News
The latest news from the African Leadership Institute and its Fellows. AFLI Fellows are leaders and change-makers, so this section has a lot of news. All text in all of the posts is fully searchable.

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2013 Fellow Ifeoma Malo has won the Energy Entrepreneur Award at the 2023 Africa Women Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum (AWIEF). She was the winner in one of AWIEF's eight categories at the awards ceremony, which took place in Kigali, Rwanda in November 2023. Each year the AWIEF Awards recognises and celebrates outstanding women entrepreneurs and business owners in Africa for their contribution to Africa’s growth and social development.
Ify was awarded her work in clean tech and climate-friendly solutions.

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The New York Times is reporting about an organization founded by 2023 Tutu Fellow Marie-Alix de Putter. Her Bluemind Foundation is providing training to hairdressers to be mental health ambassadors, to make an impact on the limited mental healthcare available in Africa.
The NYT article begins with the account of a woman in Togo, who had lost her brother and was having a hard time dealing with her grief. She knew she needed help, but couldn't afford therapy. Instead, she found help from an unexpected counsellor - her hairdresser. Her hairdresser had noticed the changes and created a safe space to share her struggles.
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2012 Tutu Fellow Julie Gichuru has written a guest column for All Africa titled Africa: Reclaiming the past; defining the future. The post deals with how managing information and imagery shapes views of Africa, by defining the narratives that shape perceptions.
She uses the photographic exhibit at the Moses Mabhida in Durban called South Africa in the Making as a point of departure. She describes the series of powerful images that chronicles the making of what Archbishop Desmond Tutu called the 'Rainbow Nation', that celebrates the strength the country could derive from its many ethnicities. The exhibit is narrated by Mac Maharaj, a close comrade of Nelson Mandela who spent years imprisoned with him on Robben Island.
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Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has appointed 2006 Tutu Fellow Dr Abdu Mukhtar to serve as the national coordinator of the Presidential Unlocking Healthcare Value-Chain Initiative. The initiative will operate within the auspices of the federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and is part of the administration's Renewed Hope agenda. The announcement was made in November 2023.
The appointment is for an ambitious undertaking, unlocking billions of dollars of new investment in the nation’s healthcare-delivery system and revitalizing the sector as a whole.
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2020 Fellow Rose Funja has been appointed to the EASTECO Governing Board. EASTECO is short for the East African Science and Technology Commission. Rose will serve in the Outreach and partnerships committee. She was appointed in November 2023. The mission of EASTECO is to advance scientific excellence and technological innovation across the East African region.
Rose is a serial entrepreneur and is the founder and Managing Director of Agrinfo Company and co-founder of the She Codes for Change social enterprise.
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2018 Tutu Fellow Nozipho Tshabalala will moderate the 13th Desmond Tutu International Peace Lecture, titled Unlocking Women’s Power for Peace and Prosperity on 17 November. Her guest and distinguished keynote speaker will be international philanthropist Melinda French Gates.
The Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation say that the annual lecture, initiated by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, has become a significant moment in promoting peace, healing, and courageous leadership. The Peace Lecture is a powerful opportunity to reaffirm the Arch’s enduring legacy and the values he embodies, not only for South Africa but for people worldwide.
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The Norrenberger Financial Group has announced a N500 million empowerment support grant for five thousand young entrepreneurs of the Nigerian National Youth Service Corps. The company, led by 2014 Tutu Fellow Tony Edeh, has said that they intend to continue supporting the grant in years ahead.
Tony announced that 2.5% of the company’s profit after tax is set aside for the entrepreneurship programme, which he said is part of its corporate social responsibility programmes.
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2012 Tutu Fellow James Mworia has been honoured by The Nature Conservancy for championing conservation of nature and advancing climate action in Kenya. The award was presented by US Senator Bill Frist, the chair of the Conservancy, at a ceremony in Washington DC. The award was for his work at the Kenya Project for Finance Performance Initiative.
James was one of three recipients globally of the Nature’s Advocate Award. The prestigious award is bestowed every year by The Nature Conservancy to its trustees who champion policies that address climate change and conservation challenges.
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Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has appointed 2013 Tutu Fellow Dr Kelechi Ohiri as Director-General and CEO of the National Health Insurance Agency. Kelechi has previously served as a senior adviser to the Ministers of Health and Finance in Nigeria.
The National Health Insurance Scheme was legislatively revamped last year to operate as Public Private Partnership and directed at providing accessible, affordable and qualitative healthcare for all Nigerians.
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The Nigerian Exchange has appointed 2009 Tutu Fellow Ahonsi Unuigbe as it's new Board Chairman. The announcement came at the end of September, 2023.
Shareholders also announced a number of other changes, including a new Executive Director and five Non-Executive Directors during the transition.
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2018 Tutu Fellow Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg PhD has founded and launched a Fellowship for Black women in executive leadership - B-WEL - and it held its first convening in the last quarter of 2023 at the Rockefeller Foundation in Italy. The inaugural cohort comprised 17 women from across the globe.
Wanjiru describes B-WEL as a new global initiative focused on improving the numbers, experiences, and impact of Black women in senior and executive leadership. The fellowship of women seeks to collect, collate, and curate Black women's wisdom on leadership, creating connected communities of Black women leaders and collaborations for change.
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Nigerian President Bola Tinubu nominated 2011 Tutu Fellow Muhammad Dattijo as a Deputy Governor of Nigeria's Central Bank in early September 2023. The position comes as part of a shakeup of the central bank by the president in which he appointed Olayemi Cardoso as the bank's new Governor, along with three other deputy governors serving with Muhammad.
The term of the previous CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, was suspended. Muhammad's nomination is for a five-year term subject to Senate confirmation.
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2020 Tutu Fellow Josea Rono PhD has been appointed to Grand Challenges Canada's governance structures. He will be joining the Investment Committee. The mission of Grand Challenges Canada is tackling some of the world’s most pressing global challenges. The organisation invests in ideas that not only apply science and technology, but also integrate social and business approaches, to generate transformative impact.
Josea is Co-Founder and Managing Director at E&K Consulting, a pan-African advisory and investment firm. During his career, he has advised on transactions worth over US$ 20 billion in the global healthcare, innovation, and climate and energy sectors.
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2022 Tutu Fellow Elizabeth Biney-Amissah has been selected as a winner of the 2023 Clean Energy Education and Empowerment Awards by the US Department of Energy. She was the winner in the International category.
The Clean Energy Education and Empowerment (C3E) Awards honored 11 women for "outstanding leadership and accomplishments in clean energy". The DOE says that the C3E Initiative aims to close the gender gap and increase the participation, leadership, and success of women in clean energy fields.
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2009 Tutu Fellow James Mwangi - a featured speaker at the 2023 Africa Climate Summit - is changing the narrative on projects in Africa that can reduce the impact of global warming and climate change. Aside from the merit in these projects, which James addresses, narrative change is an imperative to closing the gap between perceived and actual risks for projects on the African continent.
The high-profile summit in early September 2023 to kick-start the transition to clean energy was attended by leaders from Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, Rwanda, the U.S. and the European Union. James was instrumental in helping to organize the event.
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- Bosun Tijani named Nigeria's tech minister
- Ally Angula running as an independent presidential contender in Namibia's elections
- Book launch - Women, Resilience, and the Will to Lead
- Candidates of Samson Itodo's movement win seats in Nigerian elections
- Isaac Kwaku Fokuo's company signs an MoU with the African Union
- Francis Ben Kaifala reappointed as Commissioner of Sierra Leone's Anti-Corruption Commission
- Prof Landry Signé Authors New Book - Africa's Fourth Industrial Revolution
- Jumoke Oduwole Senior Fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government
- Marcia Ashong appointed to 2X Global Forum
- Mokena Makeka talks about designing the future