Nigerian Software Developer Wins Jack Ma Heroes’ Prize

Chidi Nwaogu, a Nigerian tech entrepreneur and software developer, is one of the 10 African entrepreneurs to share in the $1.5 million Africa’s Business Heroes Prize by the Jack Ma Foundation.

Africa’s Business Heroes competition is the flagship philanthropic programme by the Jack Ma Foundation to support African entrepreneurs.

The Prize is organised every year to showcase and grow local talents who are creating a positive impact in their communities and beyond, and inspire a movement of African entrepreneurship.

Over a 10-year period, Africa’s Business Heroes Prize will recognise 100 African entrepreneurs and provide them with grant funding, training programs, and broader support for the broad African entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Africa’s Business Heroes directly supports talented and promising African entrepreneurs through its namesake Prize competition.

In 2017, Chidi and his identical twin brother, Chika, founded Publiseer, after experiencing challenges monetizing their creative works as a writer and a musician respectively. Publiseer was launched on the 4th of August to help meet the growing needs of independent and underserved African creatives, typically those from low-income and disadvantaged communities.

So far, Publiseer has worked with over 7,000 African writers, musicians, filmmakers, and video game developers; helping them to focus on the creating process, while Publiseer handles the tedious but important business of transforming their creativity into wealth for them. The company has also received funding from international organizations like Institut Français and the Goethe-Institut.