Nigerians Listed On Forbes 100 Icons List..

 Forbes says the list was curated from Hollywood exports and Grammy artists to award-winning ideas that can save the world.
It also stated that the list is a way of “celebrating those whose ideas, inventions, and influential role models have aided Africa’s growth over the last decade.”

GENEVIEVE NNAJI

Described as a trailblazer in Nollywood, Genevieve Nnaji’s directorial debut movie, Lionheart, is the first Netflix Original from Nigeria. Unfortunately, it was the first Nigerian submission for the 2020 Oscars before it was disqualified over English dialogue.

“We did not choose who colonized us. As ever, this film and many like it are proudly Nigerian,” Nnaji said in a tweet.







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OMOTOLA JALADE EKEINDE

Easily one of the biggest actors to come out of Africa, multi-award-winning Omotola J Ekeinde has appeared in over 200 movies, according to Entrepreneurs. In 2013, she was featured on Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world alongside Michelle Obama, Beyoncé, and Kate Middleton.

In a report by Nigerian newsroom, Pulse, Ekeinde commented on the fact that she would be part of the cast for Rattlesnake: The Ahanna Story, Play Network studios’ remake of Amaka Igwe’s 1994 crime thriller.

“It feels great being a part of this remake… There’s a lot of youth and drama, culture. I like that there is a human story to it. People will be able to relate to it because they can find themselves in the story plus it’s a classic and you can’t go wrong with a classic,” she said.









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DAVIDO

Labeled as an Afrobeats superstar by FORBES in 2020, Davido is without a doubt one of Africa’s biggest musicians. The Nigerian-American artist, who also graced the FORBES AFRICA 30 Under 30 list in 2018, told us that “it was people like [Nigerian music veterans] P-Square and D’Banj” who made him believe “that all this was possible”. Since his rise to fame, Davido has won multiple awards, including BET awards and MTV awards. He has also signed on several endorsements with MTN and Guinness Nigeria.








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WIZKID

Another one of Nigeria’s brightest and biggest stars, Wizkid, is described by Vogue as “an image-maker who speaks to millennials”. The multi-award-winning Afrobeats artist won a Grammy alongside Beyonce for their song Brown Skin Girl (which came off Beyonce’s visual album Black Is King).

In an interview with Evening Standard, he said he did not set out making music to become an African star but rather to be a worldwide musician.

“Music is a universal language. I always felt no soul would favor Afrobeats and not fall in love with it — only if you don’t love music, and I don’t know any human being that doesn’t love music,” he said.







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BURNA BOY

Often known as one of the biggest and most successful African artists on this continent, Burna Boy won the Best Global Music Album category at the Grammys on March 14. The Grammy nomination described Twice As Tall as “a masterclass in the vibe and hustle that have made Burna Boy an international musical force”.

“Africa in the house!” an excited Burna Boy said in his acceptance speech, “This is a big win for my Africans all over the world. This should be a lesson to every African out there, no matter where you are, no matter what you plan to do you can achieve it… because you are king!”







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ROSE LEKE

Seated in a sun-soaked room in Nigeria, visiting her daughter for her 50th birthday, Rose Leke is anything but the typical grandmother. At the age of 74, she has made a significant contribution to the field of science and continues this through her academic career as an Emeritus Professor of immunology and parasitology at the University of Yaoundé I in Cameroon.

She began her career by being rejected and having to prove her worthiness to become a scientist.

“There was an examination to go to the United States of America as part of the “African scholastic program for American Universities” which allowed Africans like me to study at an American University, I was one of two women who wrote it amongst all these men and I was the only one to get through; come to the verbal interviews I didn’t make it, only the men went through. The American authorities then got involved after seeing my results and a man from the United States of America embassy came looking for me to tell me that I had done well and made it and granted me a scholarship,” reminisces Leke.

Since this pivotal moment, Leke has gone on to serve her community through her studies around malaria,. She sits on numerous health boards and committees across the continent and has created the Higher Institute for Growth in Health Research for Women Consortium to mentor female scientists in Cameroon. As chair of the International Regulations Emergency Committee of Polio Eradication, wild polio was eradicated across Africa in 2020, something she couldn’t be happier about as to her it means “no person will be paralyzed by polio again”.

Known as “ma” to her students and colleagues, Leke has no intention of stopping anytime soon and believes her main goal going forward is preparing young female scientists for the future. “I have always mentored and overseen young girls making their way into science, but now I have a structure in place and as long as I am around and the Women Consortium is around, no girl will be told ‘science just isn’t for her’.”







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CHIMAMANDA ADICHIE


Known for her feminism which comes across not only in her books but in the way she speaks, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has brought the power of narrative to all the work she has done. The Half of a Yellow Sun author has been described by The Times Literary Supplement as “the most prominent” of a “procession of critically acclaimed young Anglophone authors [which] is succeeding in attracting a new generation of readers to African literature”, particularly in her second home, the United States (her first being Nigeria).







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Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala


“I hope other women will not just emulate me but do better… people ask me how do you manage to be successful but I did not set out to be promoted. For me, success was getting out of bed and running to work,” says Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the first woman and the first African to hold the office as the Director-General of the World Trade Organization. Okonjo-Iweala has made history, and she was FORBES AFRICA’s African of the Year in 2020.







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SWANKY JERRY


Also known to the world as Jeremiah Ogbodo, Swanky Jerry is a Nigerian celebrity fashion stylist who has dressed the likes of Pearl Thusi, Davido, Nyanda, Yemi Alade, Tiwa Savage, AKA, Sarkodie, and African presidents and first ladies. In 2020, he made the FORBES AFRICA 30 Under 30 list.

“We would usually have to wear the clothes of the locals of each city we visited, to blend in, and I loved it! Growing up within this lifestyle, I became more inspired by my surroundings and began to invest in Nigerian fashion magazines and people-watching at big events due to the elaborate fashion being paraded,” he told FORBES AFRICA.









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FUNKE AKINDELE BELLO

CNN calls her ‘one of Nollywood’s biggest stars”. Funke Akindele-Bello rose to fame after starring in the popular United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)-sponsored sitcom I Need to Know.

“When I started I Need To Know, I never thought I would be this celebrated. I was 20 years old at the time,” she said in the interview.







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MR EAZI

Known to the world as ‘Mr Eazi’, Nigerian-born singer Oluwatosin Ajibade has made a name for himself as an award-winning African artist. In 2020, he made the coveted FORBES AFRICA 30 Under 30 list, in which he spoke about the side hustle while in college in Ghana that led him to a best-selling career in music and earning millions of fans along the way. “I began my career with a small cash gift from friends, which enabled me to pay for my first professional-quality video for Skin Tight,” he told FORBES AFRICA, on the early days.


From Forbesafrica.com