Well Deserved! Olajumoke Adenowo and Kemi DaSilva-Ibru Make Forbes 50 Over 50: Europe, Middle-East and Africa 2024 List
Two Nigerian global shapers, Olajumoke Adenowo and Kemi DaSilva have been included in the annual Forbes 50 Over 50 Europe, Middle East and Africa list for 2024.
The members of the third annual 50 Over 50 list are shaping the future of science, fashion, finance, and even the Catholic Church. They include founders, CEOs, humanitarians and vanguards across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, proving that life’s second half is also its most successful and rewarding.
As well as Olajumoke Adenowo and Kemi DaSilva-Ibru, this year’s list include U.K-based 66-year-old author Bonnie Garmus, whose debut novel, Lessons in Chemistry, has dominated the bestseller charts since its 2022 release; 78-year-old humanitarian and politician Graça Machel, former Mozambique and South Africa First Lady who helped start Girls Not Brides and is advocating for women’s financial empowerment in Africa; 57-year-old Rebecca Gomperts, the Amsterdam-based physician who is helping women access abortion medications through Aid Access, the organisation she founded in 2018; and 52-year-old Elena Garcia Armada, a Spanish roboticist who founded a company to improve the performance of legged robots and lower-limb exoskeletons that help people walk and so much more!
Here is what Forbes has to say about Olajumoke Adenowo and Kemi DaSilva-Ibru;
Olajumoke Adenowo
Olajumoke Adenowo has been called Africa’s “starchitect,” and is breaking gender barriers in the male-dominated world of architecture. Adenowo is an architect by trade but considers herself a polymath. For good reason: She enrolled in university at age 14, founded her global architecture firm AD Consulting at age 25, led the mentorship program “Awesome Treasures” for female leadership for over 20 years, and is an acclaimed author. Since its inception, AD Consulting has been involved in designing and constructing more than 114 projects—including institutional buildings, offices and residential homes—that have launched Adenowo onto architecture’s global stage. Her latest project is the development of an $880 million housing complex in South Africa. “While I continue to practice architecture, I have started focusing on raising transformational leaders because that’s what will make Africa livable for the next generation,” says Adenowo.
Kemi DaSilva-Ibru
DaSilva-Ibru is an OB-GYN physician who has expanded her reach beyond her examining room. In 2016, she founded the Women at Risk International Foundation (WARIF), a nonprofit aimed at combatting rape, sexual violence and trafficking affecting young girls and women in Nigeria. With 18 full-time staffers and 200 volunteers, WARIF is now DaSilva-Ibru’s full-time job and has impacted the lives of over 3,000 survivors of rape and sexual violence. She is also pursuing a PhD in gender-based violence at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Congratulations.