Timothy Olukayode Akano is a Nigerian technopreneur and philanthropist whose work spans technology, education and youth empowerment across Africa. As founder and chief executive of New Horizons Africa Group, he has built one of the continent’s largest ICT training networks since 2005. The organisation says it has produced more than two million certified technology experts across Africa.
His recent nomination as a finalist for the 2026 Humanity Flourishing Prize has renewed attention on his campaign for Africa’s estimated 100 million out-of-school children.
In 2026, he launched the Almajiri-to-Tech Empowerment Scheme, a N50 million initiative enrolling 21 Almajiri children in structured technology training within 90 days. Participants receive free technical training, daily meals, clothing, tools, water and logistics support. A workshop followed, and its graduates now work and earn.
Akano’s philanthropy is rooted in personal history. Through the Tim Akano Foundation, he adopted his former primary school, Baptist Day School in Oluponna, Osun State, in 2014, providing about 300 students with two uniforms each, exercise books, a functional borehole, toilet facilities and a perimeter fence.
At the Federal School of the Blind in Oshodi, Lagos, he supported computerisation and internet access, and sponsored ICT training for visually impaired students.
A 1983 graduate of Obafemi Awolowo University, where he studied International Relations from 1983 to 1987, Akano has received more than 350 national, continental and international awards for his contributions to technology, education and humanitarian service.
In 2023, he awarded 1,000 scholarships worth N60 million to OAU students to study artificial intelligence. Since then, he has consistently adopted five students from the Department of International Relations annually under a structured mentorship initiative.
His argument is economic as well as moral. He contends that equipping excluded young people with relevant skills at scale could push Africa’s average income per person towards $10,000 and lift the continent into the World Bank’s upper-middle-income band, currently defined as $4,636 to $14,375.
