With the advent of technology, there have been advancements that have made life easier and prettier. Surprisingly, with computer gurus superstars like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, Africa still got men and women are computer gurus.
Philip Emeagwali
Philip Emeagwali is a Nigerian computer scientist. The Igbo man was born in Akure, Nigeria on 23 August 1954.His early schooling was suspended in 1967 as a result of the Nigerian Civil War. At 13 years, he served in the Biafran army, then proceeded to USA to study under scholarship. Between the year 1977 to 1987 three master degree certificate in different courses. However, he was denied a PhD degree in 1987 through 1991.
Emeagwali received the 1989 Gordon Bell Prize for an application of the CM-2 massively-parallel computer. He won in the “price/performance” category, with a performance figure of about 400 Mflops/$1M.
Sam Kodo
Sam Kodo, loves robots and builds them to support mankind.He built SAM 10, which was his first, a humanoid robot. In 2013, he developed the Infinite Loop, a tech company that produces locally made, low-cost computers, having realized the need of students who could not afford pricey computers.
On his advice to other budding African entrepreneurs, Kodo promotes passion, curiosity, constant acquisition of knowledge, originality and courage. “Just think about it. If you fail, at least you have tried. There are a lot of people who have ideas but never try,” he said. “Even if you fail, you are already one step better off in life than those who don’t even try.”
In 2016, Sam Kodo was one of 12 finalists from all over Africa nominated for the prestigious Anzisha Award, a prize for African innovators and entrepreneurs within the age range of 15 to 22.
Basil Lyayuka
The computer guru is the owner of an ICT solutions company known as idodo Enterprises Ltd (idodoe).The young entrepreneur is a web and mobile applications developer whose name, unfortunately remains hidden behind the beautiful designs he creates for both small and big companies. idodoe Ltd deals with software designs and development.
Despite having never been to university, the form six leaver has been doing impressive work in the ICT sphere and has therefore gained popularity in web design and mobile apps development.
Basil’s creative works include the famous Millard Ayo multimedia website that has in recent years gained a lot of popularity among social media fans, especially the youth. He is also the brain behind Isaac Maro.Com, a health-content website which is also popular in the city.
The average income he earns from the business ranges between Sh3 million and Sh6 million per month. This is twice the average income a graduate earns per month. “My dream is for my company to go global and be as famous as the likes of Google or Facebook,” Basil says revealing that his capital currently stands at Sh12 million.
Justin Stanford
The South African Stanford, is a software entrepreneur and venture capitalist and the founder of 4Di Group. He dropped out of school to start an internet security company that failed. He later had a deal with ESET where he became a sole distributor in South Africa. He makes a lot of money dealing on anti-virus software these days.
Emeka Okoye
Okoye was the early internet gurus when he started ngex.com with another guru in 1996. He built Nigeria’s first Internet Banking app in 1997 (1997). He built a Semantic News app for Maternal Health Blog (2013). Chief Technology Officer at Nigeria Exchange, Consultant at Infoweb Nigeria Limited Software Engineer at Soft Solutions Limited as seen on linkedIn. That’s a lot to behold. He also possesses a lot of experience in Web 2.x and various programming languages.
He has been enlisted among the 20 Most Influential Technology People in Africa by itnewsafrica.com (2013) and Top Global 20 Mobile Commerce, and other prestigious Award’s
