The CEO of Innohub Limited, Nelson Madiba Amo, has been adjudged the winner of the Investment Category and The People’s Choice Award, at the just ended edition of Forty Under 40 Africa Awards, 2022 held at the Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City in Accra – Ghana.
The prestigious award in the Investment Category was in recognition of his dedication and commitment to supporting small and growing businesses in the country and on the continent. Innohub has done this through the designing of robust platforms that have helped businesses with their scaling up plans, and assisted them to unlock investment capital for growth.
Mr. Madiba’s honour in the ‘The People’s Choice Award’ category represented the nominee with the highest number of votes across all the categories.
Speaking to the media after receiving the award, Nelson Amo was grateful to his family, friends, Innohub’s partners, board and team members, and everyone who has supported his dreams this far.
He took the opportunity to urge governments across the continent to be very deliberate about creating the right strategies and policies to drive investments into ventures that can promote innovation, create jobs and decent incomes for the ever-increasing youth population, which has been described as a ‘ticking time bomb’ in Africa.
He also called on African leaders to be intentional about removing the artificial barriers to trade and mobility across the continent, explaining how he missed an opportunity when he was recently invited to attend a meeting in an African country. This was because the processes involved in the visa application were so tedious; meanwhile, his friends from non-African countries could easily acquire the visa to attend the meetings.
He described it as pathetic and shameful, especially as it was easier for him to secure a visa and travel outside Africa. He concluded that such artificial challenges will limit the potential of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) provisions from yielding the desired results.
This year’s event, which saw dignitaries across the continent, was in partnership with the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, and the Ministry of Youth and Sports which seeks to identify, honour and celebrate a cross-section of the continent’s most influential and accomplished business leaders under age forty from a wide range of industries which included people committed to business growth, professional excellence and community services.
With regards to background, Nelson has experience in business development, growth consulting, grant management, business model innovation, design of enterprise support initiatives, among others.
Mr. Madiba is the Grant Manager/Programme Lead for mLab Ghana, a project under Ghana’s Ministry of Communication with funding from the World Bank to promote the development of digital start-ups, supporting them develop their prototype, and launching the market. He also led the Ghana Climate Venture Facility project with funding from the World Bank.
He is also the Founder of Accra Angels Network – an entity dedicated to driving investments into early-stage start-ups in Ghana.
