TOP TEN YOUNG INFLUENTIAL AFRICAN WOMEN

1.Isha Sesay is a journalist of Sierra Leonean descent. She is a former newsreader for Sky Sports News and ITN, and has been an anchor for CNN International since 2005. Her mother is Dr. Kadi Sesay, a former lecturer at Fourah Bay College, who entered Sierra Leonean politics in 1992 as an advisor to the government of Valentine Strasser. Her father, who worked as a legal advisor to the SLPMB (Sierra Leone Produce Marketing Board), died in 1988.



2. Mame Ramatoulaye Yade is from Senegal, she is a French politician who has served in the government of France since 2007 and is currently the Secretary of State for Sports. Yade's mother Aminata Kandji was a professor and her father Djibril Yade, also a professor, was the personal secretary of Senegalese President Léopold Sédar Senghor.



3. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a Somali feminist, writer, and politician. She is the estranged daughter of the Somali scholar, politician, and revolutionary opposition leader Hirsi Magan Isse. In 2003 she was elected a member of the Dutch House of Representatives (the lower house of the Dutch parliament), representing the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) She is currently a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, working from an unknown location in the Netherlands. In 2005, she was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. She has also received several awards for her work, including Norway's Human Rights Service's Bellwether of the Year Award, the Danish Freedom Prize, the Swedish Democracy Prize, and the Moral Courage Awardfor commitment to conflict resolution, ethics, and world citizenship.



4. Dr Dambisa Moyo. In May 2009, TIME Magazine named Moyo as one of the world's 100 most influential people. Dr Moyo is a young and upcoming economist renowned for her book “ Dead Aid”. Its explanation on why aid is not working and how there is a better way for Africa is thought provoking and known for its brilliance. It was published in the spring of 2009. The book offers proposals for developing countries to finance development, instead of relying on foreign aid. Moyo was born and raised in Lusaka, Zambia. She holds a Doctorate in Economics from Oxford University and a Masters from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. She also has an MBA in Finance and Bachelors degree in Chemistry from American University in Washington D.C. She worked for the World Bank for 2 years as a Consultant (from 1993-1995) and at Goldman Sachs for 8 years (from 2001 to 2008), where she worked in the debt capital markets and as an economist in the global macroeconomics team.


5. Pamela Jelimo - Kenyan athlete who speciales in the 800 metres. She won the gold medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. She is the first Kenyan woman to win an Olympic gold medal and also the first Kenyan to win the Golden League Jackpot. She holds both the 800 m world junior record and the senior African record over the same distance.




6.Tumi Makgabo, Head of Communications, 2010 FIFA World Cup Organising Committee, South Africa, Tumi Makgabo has been one of the most recognisable South African broadcasters both at home and internationally through her work and the global news network CNN International. As an anchor for several years at CNN International’s headquarters in Atlanta, Tumi co-produced and hosted the network’s award winning program, Inside Africa.



7.Femi Oke is a former anchor for CNN International's World Weather service at the network's global headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. (born 1966),Femi was born in Britain to Nigerian parents. She is a graduate of Birmingham University where she received a bachelors degree in English literature and language.She also regularly hosted Inside Africa, now fronted by Isha Sesay, a programme that looks into the economic, social and cultural affairs and trends in Africa.



8. June Sarpong MBE is an English television presenter of Ghanaian descent. June is well known for her interview with Tony Blair on T4 (When Tony Met June). She also runs her own production, Lipgloss Production. June is an ambassador for The Prince's Trust and also campaigns for the Make Poverty History movement – in April 2005 she visited Ghana to make a film for Make Poverty History. She also hosted the major Make Poverty History event in London’s Trafalgar Square in summer 2005 on behalf of Nelson Mandela and Bob Geldof. On 7 July 2007 Sarpong presented at the UK leg of Live Earth at Wembley Stadium, London.



9.Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is an acclaimed Nigerian writer. She has a master's degree in creative writing at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Her first novel, Purple Hibiscus, was published in 2003 and won the Best First Book award in the 2005 Commonwealth Writers' Prize. Her second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun, named after the flag of the short-lived Biafran nation, is set before and during the Biafran War. It was awarded the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction. She is a 2008 MacArthur Foundation fellow and currently divides her time between the United States and Nigeria.



10. Lisa Kropman, South African head of Corporate Social Investment for Investec, an investment bank, in 2007 she was awarded the archbishop Desmond Tutu prestigious fellowship.