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Rebecca Enonchong
She built the hubs and angel networks so African founders get funded from Africa, then was jailed at home.
The rise
Born in 1967 in Cameroon's South-West, the daughter of a barrister who helped found the national bar, she studied economics at the Catholic University of America, worked at the Inter-American Development Bank and Oracle, and in 1999 founded AppsTech in Maryland, an enterprise-software firm serving clients in dozens of countries.
What they did
She made AppsTech's Cameroon office a door into the local tech scene, co-founded the ActivSpaces hubs in Buea and Douala, set up the Cameroon Angels Network and chairs AfriLabs, a network of hundreds of innovation hubs across the continent. Forbes and New African have listed her among Africa's most influential figures; the Royal Academy of Engineering elected her a fellow in 2022.
The full picture
On 10 August 2021 Douala gendarmes held her on a prosecutor's oral order for 'contempt of court', over family inheritance cases, with no written charge. A #FreeRebecca campaign in African tech got her freed after three nights, charges dropped. Her attacks on foreign investors and Cameroonian officials made enemies on both sides.
Why it matters
She spent two decades arguing that African startups should be financed and governed from Africa, and built the institutions — hubs, networks, angel groups — that make it possible rather than simply saying it.
“African entrepreneurs are given the extra burden of having to demonstrate the 'social' benefit of their solution, in many cases.”