Kennedy Ekezie-Joseph


Kennedy Ekezie-Joseph also known as Kennedy Ekezie is a Nigerian serial entrepreneur and known as the founder and Chief Executive Officer of the technology company, Africave. 
In June 2018, Ekezie-Joseph was named one of the Queen's "Young Leaders Award" by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Early life and education

Kennedy Ekezie-Joseph was born in Lagos, Nigeria before moving to Calabar, where he grew up and attended University of Calabar.
He is cousin of Nigerian writer and filmmaker, Onyeka Nwelue.
Ekezie-Joseph earned a bachelor's degree in Philosophy from University of Calabar, graduating in 2017. During his time at Calabar, he was a competitive debater for the university for four years. In 2018, he was named a Yenching Scholarship winner, becoming the first Nigerian to cling that. The Yenching Academy of Peking University aims to build bridges between China and the rest of the world through an interdisciplinary master's program in China Studies. While in China, he worked at ByteDance, building its Africa business strategy.

Africave.

In 2019, Ekezie-Joseph founded Africave with Duke Ekezie-Joseph. Africave builds distributed software engineering teams and connects organizations to software engineers from Africa. In December 2019, Africave received backing from German technology company, SAP

Civic Engagement

As an undergraduate student in Calabar, Kennedy founded the Calabar Youth council for women's rights. The organization focused on ending the practice of female genital mutilation in Nigeria. Since February 2020, Ekezie-Joseph has externally advised the Global Corporate Social Responsibility strategy at SAP

Awards and honors

Kennedy received the 2018 Queen's Young leaders award. He also received the 2019 Princess Diana Award, the Resolution Fellowship, and presented a keynote at the 2017 United Nations Youth Assembly.