Social Enterprise to Transform Agriculture in Africa

Blessing Mene's purpose is to help people prosper financially. He is a social innovator, creative entrepreneur, and resilient leader. Blessing has a background in agriculture, social entrepreneurship, and economic development. Blessing is the author of "The Winning Streak", a life-changing book for young social innovators looking to develop clarity, raise capital, and sustainably grow their enterprises. Blessing is an Ashoka Fellow, Global Good Fund Fellow, and 2020 Goalkeepers Rebuilder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He serves as the CEO of Vetsark, a social enterprise with a vision to transform agriculture in Africa. Vetsark won the Google Impact Challenge Public Choice Prize for its impact in safeguarding animal health for farmers and the general public.

Cynthia has over six (6) years work and leadership experience as an international development practitioner; deploying her skills as a program design, management & innovation specialist, and entrepreneurship and leadership development consultant within the nonprofit, enterprise and social sector. As a Social Innovator and advocate for inclusive workforce, She works at the intersection of business, non-profit and development where she designs and implements high impact programs targeted at building the leadership capacity of fast-rising organizations by accelerating the talents of young business professionals, recent graduates and non-profit leaders for career success. Cynthia has acquired an expansive experience in designing, planning, implementing, monitoring, evaluating and reporting inclusive human capital development programs funded by the U.S. government (U.S. Embassy, Nigeria), USADF, USAID, Ashoka, and other donors focused on improving job access and economic empowerment of young people in Africa. Cynthia is the co-founder and CEO of Inspire Africa for Global Impacts Initiative, a non-profit delivering entrepreneurial leadership education to African youth. She sold her first venture--a biodegradable, non-toxic soap business called EverGlow--in 2015 and subsequently launched the Kadosh Production Company, a sustainable cassava processing facility that empowered 300 female farmers to mechanically process and package crops, increasing yields and income by 30%. Cynthia consults with mission-driven organizations to facilitate innovative, inclusive, and results-oriented CSR programs and builds on a vast experience and knowledge of best practices in program design to develop and deploy tailored approaches that ensure effective program results.