The African Leadership Institute has released the names of the 26 Africans selected for the 2017 Tutu Leadership Programme.

These young leaders were selected from about 300 nominees from 30 African countries. Spanning various industries, representing eleven African countries and ranging from 29 to 39 years of age, the selected candidates demonstrate the wealth and breadth of leadership talent that exists in Africa’s youth.

Offered on a part-time basis over six months, the Programme includes two 9-day Group Learning Modules with an impressive array of distinguished leaders and faculty. These are intensive interactive workshops; one at the historic Mont Fleur conference facility (South Africa), and the other split between Oxford University and London (UK).

The video below explains how the programme works.

It provides participants with an intensive learning and broadening experience on the principles and application of leadership, and an opportunity to explore the issues and specific characteristics of leadership in Africa, as well as the global challenges and dimensions of an African leader.

Upon completing the Programme, Tutu Fellows return to play active roles in their respective communities, countries and spheres of influence.

The 2017 candidates are as follows:

• Jude Abaga (Nigeria) – Jude “MI” Abaga is the Chief Executive of Chocolate City Music & Entertainment Company; one of Africa’s largest indigenous record labels and also a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador.
• Abayomi Awobokun (Nigeria) – Abayomi founded Service Liquids & Gas (SLG), a new downstream player in Nigeria poised to utilize technology to simplify and optimize fuels retailing to disrupt traditional fuels retailing models. Before SLG, Abayomi was the CEO of Oando’s Downstream Businesses in Nigeria, West Africa, Europe and the Middle East  for five years, which had a turnover of over $1bn.
• Mitoha Ondo’o Ayekaba (Equatorial Guinea) – A writer, economist, and public policy advocate, Mitoha Ondo’o Ayekaba is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Co-ordinator at Marathon EG Production
• Andiswa Bata (South Africa) – Andiswa Bata joined the syndicate business at Barclays Africa, based in Johannesburg, in September 2015. She was previously with Barclays Africa from December 2006, where she occupied various roles spanning across strategy & planning, loan structuring & execution, and later was responsible for driving Africa (ex-South Africa) loan syndications and distribution.
• Elizabeth Bintliff (Cameroon) – Elizabeth Bintliff is the CEO of Junior Achievement Africa, an organization that economically empowers youth. She is a development professional with years of experience working in developing countries and emerging economies.
• Yap Boum II (Cameroon) – Professor Yap Boum II is the regional representative for Epicenter Africa, the research arm of Médecins sans Frontières (MSF), known also as Doctors Without Borders. He is currently based in Yaoundé, Cameroon. From 2009 to 2014, Boum headed the Epicenter’s research base in Mbarara, Uganda, leading research projects that included tuberculosis and malaria.
• Stacey Brewer (South Africa) – After completing her MBA at the Gordon Institute of Business Science, she co-founded SPARK Schools in 2012. SPARK Schools is a network of low-cost private schools operating in South Africa that have introduced the first blended learning model on the African continent.
• Sonkita Conteh (Sierra-Leone) – Sonkita Conteh is a Legal Practitioner of the High Court of Sierra Leone and Director of Namati Law Firm.
• Candice Dott (South Africa) – Candice is an accomplished pan-African leader with 20 years’ experience in global financial services.  As head of market development at Thomson Reuters, Candice is responsible for leading all market and product development, exchange, and contributed content across the Sub-Saharan Africa Financial and Risk business.
• Rosy Fynn (Ghana) – Rosy Fynn is the Marketing Director for Airtel Ghana, in addition to having full responsibility over Customer Experience and Airtel Money.
• Dirk Holshausen (Zimbabwe) – Dirk Holshausen is an Investment Manager with CDC Group’s Africa team and leads the group’s investment in people, leadership and management teams across the continent.
• Natalie Jabangwe (Zimbabwe) – Natalie Jabangwe is currently the youngest chief executive to run a mobile money business in Africa, EcoCash.   EcoCash is Zimbabwe’s leading and fastest-growing mobile money service in Africa of telecoms giant, Econet Wireless and was the 2017 Corporate recipient of the Mobile World Congress “Best Mobile Payment Solution”, Glomo Awards.
• Samuel Kariuki (Kenya) – Samuel Kariuki is the Group CFO at Centum Investment Company Limited. He is passionate about community empowerment and is currently involved in education sponsorship initiatives and a pilot agro-entrepreneurship program that aims at supporting sustainable organic farming practices for small-scale farmers in rural Kenya and linking them to markets.
• Mimi Kalinda (Democratic Republic of Congo) – Mimi Kalinda is Co-Founder and Managing Director of the Africommunications Group (ACG), a pan-African public relations and communications agency based in Johannesburg, South Africa.
• Onyinye Ibeneche (Nigeria) – Onyinye Ibeneche Avbovbo is a Manager in the Johannesburg office of Bain & Company. Prior to joining Bain, Onyinye was General Manager at Alim Udo, an agricultural start-up in her native Nigeria, focused on providing high-quality protein to South Eastern Nigeria.
• Itumeleng Merafe (South Africa) – Itumeleng Merafe has over 10 years’ experience working in the financial services sector and is currently Head of Structuring in the Corporate and Institutional Banking division at Investec Bank. Itumeleng is the founding director of the Bokamoso Cross Mentorship Program which has a presence in both Gauteng and KZN. The program – now in its 10th year – mentors 200 Grade 11 students each year from over 10 schools in both provinces.
• Ngisana Mngomezulu (South Africa) – Ngisana Mngomezulu is a Senior Associate in Allen & Overy’s Johannesburg office who specialises in debt and equity capital markets for international and domestic clients across a range of sectors. Outside of work, Ngisana volunteers as a mentor in the Bokamoso Mentorship Programme, a mentorship programme for students in their penultimate year of high school.
• William Mwiti (Kenya) – William is the Director of Quality and Risk Management for Africa, and Developing Countries of Asia at GlaxoSmithKline. Prior to joining GSK, William worked for the US Centers for Disease Control as a Researcher, and at the Gertrude’s Children’s Hospital as a Doctor. He served patients in Kenya’s largest slum as a Doctor, and is a Board of Trustees member for the University of North Carolina’s Carolina for Kibera program.
• John-Allan Namu (Kenya) – John-Allan Namu is a Kenyan investigative journalist and the co-founder of Africa Uncensored, a company of journalists with one goal: to be the best investigative and in-depth journalism company in Africa.
• Sam Ngcolomba (Zimbabwe) – Sam N. Ngcolomba, an attorney admitted to practice law in South Africa and Zimbabwe is passionate about Human Rights and is currently specialising in Corporate Social Responsibility, Social Entrepreneurship and Women’s Rights.
• Fayelle Ouane (Mali) – Fayelle Ouane is the Novartis Social Business Cluster Head, West and Central Africa and is based in Cote d’Ivoire.
• ‘Bosun Tijani (Nigeria) – ‘Bosun Tijani is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Co-Creation Hub Nigeria (CcHUB). Funded by Omidyar Network, Google, and the Sainsbury Family Trust, the CcHUB is Nigeria’s first open living lab for technologists, software developers, entrepreneurs, tech companies, investors and other stakeholders in and around Lagos.
• Rori Tshabalala (South Africa) – Rori Tshabalala is founder and Chief Executive of Chapter One Innovation, a 10-year old business model research and development firm that brings ideas to life –  building, investing in and launching high-impact, “born-big” ventures and supporting corporates to do the same.
• Hema Vallabh (South Africa) – Hema Vallabh is a chemical engineer and a change-maker. She is a serial social entrepreneur who co-founded WomEng, an international non-profit developing the next generation of female engineering leaders. Following the success of WomEng, she co-founded WomHub, an umbrella education & technology company to host gender parity programs including women in the engineering sector.
• Ben Whitelaw (South Africa) – Ben is an associate at Allen & Overy LLP, an international law firm with a strong African presence.  He specialises in the fields of mergers and acquisitions and banking and finance and has been involved in a number of large cross-border corporate and funding deals.
• Ahmed Zahran (Egypt) – Ahmed Zahran is the co-founder and CEO of KarmSolar, an Egyptian company established in 2011, that aims to move communities away from centralised power to sustainable, localized and independent alternatives.

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