Kennedy Ekezie
Kennedy Ekezie-Joseph is a Nigerian-born entrepreneur. 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 in the Finance category.
Early life and education
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. 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. He also holds a diploma in Leading Change from the University of Cambridge.Career
In 2014, at age 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.In 2021, he co-founded Kippa. Prior to that, he also worked at ByteDance while on a Yenching Scholarship at Peking University in China.
Ekezie has been credited as part of the team that led TikTok into Africa.