Cellulant Group CEO Ken Njoroge is flanked by his family as he receives the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award as a finalist and overall winner- Emerging Category
Last week, the Cellulant Co-Founder and Group CEO, Ken Njoroge received EY’s Entrepreneur Of The Year ® awards as a finalist and the overall winner in the Emerging Entrepreneur category. Njoroge was among only 6 of the 2018 East Africa finalists beating 10,000 nominees who had submitted their applications for this year’s award at an event held in Nairobi.
Recognized as one of the most prestigious business award programs in the region, the Entrepreneur Of The Year® Awards celebrate the country’s most innovative business leaders. The emerging category award honors entrepreneurs with a business turnover of over US$ 5 million annually.
Ken Njoroge finalist & winner of Emerging Entrepreneur Category
In recognizing and awarding Ken as one of the 6 finalists and overall winner in the Emerging Entrepreneur Cateogy, EY noted that he defies convention on what it takes to succeed in Africa.
“At 43, Ken is a co-founder and also serves as the group Co-CEO of Cellulant, a leading multinational one-stop digital payments company. After working shortly for an Internet service provider (ISP), he co-founded his first venture in 1998, 3mice interactive, East Africa’s first web development company. Ken and his two co-founders grew the business into a respected firm in the IT sector before it was acquired in 2000 by Africa Online. Convinced that mobile was the future, Ken co-founded Cellulant with his partner Bolaji Akinboro in 2002. Initially, Cellulant launched as a music ringtone business that saw musicians earn a share of the money paid by music-lovers to access their favorite songs. A few years later, on a quest for a better payments platform, Ken decided to pivot the business into digital payments. As Cellulant’s founding CEO, Ken has led the company from an idea sketched on a serviette in 2002, to a reputable company in Africa with more than 350 employees across 11 markets. Ken remains unwavering in his pursuit of seeing Cellulant achieve its mission of connecting more than 500 million consumers across Africa with digital payment services that are relevant to their daily lives”.
Speaking at the event, Ken said
“It is a great honor to receive this award, it is indeed humbling to know that this award signifies that the vision we sketched with my partner and group Co-founder, Bolaji Akinboro fourteen years ago, is now a business reality, I remain unwavering in my pursuit to see Cellulant achieve its mission of connecting more than 500 million consumers across Africa with digital payment services that are relevant to their daily lives’’.
About Entrepreneur Of The Year®
Entrepreneur Of The Year®, founded and produced by EY, is the world’s most prestigious business awards program for entrepreneurs, chosen from an independent panel of judges including entrepreneurs and prominent leaders from business, finance and the local community. The program makes a difference through the way it encourages entrepreneurial activity among those with potential and recognizes the contribution of people who inspire others with their vision, leadership, and achievement. As the first and only truly global awards program of its kind, Entrepreneur Of The Year celebrates those who are building and leading successful, growing and dynamic businesses, recognizing them through regional, national and global awards programs in more than 145 cities and more than 60 countries.
Cellulant listed among KPMG’s global list of emerging 50 exciting Fintech Firms
Recently, Cellulant was listed among the emerging 50 firms in the 2018 KPMG Fintech100 report. Cellulant was among the only three African companies representing Africa from Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa to be included in the list of leading global Fintech innovators that are transforming the financial services industry and have successfully raised venture capital.
