Kennedy Ekezie

Kennedy Ekezie is a Nigerian entrepreneur and philosopher, renowned for founding Kippa, a financial management platform tailored for small businesses in Africa. Before his current role as CEO at the fintech startup, he previously worked at Accenture and ByteDance, where he spearheaded TikTok's entry into Africa from Beijing.

Ekezie, who earned a Bachelor of Arts with honors in Philosophy from the University of Calabar, became the first Nigerian recipient of the Yenching Scholarship -- dubbed the Chinese Rhodes Scholarship -- allowing him to pursue a master's degree in Economics and Management at Peking University. Additionally, he holds a diploma in Leading Change from the University of Cambridge.

At 16, while still a student, Ekezie founded the Calabar Youths Council for Women's Rights, an organization dedicated to promoting women's rights and combating female genital mutilation in Nigeria. He was also Nigeria’s #1 ranked competitive debater for two years (2015 – 2017), and has competed and judged debate tournaments across 52 universities worldwide.

Ekezie has garnered significant recognition. In 2017, he was selected as one of the 30 Global Teen Leaders by the We Are Family Foundation and received President Obama’s Young African Leaders Fellowship; in 2018, he was honored with the Queen's Young Leader Award by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace; in 2022, he received The Future Awards Africa Prize for Technology. He has subsequently been named to the 2024 Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the Finance category.

Beyond entrepreneurship, Ekezie is known for his philosophical reflections, emphasizing the pursuit of eternal significance and the importance of faith as a compass for purpose.