Twenty years ago, on 6 February 2006, a small ceremony at Magnolia Hall in City Mall, Lagos, handed a prize to a young Nigerian woman who had just come home from Caltech. Nobody in that room could have known what the prize would become. The Future Awards Africa is now the biggest youth awards on the continent — Forbes has called it the most important youth awards in Africa, and the World Bank has called it the Nobel Prize for young Africans — and on Saturday 14 November 2026 it marks its 20th edition at the Balmoral Convention Centre, Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, under the theme “Celebrating the Redefiners: Africa’s AI Generation”.
The prize at the centre of it is the Young Person of the Year, for a young African aged 18 to 31 who has become a force for change. Nineteen people have won it. There was no ceremony in 2021, and there has never been a joint winner. Here is every single one of them — what they won for, and where they are now.
1. Tosin Otitoju — 2006
The first winner, and still the most quietly extraordinary. Otitoju had the best result in Nigeria in the May/June 1996 SSCE, graduated summa cum laude in Electrical Engineering from Howard University, and became the first Howard graduate ever to receive the Poincaré Fellowship at Caltech for postgraduate study. She took a national merit award from the Nigerian government in 2004, then came home. She was last reported lecturing in Systems Engineering at the University of Lagos — a brilliant mind who chose the classroom over the spotlight, and stayed there.
2. Tara Fela-Durotoye — 2007
She founded House of Tara at 20, in 1998 — Nigeria’s first makeup school and its first indigenous makeup brand — and won the prize for building it. Nineteen years later, the story took a turn nobody expected: in April 2025, after 27 years, she handed the day-to-day leadership of House of Tara to Rosemary Layode, its first Managing Director, and stepped back to write the book on how to let go. Building Beyond You: The House of Tara Story, seven years in the making, launched in Lagos in April 2026 and became an Amazon Business bestseller in Canada and the United States. The House of Tara story is now a teaching case at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and her Building Beyond You Institute held its second conference on 25 September 2026 at the Eko Convention Centre in Lagos, for 2,500 founders. She won for starting something. She is now famous for knowing how to hand it over.
3. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie — 2008
She won the year after Half of a Yellow Sun won the Orange Prize, already one of Africa’s most acclaimed writers. The years since have only added to the case: Dream Count, her first novel in a dozen years, was a New York Times bestseller and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2025, with the paperback out in August and September 2026. Her work has now been translated into more than 55 languages. Of all 19 winners, she is the one whose win looks most like a prediction that simply came true.
4. D’banj — 2009
He won at the peak of the Mo’Hits era, the Koko Master with The Entertainer fresh in 2008, at the height of his fame. Seventeen years on, he is still performing and still building businesses: he performed live at the AFRIFF Globe Awards on 7 November 2026, and a day earlier his platform C.R.E.A.M announced a partnership with the US-based Cinq Music Group to sell international music in Nigeria through USSD downloads and caller ring-back tones. In July 2026 he became the first Nigerian entertainer to ring the closing bell at the London Stock Exchange, for the Royal African Society’s 125th anniversary.
5. Ify Aniebo — 2010
She won as a malaria scientist, doing genomic research into drug-resistant malaria parasites. Today she is Dr Ifeyinwa Aniebo Rhodes-Vivour, Associate Professor of Molecular Biology and Genomics at the Institute of Genomics and Global Health, and in May 2026 she unveiled Nigeria’s first National Genomic Surveillance Platform to combat malaria. She has led the national malaria genomic surveillance initiative since 2021 — two national surveys, in 2021 and 2025, analysing more than 60,000 parasites. She also founded AfroScientric, mentoring African women in STEM, and Clusta Genomics, and on 29 October 2026 she spoke on AI and genomics at the Future of Health Conference in Abuja.
6. Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu — 2011
He won for the Smallholders Foundation, using radio to teach sustainable farming to rural farmers. The foundation is still running, but the bigger story is what he built next: ColdHubs, the solar-powered cold-storage company he started in 2015. It now runs 58 solar hubs in 22 states, serving more than 11,000 farmers, retailers and wholesalers. In 2021 alone it saved more than 50,000 tonnes of food, stretching produce shelf life from about two days to about 21. He is an Ashoka Fellow, a Rolex Award winner and a Food Planet Prize winner — the farmer’s son who became one of Africa’s most decorated social entrepreneurs.
7. Idris Akinbanjo — 2012
He won as an investigative journalist on the NEXT newspapers investigative desk, twice named Nigeria’s Investigative Journalist of the Year and a finalist for the CNN/Multichoice African Journalist of the Year in 2012. He is now Managing Editor of Premium Times, Nigeria’s leading online newspaper, and in April 2025 he led sessions at the Wole Soyinka Centre’s Report Women! Female Reporters Leadership Programme fellowship in Lagos, teaching investigative reporting, pitching and journalist safety. The watchdog became the newsroom’s conscience.
8. Ashish Thakkar — 2013
The Tanzanian who founded the Mara Group at 15, in 1996, and was named by Forbes as Africa’s youngest billionaire. He is still the founder of Mara Group — a pan-African conglomerate spanning technology, financial services, real estate and manufacturing across more than 20 African countries — and co-founder of Atlas Mara. In 2019 Mara launched Africa’s first smartphone manufacturing plant, in Rwanda, making the Mara X and Mara Z. In 2026 he was shortlisted as a finalist for Entrepreneur of the Year at the African Business Awards, with the gala held on 29 May 2026 at the Royal Lancaster in London.
9. Sangu Delle — 2014
He won for clean water, co-founding Cleanacwa to bring water and sanitation to underserved communities in Ghana. Cleanacwa ran from 2007 to 2022, reaching more than 200,000 people in 160 Ghanaian communities — and Delle has since moved from water to healthcare. He is now CEO of CarePoint, a tech-forward healthcare group aiming to improve healthcare access for 100 million Africans by 2030, and Founder and Chairman of Golden Palm Investments, which has backed Andela, mPharma and Flutterwave, whose portfolio companies have raised over $1.2 billion. In 2022 he launched the Sangu Delle Foundation, for education, mental health and job creation. He has chaired the board of Ashesi University since 2025 and joined The Republic’s advisory board in October 2026.
10. Philip Obaji Jr — 2015
He won for keeping children in school through football — his 1 GAME project had more than 100,000 sign-ups — and for a 2015 trip to Maiduguri to document why children were not in school and why Boko Haram was able to recruit them. That trip launched his journalism career, and it has taken him further than anyone could have guessed. He is now The Daily Beast’s correspondent for West and Central Africa, and in 2025 he won the ICFJ Knight International Journalism Award for reporting — often at great personal risk — on massacres, rape, torture and other abuses by Russian paramilitaries in Central and West Africa. He also founded the 1843 Foundation, and gave a keynote in Esslingen, Germany, in May 2026. He won for protecting children from war. He now reports on war crimes for the world.
11. Mark Okoye — 2016
He won as the youngest commissioner in Nigeria — appointed Anambra State Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget Development at 30, in June 2016, after a banking career at Afrinvest. The prize came at the 11th edition, on 18 December 2016 at the Federal Palace Hotel. He spent five years as Anambra’s commissioner, then led the state’s investment promotion agency, and he is now Managing Director and CEO of the South East Development Commission, which has set a target of growing the region’s economy to $200 billion by 2035.
12. Wizkid — 2017
He won in the year of his global Afrobeats breakout — featured on Drake’s “One Dance” in 2016, Sounds from the Other Side out in 2017 — at the 12th edition on 9 December 2017, themed “Nigeria’s New Tribe”, with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo as keynote speaker. The years since have been a run of firsts: on 18 January 2026 he became the first African artist to pass 10 billion streams on Spotify, and his album Morayo, released in November 2024 and dedicated to his late mother, was confirmed as the biggest album in Nigeria for 2025. The North American leg of the Morayo World Tour was cancelled in May 2025, but in 2026 he played US festivals and in October 2026 signed with a major US agency for North American touring representation, with a world tour expected in 2027. He has two Nigeria concerts confirmed for December 2026: the Live Out Loud Festival in Abuja on 13 December and the Detty December Fest opening night in Lagos on 18 December.
13. Samson Itodo — 2018
He won for Not Too Young To Run, the Yiaga Africa campaign that got the constitution amended in May 2018 to lower the age limits for elective office in Nigeria. He is still Executive Director of Yiaga Africa, and in 2026 he is the one asking the hardest questions about the next election. In October 2026 he convened the AI and Democracy Forum in Abuja with INEC and ECOWAS, warning that AI deepfakes and disinformation could undermine the 2027 elections. In November 2026 he publicly challenged INEC over the voters’ register — youth registration down 19.65%, and dead and underage voters on the roll — and demanded an independent audit. He won for getting young people into office. Eight years later, he is holding the electoral system itself to account
14. Burna Boy — 2019
He won in his breakout year, with African Giant — 19 tracks, international awards and nominations, sold-out venues worldwide — and took the Prize for Music the same night, at the 14th edition on 24 November 2019 at Balmoral Hall. The run has not slowed: his eighth album, No Sign of Weakness, released in July 2025 with Travis Scott, Mick Jagger, Stromae and Shaboozey, earned a 2026 Grammy nomination for Best Global Music Album, and “Love” was nominated for Best African Music Performance. His No Sign of Weakness World Tour’s Oceania leg became the highest-grossing tour by an African artist in Oceania, at $3.1 million. On 29 October 2026 he played Apple’s new Apple Music Hall in London, and he recorded “Dai Dai” with Shakira for the official FIFA World Cup 2026 album.
15. Ogutu Okudo — 2020
The Kenyan energy executive won at the 15th edition on 28 November 2020 — the first TV and digital edition, held during COVID-19 and broadcast on Africa Magic, MTV Base and Pop Central — and was also named to the Forbes Africa 30 Under 30 list that year. She is still the founder and CEO of Guuru Energy, the company she started in July 2021. In September 2026 she presented at the Rubis Regional Seminar in Nairobi, billed as a Kenyan energy strategist and founder and CEO of Guuru Energy, and through 2026 she has been a regular voice in Kenya’s energy debate — on DW News and at Kenya Clean Energy Week — on fuel prices, solar and the country’s energy future. She also founded Women in Energy and Extractives Africa, and previously served as a board director at the National Oil Corporation of Kenya.
There was no ceremony in 2021. The 15th edition was held digitally in November 2020 and the 16th followed in February 2022, so 2021 is a gap year in the awards’ history, not a missing winner.
16. Andrea Iyamah — 2022
She won for building her eponymous label from swimwear into an internationally recognised African luxury brand, at the 16th edition on 20 February 2022 at the Balmoral Convention Centre. On 24 October 2026 she celebrated the label’s 15th anniversary with an outdoor runway show at Isimi Lagos, presenting the Fall 2026 collection “Rooted” alongside a preview of Spring/Summer 2027, “Spirit in Exploration”. The brand she started when she was 17 now spans swimwear, resortwear, ready-to-wear and occasion dressing.
17. Hilda Baci — 2023
She won for the cook-a-thon that stopped the country: 93 hours and 11 minutes of cooking in Lagos, from 11 to 15 May 2023, in front of the whole world. The record made her famous. What she has done since has made her something else. In September 2025 she set another record with Gino Nigeria — the world’s largest serving of rice, 8,780 kg, in Lagos — and in June 2026 Guinness World Records named her a GWR ICON, the first Nigerian ever to receive the distinction. Her restaurant, My Food by Hilda in Lekki Phase 1, is running, and she plans to expand it to the UK, the US, Dubai and South Africa, saying she wants Nigerian restaurants to become as easy to find around the world as Chinese restaurants. She won for cooking for four days straight. She is now building a global restaurant brand.
18. Seun Olagunju-Lana — 2024
She won for youth development, founding The Development School (TDS) Africa, which teaches young Africans to design and lead social innovations, at the 18th edition on 10 November 2024 at Balmoral. She is still its Founder and Executive Director, and the school has now reached more than 4,000 young people in seven African nations. In 2026 she joined the IRUKA Africa Foundation advisory board in February, spoke at the Achievers Summit in Lagos in August, and gave the keynote at the Impact in Leadership Conference in Calabar on 22 October 2026. She was a 2025 EMY Africa Youth Changemaker finalist and holds a Master’s from the University of East Anglia.
19. Fola David — 2025
The most recent winner is a medical doctor and a hyper-realism and speed-painting artist, and a Guinness World Record holder, who won at the 19th edition on 8 November 2025 at the Landmark Event Centre in Lagos, themed “Threads of Legacy”. He has not slowed down since: his solo exhibition “Layers of Me” opened on 6 November 2025 at the J Randle Centre in Onikan, Lagos, and in November 2026 he launched “Colors of Possibility”, leading 1,000 Lagos schoolchildren in a Guinness World Record attempt for the largest fabric marbling painting, at Onikan Stadium on 11 November, backed by a ₦10 million Creative Fund. He is still a practising doctor, and still painting.
That is 19 winners in 20 years — a NASA scholar, a makeup mogul, a novelist, three of Afrobeats’ biggest names, a malaria scientist, a cold-storage pioneer, a war correspondent, a democracy campaigner and a record-breaking chef, among others. The prize has an unusually strong hit rate: almost every name on this list went on to do something bigger after winning.
On Saturday, a 20th name joins them. The 2026 nominees for Young Person of the Year are James Popoola, Abdul Azeez Abdulyekeen, Taiwo Aromolaran, Deborah Johnson and Nora Awolowo. One of them will be announced at the Balmoral Convention Centre on Saturday night. Twenty years from now, someone will be writing about where they are now.
Featured image: Wikimedia Commons (Adichie, D’banj, Wizkid, Burna Boy); CAMANDA Academy (Hilda Baci).
