Nigerian serial Internet entrepreneur, Chidi Nwaogu, has won the first prize in the ‘Entrepreneurship’ category at the 2019 Africa 35.35 Awards, which seeks to recognize 35 people under 35 from Africa or the African diaspora who have made outstanding achievements in their communities. Other winners in the Entrepreneurship category are Jorge Appiah of Ghana, Kimberly Addison of Ghana, and Saif Eddine Laalej of Morocco.
Other Laureates of the Award include Halimatou Gadji of Senegal, Elijah Amoo Addo of Ghana, Affiong Williams of Nigeria, Aline Savadogo of Burkina Faso, Ansoumane Mory Mara for Guinea/Morocco, Daraja Haidara of Mali, Fatoumata Coulibaly Koné of Cote d’Ivoire/Burkina Faso, Chinemenma Umeseaka of Nigeria, Isabelle Vovor of Côte d’Ivoire, Funkola Odeleye of Nigeria, Modou Njie of Gambia, and Kuami Eugene of Ghana.
Nwaogu is one of the 35 young people from 16 African countries that made the list of laureates of the Africa 35.35 Awards celebrating African youth and afro-diaspora excellence. Formerly known as the Francophone 35.35 Youth Awards, which expanded to cover both French and English-speaking Africa, the Awards reward young people on the continent and its diaspora aged 18 to 35 who have achieved exceptionally in the course of the year.
Selected out of 350 nominees living in 49 countries, Chidi Nwaogu and other laureates will be awarded during a ceremony on the 25th of November 2019 in Accra, Ghana. The event shall be enhanced by the presence of leading figures of the host country. Nwaogu will return with a trophy and first prize in the Entrepreneurship category, and so will other laureates. A super prize of the “Young African of the Year” will also be awarded during the ceremony.
Many laureates will also be given a platform to share their ideas or innovations before a gathering of 300 participants during the special “Inspiration Africa” event. Nwaogu is the Co-founder and CEO of Publiseer, a digital publisher for African Creatives, described by Konbini as “one of the largest digital publishers in Africa”, identified by IFC as one of the startups “that could speed up innovation in Africa” and listed twice by ModernGhana as one of the “10 African Innovations” in 2019.
So far this year, Nwaogu has received several honours and awards, which include emerging a winner of the Young Leaders Award 2019, winner of The Bizz Business Excellence Award 2019, winner of Startup World Cup Nigeria Regionals 2019, winner of the ITU Innovation Challenges 2019, two-time recipient of OD Young Person of the Month, and first place winner of OD Impact Challenge 2019.
Nwaogu started his entrepreneurial journey when he was 16 with the creation of 9ja Boi Interactive, a video game development company, after which he has co-founded, grown and sold two Internet companies, including LAGbook, a social network that garnered over 1-million registered users within three years. He has been described as one of the “Young innovators making Africa great in 2019”.
