Nigerian entrepreneur and philanthropist Tony Elumelu, Gambian prosecutor-turned-politician Abubacarr Tambadou and Congolese microbiologist Jean-Jacques Muyembe Tamfum are all on Time magazine’s 100 most influential people list for 2020.
Nigerian entrepreneur and philanthropist Tony Elumelu, Gambian prosecutor-turned-politician Abubacarr Tambadou and Congolese microbiologist Jean-Jacques Muyembe Tamfum are all on Time magazine’s 100 most influential people list for 2020.
In 2015, Elumelu, started a pan-African training and mentorship program, committing to investing $5,000 each in 1,000 young entrepreneurs every year across 54 countries on the continent.
In 2019, Tambadou and his government took on Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s state counselor at the International Court of Justice, the UN’s judicial organ, over alleged crimes against the Rohingya ethnic group.
In partnership with the World Health Organization, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UNICEF, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Funsho lead immunization efforts in Nigeria, getting polio vaccines to millions of children in the country.
Through efforts from him and his team, this year marked four years without a case of wild polio in the West African country, qualifying it and the rest of the continent as free from the deadly virus.
“I’m honored to be recognized by Time for my part in ensuring that no child in Africa will ever again be paralyzed by wild polio, a disease that once disabled 75,000 African children every single year,” he said.
