Two Tanzanians named on Forbes 30 Under 30

A combined photo of Calvin Usiri and Prisca Magori, two young Tanzanian trailblazers named in the Africa Forbes 30 Under 30 class of 2024.

By  Mpoki Thomson

Managing Editor of The Citizen Newspaper Mwananchi Communications Limited

What you need to know:

• Famous figures such as Nigerian football star Victor Osimhen, who plays for Italian club Napoli, are also named on the list.

Dar es Salaam. Two young Tanzanian trailblazers have been named in the Africa Forbes 30 Under 30 class of 2024.

Prisca Magori, the Co-founder and CEO of Smart EFD (Electronic Fiscal Devices), comes in at number 11 on the list, which includes some of the brightest minds in Africa and features seven individuals from East Africa (four from Kenya, two from Tanzania, and one from Uganda).

The other Tanzanian on the list is Calvin Usiri, the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Ramani.Smart EFD is a tech solution offered by EVAS Company Limited and developed by TenTen Inc. The co-founder, Magori, developed the solution together with software developer Hashim Kingu to help companies in Tanzania thrive while complying with tax laws and regulations.

A petroleum engineer by profession, Magori was driven by her passion for learning, which led her to venture into entrepreneurship, and she dedicated most of her time to learning and understanding the requisites for building a successful business.

Smart EFD allows businesses to issue electronic receipts using a smartphone, computer, laptop, and point of sale (POS) device and is integrated into the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) system.

Headquartered in Dar es Salaam, the business has now registered over 5,000 active users, most of them being small and medium-sized entrepreneurs.

For Calvin Usiri, the journey into the Tanzanian tech space has seen the company he helped co-found, Ramani, become one of the leading enterprises that bring visibility and structure to Africa’s supply chains by providing point-of-sale, inventory management, and procurement software for micro-distribution centres (MDCs).

The company was founded by Iain Usiri, who serves as the CEO, his brother Calvin Usiri, who is the company's CTO; and their friend Kibet Martin, who serves as the Chief Operations Officer (COO) and oversees the company's finances.

With a savings of $70,000, Usiri, together with his two co-founders, launched Ramani in 2019.

Usiri has vast experience working in the US as a software engineer and Head of IT for companies such as Capgemini, Coldeclara, Scraffic, and Stratmedical.

"Inspired by the dedication of my parents—one a civil engineer and the other an epidemiologist working for the United Nations—I was ingrained with a deep-seated work ethic and vision to make meaningful impact," Usiri told Forbes Africa.

When he joined his brother in 2019, Usiri was just 22, but he already knew how the business landscape works from a global perspective.

With Africa's consumer-packaged goods supply chain worth $1 trillion, Ramani aims to address the challenges of data transparency as it tries to fix what it terms a "broken" system.

Ramani has invested over $150 million in capital in East Africa, and it continues to provide solutions to a growing business landscape in the region.

This is the 10th anniversary of Forbes Africa's 30 under 30 list. The nomination process began late in 2023, with over a thousand applications from across the continent.

As stated by Forbes, part of the rigorous reporting and vetting process involved going through social media profiles, police clearance reports, reference letters from financial institutions, and testimonials from colleagues, collaborators, business partners, and employees of the short-listed nominees.

East Africans featured on Forbes 30 Under 30 include:

1. Alex Mativo, 29: Kenya (CEO & Co-founder, E-LAB, Nanasi and Duck)

2. Andrew Ddembe, 28: Uganda (Co-founder & CEO, Mobiklinic

3. Ayushi Chandaria, 26: Kenya (Founder, Design Thinking Program

4. Prisca Magori, 29: Tanzania (Co-founder & CEO Smart EFD, TenTen Explore)

5. Arooj Sheikh, 28: Kenya (Founder & CEO, Beyond Kenyan Bars)

6. Kenneth Njeru, 25: Kenya (Founder & Director, Africa Afya Healthcare)

7. Calvin Usiri, 28: Tanzania (Co-founder & CTO, Ramani)

South Africa led the list of representatives at 14, followed by Nigeria with 5, and Kenya with 4.

Famous figures such as Nigerian football star Victor Osimhen, who plays for Italian club Napoli, are also named on the list.

The list includes influential figures from various sectors, ranging from fintech, fashion, sports, e-commerce, social development, and entertainment.