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2017 Tutu Fellow Mimi Kalinda says that her company, Africa Communications Group, has been acquired by Marco.  The sale to Marco, which purchased a 51% stake, happened in November 2021.  Mimi is delighted with Marco’s investment in ACG, as it means the company she began can expand across other continents and make a bigger contribution to the growth of African economy.

She says ACG is the first African-owned, pan-African communications and strategic reputation management firm handling communication solutions for global clients across the entire continent. It is headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, with additional offices in Abidjan in Ivory Coast and Nairobi, Kenya.  It also has long-standing partners in Kigali, Rwanda; Harare, Zimbabwe; and Lagos, Nigeria.  There are also additional affiliated offices in 40+ additional countries across the African continent.

2017 Tutu Fellow Natalie Jabangwe has joined Sanlam as the Group Digital Executive Officer. Sanlam was founded in 1918 and has evolved from being an insurance company into a multinational, diversified financial services group offering services to individuals and institutional clients. Sanlam has an international footprint, with a presence in 34 African countries, India and Malaysia.. 

One of Natalie's first major communications roles was the rollout of the company joining the Every Action Counts coalition, which connects experts in nature conservation and climate change with some of the world’s leading digital platforms, financial institutions, and consumer goods firms. The coalition promotes best practices to equip citizens to understand better their role in living sustainably. The coalition was launched by the Green Digital Alliance, a nonprofit which seeks to leverage digital technologies and innovations to enhance financing for sustainable development.

CNN’s Inside Africa have profiled 2017 Tutu Fellow, Bosun Tijani, along with two other of Nigeria's tech entrepreneurs and innovators who are using technology to provide life-changing solutions to everyday problems.  Bosun is the founder and CEO of CcHUB. 

CNN says Nigeria has 90 tech hubs, the most on the continent. It said that in 2019, one report had found that start-ups in Nigeria had raised nearly $400 million, more than double the amount from the previous year. CNN went on to say that in recent years, Nigeria had become an incubator for some of the continent’s biggest start-ups.

Several Tutu Leadership Programme alumni have been named in this year’s 100 Most Influential African Women list, which is published annually by Avance Media. They are Elsie Kanza, Ndidi Nwuneli, and Mimi Kalinda.

The prestigious listing is presented as a ranking of the 100 most influential African women, providing a summary of women who have climbed the corporate ladder, started their own businesses, or have been at the forefront of decision-making both locally and internationally.  The criteria for selection include excellence in leadership and performance, personal accomplishments, commitment to sharing knowledge, breaking the status quo, and being an accomplished African woman. The listing was released in August, to coincide with Women's Month.

2017 Tutu Fellow Mitoha Ondo'o Ayekaba, has published his first novel, titled Claro de Luna, at an event of the Association of Spanish Writers and Artists, in Madrid, Spain. The presentation ceremony took place on June 13 and counted amongst the audience personalities from the Spanish cultural and political world. Guillermina Mekuy, a local writer and businesswoman, read from the novel together with Emilio Porta, the Deputy Secretary of the Association of Spanish Writers and Artists.  During the reading, the two gave voice to the characters in the novel.

In a TEDx Maitama talk, 2017 Tutu Fellow Jude Abaga shares with his audience some examples of how much dividing people can affect the outcome of their goals. Jude makes connections in the music business in which he focuses on the importance of collaboration and how other industries can learn from what record labels have been able to do in the music industry so far - as well as how much there is still left to be done.

Jude Abaga also known as M.I, is a Nigerian Hip Hop Artist, lyricist, producer, songwriter and instrumentalist. He’s won numerous awards, including the MTV Africa Music Awards 2009. Jude is the CEO of the record label Chocolate City Music. Moving beyond music, he makes it clear that only by working together as one can the African people continue to achieve more and progress.

In 2017, at the close of the Tutu Leadership Programme, the Class of 2017 felt inspired by the life-changing programme and decided they wanted to collect a group donation to further the work being done by the African Leadership Institute. They asked that the cash collected from the personal resources of the 2017 Fellows be used for the sustainability of the programme in future. Because of the impact the programme had had on them, they felt it was important that somebody who might have the potential to become a Fellow shouldn't lose that opportunity because of a lack of resources. So they asked for the money to be used towards covering the expenses of a deserving candidate who otherwise may not be able to participate due to financial constraints.

A final celebratory dinner hosted by Investec in their London offices on 15th September brought to an end a six-month tumultuous journey of learning, of exploration, of self-reflection and establishing bonds of friendship and collaboration amongst 28 of Africa’s highest-potential emerging leaders, that will pertain across thousands of kilometres and for many many years. The Tutu Fellowship awards were presented at the dinner to those who had met the exacting standards required by the Fellowship and the 2017 class of newly-awarded Tutu Fellows dispersed to fulfil their potential and commitment as young leaders to make Africa a better place for all to live in.

Each of the 2017 Tutu Fellows were required to submit an essay on leadership in Africa. There were a number of excellent essays written, as can be expected from a specially-selected group of Africa’s finest emerging leaders. This essay by Sam Ngcolomba is the first of several we will publish over the next few months. She starts with an amazing story of courage and leadership by a young girl, and goes on to challenge the foundations of established leadership on the continent.

Mo Ibrahim addressed the 2017 Tutu Fellows in the UK during their second workshop, covering some of the more vexing questions facing African leaders today.  The Mo Ibrahim Foundation, which he leads, was established in 2006 to improve governance and leadership in Africa. Ibrahim spoke on leadership challenges in Africa and on opportunities and challenges facing the private sector.

The Tutu Leadership Programme has two workshops, one in South Africa, and the second in the UK.  Between the speaker sessions, group projects, soul searching and other required work is time for bonding, networking, and fun.  The gallery below gives a sense of the camaraderie among the Class of 2017.

2017 Tutu Fellow Hema Vallabh spoke at a TEDx event in Johannesburg about how she realized that young girls weren’t considering becoming engineers because it was a job for men only. She tried to find the source of this misconception and found it was in the definition of traditional engineering as being a space of strength and physical ability.

She makes the case that the needs of society nowadays should be addressed with the new definition of engineering as a space of innovation and invention, which are skills that women have. She wants to bring the information to a young generation of women who otherwise might be excluded from considering the profession.