Black History Month: 6 Nigerians in tech driving global innovation

Black History Month is usually a great time to reflect on and celebrate the legacy of Black pioneers and the changemakers shaping our world today. As the 2025 Black History Month celebrations close, amidst numerous changes and complex conversations ongoing worldwide, it is essential to spotlight exceptional Nigerians in the diaspora who are driving innovation and redefining Black excellence globally.

According to the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), an estimated 17 million Nigerians live, work, and thrive abroad, making significant contributions to the economies and industries of their host countries. From the bustling tech hubs of Silicon Valley to the cutting-edge research labs of Canada and the UK, Nigerian expatriates are not just participants in the global tech revolution—they are leading it.

Often referred to as Africa’s “secret weapon,” these trailblazers embody the essence of global citizenship, leveraging their skills, creativity, and entrepreneurial spirit to tackle complex challenges and develop transformative technologies.

In the spirit of Black History Month, we spotlight six outstanding Nigerians in the diaspora who are making waves in the tech world, proving that the future of innovation knows no borders.

Tope Awotona
Tope Awotona is the mastermind and founder behind a rarity – a Black-owned unicorn, the scheduling powerhouse Calendly. Awotona has always been a fierce believer in his company. He quit his job with Dell EMC, emptied his retirement accounts, and maxed out credit cards for a startup with zero revenue. In 2021, just four years after becoming profitable, Calendly’s value had grown to $3 billion. Today, Calendly has become one of the most integrated scheduling platforms for individuals and large enterprises.

Ime Archibong
Ime Archibong is Head of New Product Experimentation at Meta, where he leads a portfolio of diverse entrepreneurial teams focused on the rapid experimentation of products that enable underserved needs worldwide. These teams include developers, community leaders, and nonprofits. Archibong is a listed inventor on over a dozen technical patents and serves on the boards of many nonprofits focused on empowering underserved youth, students, and entrepreneurs. He is considered among the most critical voices in Facebook’s diversity and equality efforts.

Jessica Matthews
As a child visiting Nigeria, Jessica Matthews experienced a power outage while attending a relative’s wedding. Several years later, as a student at Harvard University, she remembered inventing something for an engineering class project. Her invention, Soccket, is a soccer ball that generates energy during play and serves as a portable power source. In 2016, she rebranded her startup as Uncharted Power and raised $7 million, the largest Series A ever raised by a Black female founder at the time. Uncharted Power aims to democratize energy access and create a smart, sustainable, accessible power network. It has since raised $12.5 million from investors, including Disney, Kapor Capital, and Magic Johnson.

Omolabake Adenle
Omolabake Adenle is a Nigerian-American investment strategist, engineer, and founder of the app development studio Aja.la Studios, a startup that builds voice solutions for African languages. Adenle holds a PhD in Bayesian Signal Processing from Cambridge University and previously built SpeakYoruba, a defunct app that helped children learn to speak the Yoruba language. Only recently, she won the DEI In Voice award from Women in Voice (WiV) for her outstanding contributions to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in voice.

Fin Dittimi (PhD)
Dr Fin Dittimi stands out as one of the most influential Nigerian technology executives and AI/ML specialists making waves in Canada and North America. Before the world caught the artificial intelligence buzz that had taken over today, Dittimi saw the future by earning a PhD in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning from Concordia University, Canada. Today, he combines deep technical expertise with strategic leadership. As the founder of FandF Consultancy, he has carved a niche for himself as a visionary leader and fractional CPO who excels in launching and scaling groundbreaking products. His remarkable contributions have driven transformative growth for global giants like Bell and Bombardier, generating over $50 million in revenue through over 30 successful product launches.

Makinde Adeagbo
Born in Nigeria, Makinde Adeagbo is a software engineer who has worked at Facebook, Microsoft, and Pinterest. In 2015, he founded dev/color, one of the first non-profit startups to make it into Y Combinator. dev/color is a career accelerator for Black software engineers, technologists, and executives. Since its founding, dev/color claims to have helped over 600 Black software engineers make career moves, learn new technologies, and start new companies.