For the seventh consecutive year, YNaija brings you its annual ranking of the most powerful young persons under the age of 40 who are getting things done in the field of big business. From serial entrepreneurs finally coming into their own, to dogged founders soldiering on passion these 10 young ones will surely own the future.
Adebola Ataiyero Adefila
If you have ever come across any of the Banrut Group’s line of tissue products, – and there are many of them, then this 37-year-old mother of two is the woman who ensures you get your regular supply. With over fifteen years’ experience in business management, Adebola Ataiyero Adefila is the chief operating officer of Banrut Rolls, billed as the second largest manufacturers of tissue papers in Nigeria with products such as Vicki box tissue, Prince toilet roll, Ruth supreme luxury tissue, Nimmy economy toilet roll, Vicki kitchen roll.
Ronke Bamisedun
Ronke Bamisedun is founder of BWL Agency, a strategic brand development and communications company that employs mostly young, bold communication practitioners. BWL helps brands like Jameson and Martell Cognac deliver compelling campaigns that tell powerful stories. The agency is an exclusive affiliate of top global communications agency, Grayling. Bamisedun has an undergraduate degree in Media and Communications (Public Relations) from Birmingham City University and a Chartered Institute of Public Relations Diploma in Public Affairs.
Bisola Borha
When she started her business, Trendy Bee Events in 2012, Borha had just left her position as an operational staff at an event planning company. In five short years, Borha’s Trendy Bee Elite Events is competing successfully, managing events in Dubai, Vegas, London and Zanzibar. Borha has worked on some of the biggest society weddings and her clients include Banky W and Adesua Etomi Wellington. She regularly engages new vendors and provides training programmes for young women looking to break into event planning.
Prince Nnamdi Ekeh
Nnamdi Ekeh proved himself a chip off the old block when Yudala, an online retail startup which he founded concluded a high stakes merger with Konga, one of the biggest online retail stores in country. Both companies now operate under the Konga brand name and Ekeh is the chief executive responsible for offline business. His mandate is to ensure the brand becomes profitable in the long run while pushing a massive offline expansion campaign. A physical store in every local government is the goal.
Abubakar Sadiq Mohammed Falalu
Abubakar Sadiq Mohammed Falalu started Falgates, a company invested in farming and milling rice. Falgates’ rice milling facility has a capacity of 15 tonnes per day and its rice farm employs more than 180 people in Kaduna. The company scored revenues of $400,000 in 2017. Falalu holds a degree in Computer Science and a Master’s in Management from Swinburne University of Technology, Australia. He also holds an MSc Degree in Entrepreneurship from the University of Nottingham.
Aderonke Jaiyeola
Aderonke Jaiyeola is the founder and creative director of Mimiremi Creations, a producer with Afrocentric fabrics and prints for the fashion and interior design industry. Armed with about 10 years experience in the textile and fashion design industry, Jaiyeola, a 2017 Mandela Washington fellow has had her designs featured on fashion runways including the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York. Her designs also won the best textile design competition by the GTbank Lagos Fashion Design Week.
Peter Okocha Junior
After cutting his teeth in his family shipping business, Peter Okocha is ready to change the world next, beginning from a farm in Abeokuta. He is co-founder of PS Nutrac Int. Ltd, a venture that wants to lead the agriculture industry into the future through utilising new aeroponics technologies and growing methods to address efficiency in food production, security, research and development. At the PS Nutrac farms, yam plants grow without soil, suspended in water in special greenhouses using a special cutting-edge agricultural technology. Okocha Jr is the future of farming.
Harold Okwa
Jetseta founded by Harold Okwa and headquartered in Abuja, offers on-demand charter and a daily per-seat scheduled shuttle service from Lagos to Abuja and Port Harcourt with a fleet of large-cabin and super-midsize business jets. The company is hoping to set up bases in Rwanda and Angola by 2019. Jetseta’s fixed-wing fleet consists of three Bombardier Challenger 604s, a Challenger 300 and an Embraer Legacy 600. Looking to get from one point to the other with ease? Harold Okwa is the man to make it all happen.
Ayilara Olawale
Olawale is the founder/CEO of LandWey Investment Limited, a real estate investment company. By 2018, the company, which started with 5 employees, has registered 42 full-time staff, 370 realtors and 16,000 consultants. Olawale is a serial entrepreneur and his company operates within the commercial, retail and residential property segments. Olawale also provides real estate advisory services that help making the property market a little less stressful.
Nasir Yammama
Nasir Yammama is a Creative Technologist and Entrepreneur. He is the founder of Verdant, an Agri-Tech value chain company that offers innovative solutions to farmers and stakeholders for improved food production using novel technologies. Interested in technology, design and enterprise, Yammama through his company, offers personalised agricultural information and market intelligence to crop farmers in Nigeria through a mobile application that acts as an all-round companion for the farmer from the pre-planting period to harvest and beyond.
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