinde
A seasoned banker, entrepreneur and child-caregiver of children with additional needs, Tola is passionate about helping and supporting kids living with challenges having been faced with the same challenge when her daughter was diagnosed with Down’s Syndrome in 2011. Tola engages in volunteer work, which entails home/door to door visitation of families with kids living with Down’s Syndrome, helping and assisting them cope with the emotional trauma, supporting and providing materials and therapy equipment to aid developmental milestones.

Tolani Alli
Tolani is an international documentary photographer, award-winning visual storyteller and personal documentary photographer to Prof. Yemi Osinbajo. Before her current role, she was the official photographer to former Oyo State Governor, Ajibola Ajimobi. A University of Michigan graduate, Tolani started her photo-journalism journey in 2010. As a cancer survivor and a visionary, Tolani not only fought for her life and won, but she fought for her dreams and is living it.

Tolu Oniru-Demuren
Tolu popularly known as Toolz is a big name in the Nigerian media industry. An on-air personality, talk show host and radio presenter, she hosts The Midday Show on Beats 99.9 Fm and anchors her show called The Juice. Prior to settling in Nigeria in 2008, she worked with MTV Europe and Walt Disney Pictures in the United Kingdom. As CEO of Sablier Lingerie and Shapewear, she projects a sense of inclusivity for the modern and discerning African woman. Alongside Gbemi Olateru Olagbegi, she hosts a hit talk show and podcast titled “OffAir.”

Tosin Olaseinde
Tosin is a chartered accountant with 10 years of experience spanning across accounting, audit, financial management and taxation. Founder/CEO of Money Africa, she has worked as an auditor at Horwath Leveton Boner in Johannesburg, South Africa and got selected as one of the top eight traders in Africa to feature on a stock market trading show that aired in 2012. She also worked as a financial analyst and Senior Financial analyst at CNBC Africa and Bloomberg TV Africa respectively.

Toyin Lolu-Ogunmade
Toyin is a human resources specialist by training with over two decades of experience cutting across several sectors including energy, finance, health care, manufacturing and logistics. She is also the Founder/CEO of Precious Conceptions, a holistic Family Building Consultancy.
Toyin Umesiri

Toyin is the creative genius and mastermind behind brands such as Nazaru LLC, the Trade with Africa Business Summit and Skincare line. She spent over a decade in America at both Walmart Corporation’s HQ. in Arkansas and Whirlpool Corporation HQ in Michigan. She is a global influencer and a leading figure serving as IATF Ambassador by appointment of the African Export-Import Bank and African Union. She is an inspirational speaker featured as a leading woman in technology on the platform the Spark Women and published in the book: Leading Women. As founder and convener of the Trade with Africa Business Summit, she convenes global leaders, trade experts, policymakers and innovators transforming the continent.

Uduak Akpan
Founder, Udy Foods, she is also a video content creator who creatively produces energetic video contents to keep her audience glued and video jingles for other entrepreneurs. Uduak is an inspiration to upcoming entrepreneurs on what it takes to grow a start-up into a successful business.
Ugoma Adegoke

Ugoma brings a tireless and energetic presence in her work as a creative entrepreneur and foremost cultural curator, community builder, adventurer, creative force and a dynamic taste-maker. While she trained as an economist and corporate finance professional, she directs the workings of the award-winning design brand, Zebra Living, producing experiential events and programs inspired by Nigeria’s rich cultural and multi-arts heritage, previously under the auspices of The Life House which she co-founded. She is also the founding director and chief curator of Bloom Art; the festival director of Lights Camera Africa Film Festival and the producer of the annual Woman Rising Music Concert and Arts Weekender. The event is an annual commemoration of International Women’s Day and a glorious celebration of women in the arts and women that enable the arts. In 2014, she originated an important art repatriation transaction which saw significant pieces of 1980s modernist Nigerian art worth over 70 Million ($400,000) returned to Nigeria.

Ukinebo Dare
Ukinebo is the Managing Director of Edo State Skills Development Agency (EdoJobs). She is also the C.E.O. of Poise Graduate Finishing Academy (PGFA), where she designed the PSENSE employability curriculum.

The PSENSE employability curriculum has achieved a record 87% employment rate and is endorsed by the National Universities Commission in Nigeria for implementation by higher institutions. Uki also serves as the Program Director of Ekobits, an academy that provides ICT and digital design training to youth from disadvantaged communities and connects them to opportunities to earn a good living. Current projects as SSA to the Edo State Governor on Skills Development include EdoJobs, EdoInnovates, Edo Food and Agri Cluster and Edo Production Centre.

Ukonwa Ojo
Ukonwa Ojo is the Global Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President of MAC Cosmetics. Prior to this role, she served as Global CMO and General Manager for Coty (portfolio including Covergirl, Clairol, Sally Hansen, Rimmel, and Lifestyle Scenting/Fragrances), where she played the most significant role in the brand’s 60-year history that led to the Covergirl brand exceptional facelift and also introduced ‘I Am What I Make Up’.

Yemisi Odusanya
Food blogger, vlogger and content creator, Sisi Yemmie, as she is popularly known blogs about food, lifestyle, relationships and parenting. She has addressed mental health issues such as ‘burning out’ and ‘signs you need a mental health break’.

Yewande Akinola
Yewande is an engineer who specialises in sustainable water supplies. She works as Principal Engineer for Laing O’Rourke and hosts television shows about engineering for Channel 4 and National Geographic. She started her career at a young age, designing model-sized houses. She is the founder of the Global Emit Project, which mentors young people who are interested in engineering. She is a prominent voice in the movement to increase diversity within engineering.

Yvonne Ofodile
Yvonne is the founder of 360 Woman Africa, a personal and enterprise development non-profit for women in Africa. A public speaker and mentor, Yvonne has been recognized by several platforms for her work as a change agent, inspiring young women leaders and businesswomen, and with a deep interest in human capital development and business growth. She is also the Founder of Woman Skill Development Scheme, a platform she set up to challenge women to live their best lives intentionally towards the achievement of their dreams and actively growing the number of women-led/owned businesses and women in leadership positions. Through this platform, she showcases successful people in different walks of life who have against all odds consciously pursued their dreams to set up enterprises and are today celebrated for what they do.