Celebrating the Iconic Impact of Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, a Nigerian Tech Enthusiast and One of the Shapers of Africa’s Tech Ecosystem
Iyinoluwa Samuel Aboyeji is really just another overly optimistic young entrepreneur itchy for a change in Africa.
He has served in various leadership roles within several local and international organizations, including the World Youth Alliance, Imprint Publications, Harambe Africa and Empowerment Squared.
At age 19, Aboyeji started bookneto.com a social learning platform for sharing and organizing resources within learning communities. The company was acquired by the Canadian Innovation Center in 2013.
In 2013, Aboyeji started Fora along with Ian Carnevale, Nedayar and Brice. It is a distance learning platform for African universities that enables young professionals in Africa to discover short certificate courses offered online or at universities and professional organizations in the United States.
In 2014, He co-founded Andela a global talent accelerator that trains young intelligent Africans to be world-class developers and then connects them with top employers around the world looking for top technical talent. The company has offices in Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and the United States and is supported by the founders of Facebook, eBay, and AOL among others. He moved on in 2016 and founded Flutterwave a payments API that makes it easier for banks and businesses to process payments across Africa.
He is listed among Forbes Africa’s 30 under 30 and is in fact a recipient of several wards and honors including the John C Holland Award for Youth Leadership in 2010, Nigeria’s top 20 under 20 awarded by Thisday Newspaper in 2011. He was also named a World Economic Forum Shaper in 2012.
On October 15, 2018, Aboyeji announced his retirement from Flutterwave as the CEO, and that was 2 years after he similarly retired from Andela to cofound Flutterwave. However, Aboyeji remains a true African techstar and one of the prominent names in Nigeria’s tech ecosystem both in the educational and financial sector.
