Temie Giwa-Tubosun and Ada Osakwe have received the Forbes Africa Leading Women Summit awards for 2021 in different categories.
The summit held on March 8 and 9 [2021] and has been a yearly event since it was inaugurated in 2016.
LifeBank founder, Temie Giwa-Tubosun received the award for Technology and Innovation for her work with her healthtech company. She established LifeBank in 2016 after a Boko Haram attack left 70 people wounded and in need of blood. The attending hospitals ran out of blood supply to treat the patients and this prompted her to launch the One Percent Project.
The project morphed into LifeBank, the medical startup using technology to improve blood supply to hospitals. The healthech has since expanded to Kenya.
Ada Osakwe, on the other hand, won the category for Business Woman of the Year. She is the founder of Agrolay Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage enterprises working in sustainable food-related industries.
In honour of this year’s International Women’s Day, attendance at the Leading Women Summit came at no cost as it was entirely virtual. The theme; Africa Reloaded: The Power of The Collective, explored the challenges that the African continent has faced in the year 2020, particularly the covid-19 pandemic.
The 2-day event also focused on new paths of recovery, growth and inclusivity for the continent. It was divided into fireside chats, insightful panel sessions and “hard-hitting talks”.
Other women who received awards in the other 8 categories at the summit include Elsa Majimbo for the Entertainer Award category and Helen Obiri for the Sports Award. Switch Beauty’s Rabia Ghoor won the Young Achievers Award and Isabelle Kamariza won the Social Impact Award.
Professor Rudo Mathivha won in the category for Academic Excellence. Mathivha is the Academic Head of Intensive Care Services at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital in South Africa.
