Rwandan entrepreneurs Jean Bosco Nzeyimana and Sonia Mugabo have been named among the 100 most Influential Young Africans in 2017.

Nzeyimana, the founder and CEO of Habona Ltd, a company that produces affordable and environmentally friendly biofuels from waste is number 51 on the list, while Mugabo, the owner of Sonia Mugabo, a local fashion house came in 87th position on the list.

The Africa Youth Awards finalists from 28 countries had Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana and Kenya leading with 19, 18, 10 and 7 representatives respectively.

Prince Akpah, the president of Africa Youth Awards noted that the exceptionality of this year’s list has an unprecedented gender representation of 45 women and 55 men, which he noted as a great move to inspire more young women in Africa and across the world to reach out for their dreams.

Sonia Mugabo was this year also on the Forbes list of most promising young entrepreneurs while Nzeyimana was last year, part of a five-member high profile panel discussion during the Global Entrepreneurship Summit. Among others the panel included former US president Barack Obama, and Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook at.

2017 Most Influential Young Africans are aimed at recognising young achievers across the African continent.

This year’s list was compiled and approved by the Awards Jury made up of young Africans from across globe after public nominations were received and reviewed. The nominations were restricted to youth aged between 15-36 years.

The profiles of all the 100 nominees can be found on www.africayouthawards.org.

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