The winners of the 2025 Africa Soft Power Awards were recently announced at a special ceremony held at the annual Africa Soft Power Summit. Celebrating African excellence on the continent and around the world, the programme is designed to showcase African achievement across key areas of the public & private sectors.
The winners
Award for Diaspora Engagement, Representation & Leadership
- The Honourable Mia Amor Mottley, Q.C., M.P., the Prime Minister of Barbados
Award for Systems Change and Innovation in Women’s Leadership
- Hon. Millie Odhiambo Mabona, MP, Suba North Constituency, Kenya National Assembly
Award for AI Stewardship in Africa
- Dr. Seydina Moussa Ndiaye, President of the Senegalese Association for Artificial Intelligence (ASIA)/Member, UN High-Level Advisory Body on AI
Award for Policy and Advocacy Excellence
- Hon. Justice Martha Koome, Chief Justice and President, Supreme Court of Kenya
Award for Catalytic Leadership in Climate Innovation & Economic Transformation
- James Irungu Mwangi, Founder and CEO, Africa Climate Ventures
- Edwin Macharia, Co-Founder, Axum Earth
The presentation was staged within the Africa Soft Power Gala & Awards section of the overall summit programme, held on Friday May 23 following the Remarkable African Women’s Leadership Conference and Creative & Innovative Industries Conference (CIIC). Staged at the Marriot in Nairobi, Kenya, the Gala & Awards’ key theme was ‘Celestial roots – a journey through time and space’, with red carpet host, Jo Mido and DJ Storm in attendance.
“This year’s Africa Soft Power Summit represents our biggest and brightest event to-date,” said Nkiru Balonwu, founder of the Africa Soft Power Group and Lead Summit Convener. “The Gala & Awards section of the programme always generates particular excitement and engagement, because it showcases African culture and excellence in a vibrant, experiential, and participatory format.”
“We would like to extend a huge congratulations to all our award winners this year. They are the living, breathing incarnations – or custodians if you will – of African advancement and achievement in many of its various forms, both on the continent and beyond. It’s a true honour to have been joined in Nairobi this year by so many pioneering and insightful individuals, not only in terms of our awards winners and speakers, but right across the board in everyone who attended.”
It was an event at large filled with excitement, engagement, and unique information and entertainment throughout, which was attended by BellaNaija’s very own Esther Ordia. You can read her piece on ‘Everything I Saw, Felt & Learned at the Africa Soft Power Summit in Nairobi’ here.
BellaNaija is a media partner for 2025 Africa Soft Power
