Meet The Nigerian Creating Access To Quality Software Engineering Talent For African Startups

At age 22, Kennedy Ekezie-Joseph is innovating and impacting lives across Nigeria and the African continent.

Born in Imo State, Nigeria, he started his career while studying at the University of Calabar, where he founded the Calabar Youth Council for Women’s Rights (CYCWR), which supports the rights of women in the areas of female genital mutilation (FGM), domestic abuse, forced child marriage and access to education for girls. The CYCWR works with rural community members, to educate them on the dangers of gender-based violence.

Since then, Ekezie-Joseph has been working with the government to introduce anti-FGM laws and anti-FGM and gender-based violence education into the curriculum of all secondary schools in Africa.

In 2019, he launched Africave, an initiative that guides the development of young Africans between the ages of 13 and 19 by connecting them with mentorship for self-development as well as to access global opportunities. Africave identifies some of Africa’s most promising young talents and pairs them up with carefully selected African mentors from across the continent for 6 months. Its mission is to build an inspired community of bright young Africans and help them access global opportunities to impact the world in the way they want to and create a legacy they’re proud of. The carefully selected and curated mentors consist of very high-achieving young Africans, mostly under the age of 25.

In 2018, Ekezie-Joseph was among the three Nigerians selected for the Queen’s Young Leaders Award, where he received the award from Queen Elizabeth II herself.

At his very young age, the socio-techpreneur has achieved so much for himself. He has won the Resolution Fellowship. He is a One Young World Ambassador and presented a keynote at the United Nations Youth Assembly and 2 TEDx talks. In 2017, Kennedy was named one of the Top 30 Teens in the World by the We Are Family Foundation (WAFF).

He is a recipient of the Yenching Scholarship dubbed the “Chinese Rhodes Scholarship” and is pursuing a fully-funded Master’s of Economics Degree at China’s premier University.

Ekezie-Joseph has worked in Management Consulting for Accenture and interned at Athena Global Advisors in Nigeria and the USA respectively, with his class of experience stretching to Byte Dance, advising the startup’s expansion strategy into key global markets.