Mandela Washington Fellows, Tuesday, July 23, 2019

“Africa’s Future Opportunities”

Watch this program!

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Ernest Lefu Atem is an award-winning agri-tech entrepreneur born into a family of growers who co-founded an agro-hub to assist farmer access to the marketplace. He has worked in over 300 communities and made an impact with over 61,000 farmers across West and Central Africa. Ernest champions the construction of 40 tons per day Cassava industry, which he hopes will reach an additional 5,000 farmers in Cameroon. Atem is a 2018 Obama Leader, a 2017 AfDB Youth Agripreneur finalist, the winner of the 2016 Nestle Creating Shared Value Price Award, and a UN Special Accredited Member for Youth Migration.
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Valeria Adzo Adzatia holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Sociology from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, and has over three years of experience in the agriculture sector, specifically in agro-processing. Valeria is the founder and CEO of Gifted Hands Agro Processing, which focuses on production, processing, and packaging of cassava and cereal products. Valeria is committed to reducing post-harvest losses through value addition technologies, poverty reduction, and making food available all year round. She has also been promoting the education of persons with disabilities through awareness-raising to ensure a barrier-free society. Upon completion of the Mandela Washington Fellowship, Valeria intends to consolidate her work in the agriculture sector by setting up a modernized processing factory, encouraging more young people to turn to farming as a source of income and to advocate for the rights of persons with disabilities.
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Phyllis Kyomuhendo is a passionate social entrepreneur and innovator with two years of experience in the social-innovations sector. Phyllis is a master´s degree in Public Health candidate, a medical radiographer by profession, and the director and co-founder at the startup, M-SCAN Uganda. Through M-SCAN Uganda, she and her team develop low-cost mobile ultrasound devices to combat maternal and neonatal mortality in low resource settings. Phyllis hopes to return to Uganda after the Mandela Washington Fellowship to empower her peers in the entrepreneurship space to take their businesses to the next level through strong leadership; she also hopes to pass on the entrepreneurship and leadership skills she learns to the young girls she mentors under the STEM Queens program.
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Tendayi Mushonga has over eight years of experience in the corporate world and is passionate about life-changing innovative technologies. He is the founder of Road Watch Zimbabwe, a tech-driven initiative with a mandate to reduce road carnage in Zimbabwe. Currently, Tendayi is an account manager at Cassava Smartech, where he focuses on prospecting and establishing new trade channels for Fintech and On-Demand Services. Upon completion of the Mandela Washington Fellowship, Tendayi intends to continue his work using innovative digital solutions to build a better Zimbabwe and Africa.