| Kennedy Ekezie-Joseph | |
| Birth Date: | 11 June 1998 |
| Birth Place: | Lagos, Nigeria |
| Alma Mater: | |
| Years Active: | 2014-present |
| Known For: | founding Kippa |
| Awards: | |
Kennedy Ekezie-Joseph (born 11 June 1998) is a Nigerian-born entrepreneur and philosopher. He is the co-founder and current chief executive officer of Kippa.
In November 2023, Ekezie was listed on the 2024 Forbes 30 under 30 list (North America) in the Finance category.[1]
Ekezie, originally from Ehime Mbano in Imo State, was born in Lagos where he lived for 8 years with his family before his parents relocated to Calabar after they secured jobs there.[2] In 2017, Ekezie graduated with a Bachelor of Arts with honours in Philosophy from the University of Calabar and subsequently won a Yenching Scholarship in 2018 to study for a master's degree in Economics and Management at Peking University.[3] He also holds a diploma in Leading Change from the University of Cambridge.[4]
In 2014 at aged 16 while studying, Ekezie founded Calabar Youths Council For Women's Rights; an organization he founded to promote women's rights after he discovered that more than 8,000 women are victims of female genital mutilation in Nigeria.[5]
In 2021, he co-founded Kippa.[6] Prior to that, he also worked at ByteDance while on a Yenching Scholarship at Peking University in China.[2] Ekezie has been credited as part of the team that led TikTok into Africa.[7]
In 2017, Ekezie was selected as one of the 30 Global Teen Leaders by the We Are Family Foundation and received President Obama’s Young African Leaders Fellowship.[8] [9] In 2018, Ekezie was awarded the Queen's Young Leader Award by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.[10] He also won the Yenching Scholarship in the same year. For his work as a technology entrepreneur, he was awarded The Future Award Prize for Technology in 2022,[11] [12] and was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list (North America) in 2023.[13]