In Nigeria, women are contributing significantly to the startup ecosystem and as we celebrate International Women’s Day, it’s only right for us to look at some of the female-led businesses and Startups in the country.
While there are many women occupying leadership positions in various startups in the continent, we are spotlighting some of the female founders and co-founders who are innovatively solving problems with their platforms and reshaping the business landscape in Nigeria.
Yanmo Omorogbe
Yanmo Omorogbe is the Co-Founder of Bamboo.
Launched in 2019, digital investment platform, Bamboo gives Nigerians real-time access to buy, sell or hold assets traded on the U.S. stock exchanges right from their mobile phones or computers. With Bamboo, the average Nigerian can become a shareholder in the technology companies they use every day like Twitter, Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook.
Before Bamboo, Yanmo worked as an investment analyst, and then investment associate at African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM), which develops and manages private equity infrastructure funds designed to invest long-term institutional unlisted equity in African infrastructure projects.
Omorogbe is a graduate of the Imperial College of London where she studied Chemical Engineering.
Damilola Olokesusi
Damilola is the Co-Founder and CEO of transport and tech company called Shuttlers, a start-up revolutionising the way people commute.
Damilola’s unpleasant experiences using public transport in Lagos, made her develop the idea to create an efficient system of transportation for professionals in Lagos using a shared scheduled model enabled by technology, and this led to the establishment of the company.
Olokesusi has a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Lagos. As an entrepreneur, and she has won competitions and and awards. She is a Forbes30under30 2019 Recipient for Technology. She was also selected by the UK government for a technology exchange in 2020.
Tomilola Adejana
Tomilola is the Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Bankly.
Bankly, digitizes cash and provides micro businesses/individuals working in the informal sector a safer path to savings.
Bankly provides digital frameworks for thrift systems called ajo or adache or esusu. Bankly adds transparency to the systems while eliminating fraud.
The platform also enables transactions such as bill payments and transfers.
Tomilola Adejana’s career started out as an investment banker with Meristem where she spent four years having bagged an undergraduate degree in Physiology from the University of Lagos. She developed SmartCredit which was a lending product born out of a partnership between Access Bank and Airtel. It was while working on this product that the idea for Bankly was born.
Honey Ogundeyi
Honey Ogundeyi is the founder of Edtech platform Edukoya which offers online tutoring for students and their parents.
Specifically, Edukoya is built to target Nigerian secondary school learners. It includes 24/7 exam preparation & homework tutor help, a data-driven question bank with step-by-step solutions and personalised performance tracking systems.
Honey Ogundeyi also founded Fashpa.com, a Nigerian e-commerce site that designed and sold its products online and in store and also sold fashion and lifestyle brands from the international market to Nigerians.
Affiong Williams
Affiong Williams is the founder and CEO of Reel Fruit, a Nigerian company that processes and distributes locally grown fruits.
Reelfruit was founded in 2012 by Affiong Williams. The startup is into the production of a wide range of healthy, dried fruit and nut snacks.
In September, the startup announced a $3 million Series A funding aimed at establishing a new factory to help boost production.
Affiong was listed by Forbes among the Africa’s Most Promising Entrepreneurs in 2015. She is also passionate about agribusiness and innovative solutions.
