Tech firm Seven Seas CEO picked for top Africa award

Seven Seas Technologies chief executive Michael Macharia has been nominated in the new Young-CEO-of-the-Year category of the Africa CEO Forum Awards.

The award seeks to recognise CEOs aged under 40 who lead African businesses that show great growth potential.

There are seven other nominees in the category including Ashish Thakkar, founder and CEO of Mara Group.

“It is an honour to be nominated in the Young CEO of the Year award at this year’s Africa CEO Forum Awards, 2016,” said Mr Macharia said in a statement.

“It is an even bigger source of pride to be named as the only Kenyan in this category.”

The annual awards are organised by Groupe Jeune Afrique, a media house that publishes The Africa Report.

The Africa CEO Forum 2016 will take place in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire on March 21-22. It will bring together top government and business leaders including CEOs and private equity partners.

Other award categories are CEO-of-the-Year, African Company-of-the-Year, African Bank-of-the-Year, Private Equity Investor of the Year and International Corporation of the Year.

Kenya’s Safaricom is among the nominees in the African Company of the Year category while Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote has been nominated in the CEO of the Year category.

Africinvest, which has made several investments and exits in Kenya, is among the contenders for the Private Equity Investor of the Year title alongside US titans KKR and the Blackstone Group.