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Toyosi Akerele-Ogunsiji
(As seen in Featured Image)
Toyosi Akerele-Ogunsiji, named by Forbes as one of the 20 most Powerful Young Women in Africa is a Social Entrepreneur whose work is at the Intersection of Entrepreneurship, Youth Development and Public Leadership. She is the Founder / CEO of RISE NETWORKS, Africa’s leading Social Enterprise whose mandate focuses on using Tech Innovation to create advocacy and learning opportunities for the inclusive growth of Youth with the core objective of preparing them for effective Value Based Leadership at all levels in the Public, Private and Social Sectors. Their flagship project, Passnownow.com is Nigeria’s most sought after mobile learning portal with access to curriculum-based education content with standardized assessments and exam review questions in digital format distributed via web and mobile to underserved high School Students and Teachers. In addition to that, she is a serial entrepreneur with vested interests in other successful Business Endeavors. Rise Networks’ annual National Youth Forum is arguably the largest gathering of young people for Empowerment Programs at different locations across Nigeria.
Toyosi, one of the most promising emerging Leaders of Africa’s new generation is an Edward Mason Fellow and Mid-Career Master in Public Administration Graduate of Harvard University John F Kennedy School of Government where she also served as Vice President for International Student Affairs and Chair of the International Student Affairs Committee. Her 2nd Book, ‘WE HAVE TO BELONG – Why the Poor Majority of my Rich Country cannot wait anymore’ was also launched at Harvard University in 2017.
She studied Strategic Management at Executive Level at Cambridge University’s Judge Business School, obtained a Certificate in Youth Inclusive Financial Services from University of New Hampshire, Durham, USA, holds a Certificate in Media Enterprise from the School of Media and Communication, Pan Atlantic University and an Executive Masters’ Certificate in Project Management from The Project Management College, UK. She has also studied Digital Marketing Strategy at the UK Institute of Digital Marketing and she received a 2nd Class Upper Bachelors’ degree in Civil Law from the University of Jos.
She is a mindful leader who is celebrated for Leadership on the Continent in the service of a larger cause, a worthy alumnus of the United States Government’s Prestigious International Visitor Leadership Program and she was described by the First Lady of the United States, Mrs. Michelle Obama as one of her personal inspirations.
Toyosi spent most of her growing years shaping Nigerian Communities through her Youth, she is a devoted Mentor to hundreds of Young People in Business, Politics, Non-Profit and Tertiary Institutions across Africa.
Her values and ideals are evident in the ground-breaking successes of many of the beneficiaries of her efforts and are attributable to her unflinching commitment to the value re-orientation, financial empowerment and Job Creation for the successor Generation of Africa.
She is a respected advisor, thought leader, content expert and commentator on issues of Social Entrepreneurship, Education Advancement and Public Sector Leadership. She is reflective and believes in strengthening others through shared vision, insights and perspectives.
In 2007, she was selected as one of 101 Young African Leaders by the African Business Forum, she is a recipient of numerous awards including Recognition by Crans Montana Forum in Europe as a New Leader of Tomorrow, This Day Awards for Nigeria’s Women of Distinction, Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2011 of Success Digest Entrepreneurial Awards, The 2011 Excellence Awards of the School of Media and Communication, Pan African University, The 2008 Future Africa Awards Best Use of Advocacy Category and the Nigerian Youth Leadership Awards jointly organised by Leap Africa, International Youth Foundation and NOKIA.
She was also one of the honorees of the Top 100 Young Leaders’ Recognition at the Nigeria’s Centenary Celebrations by the Federal Government. She is an Ambassador of 234 GIVE, a Social Initiative that encourages Nigerians to donate to the adopted Charities and improve livelihoods for the less privileged. In May of 2010, Toyosi was selected for the Nigeria Leadership Initiative’s Future Leaders Fellowship. NLI is a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.
Toyosi is a Board Member of a number of Organizations including The Right to Know Initiative, a Nonprofit Advocacy Organization on Human Rights and Open Government and The Foundation for the Support of Victims of Terrorism.
She is married to her Forever Best Friend and Inspiration, Korede Ogunsiji and they blessed with two children.
Uchenna Eze Pedro
Uchenna Eze Pedro was born July 26, 1984. She is a Nigerian blogger, writer, social media expert and entrepreneur. She is the founder of BellaNaija, an online entertainment, fashion and lifestyle magazine. In 2014, she was named in Forbes list of “30 Most Promising Young Entrepreneurs in Africa.
Uche was born and raised in Nigeria where she also finished her primary and secondary school education. She later moved to Canada where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario, Canada.
Prior to the creating of her website BellaNaija, Uche worked for Shell Canada, Cadbury Middle East & Africa Unit in the UK, and Cadbury in Nigeria.
Uche is a Fellow of TEDGlobal and a Nigeria Leadership Initiative associate. In July 2006, she founded BellaNaija.
On June 16, 2012, Uche got married to Bode Pedro, a son of former Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Femi Pedro. She is also a mother after she delivered a set of twins in 2015.
The idea for establishing BellaNaija came whilst she was studying at university in Canada. She had two weeks holiday and soon got bored. She had always loved Nigeria and Africa, and each time she returned to the country for a holiday or on visits from school or work, she saw how everything in Nigeria was growing – the fashion was more vibrant, the entertainment was more vibrant, more young people were getting involved in politics, business and so on, and that encouraged her.
She later began to blog about fashion and celebrites in Nigeria and BellaNaija was born. She started by scanning magazine articles, pictures and interviews of Nigerian fashion personalities and continued in a low profile way until her BellaNaija portal began to have over 1 million hits every month, at which time she unveiled the personality behind the portal to the media.
Today, the BellaNaija portal is one of the top 100 sites in Nigeria and continues to grow its visitor base, attracting fashion savvy audiences who want to spend time on a portal that understands fashion, trends, music and celebrity red carpet action.
For her, “In terms of the commercialisation of the site, in the early days of BellaNaija, it was hard work to generate revenues but we managed to break even and saw the portal as a first step to building something much larger down the line.”
In 2010, she won Outstanding Contribution to Fashion Communication Award and “The Future Awards Africa” for Young Media Entrepreneur of the Year in 2013 and many other awards. Uche Pedro was interviewed by CNN reporter, Isha Sesay on CNN i-List on September 28, 2010 on account of her enormous achievements. She also featured on the Oprah Winfrey show “Beauty Around the World”, in February 2010 alongside Jessica Simpson and Lisa Ling.
