13 Nigerians Making Huge Impact Internationally

On the global scale, Nigerians are known for their resilience, abundance of talent, and brilliance. Many Nigerians have made a name for themselves far beyond the borders of their father’s land. Here are 13 Nigerians currently making a huge impact internationally.

These people have made a name for themselves far beyond the borders of their father’s land; attracted international recognition and doing great on the international scene.

1. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

Director-General of the WTO, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala who was Nigeria’s former Finance minister was recently appointed the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO). She is the first woman, first Nigerian, and first African to head the international organization, making her appointment a historic one.

Okonjo-Iweala has however played numerous roles at the World Bank, where she worked her way up to be the managing director. She also served in various capacities at the African Development Bank (AfDB), International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

2. Akinwumi Adesina

2017 World Food Prize Winner, Akinwumi Adesina

Akinwumi Adesina, a former minister for agriculture and rural development, is one of the Nigerians making a huge impact internationally, as he heads the African Development Bank (AfDB).

Until his appointment as minister in 2010, he was Vice President of Policy and Partnerships for the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa. Adesina was first elected to head the AfDB in 2015, becoming the first Nigerian to assume the position, and was also re-elected for a second term of five years in August 2020

3. Amina Mohammed

UN Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed

Amina Mohammed is a Nigerian diplomat and politician who is serving as the fifth Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations. She resigned from her role as Nigeria’s Minister of Environment to become the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) in 2017, a position she still occupies.

The 59-year-old technocrat, making a huge impact internationally, has served on numerous international advisory boards and panels, she has served as a member of the board of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders.

She also served as the Special Adviser to the then UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, on Post-2015 development planning.

4. Wizkid 

Wizkid (Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun)

Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun popularly known as Wizkid is a famous Afrobeat Singer who gained international recognition after his collaboration with Drake in 2016.

In 2019, he featured on Beyoncé’s project The Lion King: The Gift in the collaboration “Brown Skin Girl”, which won him a Grammy Award for Best Music Video.

The Singer is a recipient of several international music nominations and awards, he is also the first lead Nigerian Artist to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 with his song Essence.

5. Burna Boy 

Burna Boy (Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu)

Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu, popularly known as Burna Boy is one of the biggest and most successful African artists. The singer started gaining international prominence in 2017 after he was signed with Bad Habit/Atlantic Records in the United States and Warner Music Group internationally.

In 2019, he won Best International Act at the 2019 BET Awards and was awarded the African Artiste of the year at the 2020 VGMA’s. In 2020, his album Twice as Tall won the award for Best World Music Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards.

6. Anthony Joshua

Anthony Oluwafemi Olaseni Joshua is a British Nigeria Boxer, a two-time unified world heavyweight champion, having held the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and IBO titles since December 2019, and previously between 2016 and June 2019. At the regional level, he held the British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles from 2015 to 2016.

As of June 2021, Joshua is ranked as the world’s second-best active heavyweight by The Ring, Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and BoxRec, as well as the seventh-best active boxer, pound for pound, by BoxRec.

7. Israel Adesanya

Israel Mobolaji Owolabi Adesanya is a Nigerian-born New Zealand professional mixed martial artist. As a mixed martial artist, he is currently signed to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he is the UFC Middleweight Champion. In kickboxing, he is a former Glory Middleweight Championship title, challenger. As of June 14, 2021, he is #3 in the UFC men’s pound-for-pound rankings

8. Kamaru Usman 

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – FEBRUARY 13: Kamaru Usman of Nigeria poses for a portrait after his victory during the UFC 258 event at UFC APEX on February 13, 2021, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC)

Kamaru Usman is a Nigerian-American professional mixed martial artist, former freestyle wrestler, and graduated folkstyle wrestler. He currently competes in the welterweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he is the reigning UFC Welterweight Champion. Usman was also The Ultimate Fighter 21 tournament winner. As of March 23, 2021, he is #2 in the UFC men’s pound-for-pound rankings.

9. Asisat Oshoala

Asisat Lamina Oshoala is one of the prominent Nigerians making a huge impact internationally. The Nigerian professional footballer plays as a striker for the Spanish side FC Barcelona Femení in the Primera División and captains the Nigerian Women’s national team.

She is Popularly regarded as one of the greatest African Female footballers of her era and of all time, she’s a four-time African Women’s Footballer of the Year winner and was named BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year in 2015.

10. Victor Osimhen

One of the Nigerians making a huge Impact internationally is Victor James Osimhen, a Nigerian footballer, who rose to stardom in 2020 when he moved from Lille to Napoli for a staggering €71.2 million with a further €10.1million add-on summing up the fee to €81.3million; this makes him the most expensive African in history.

He had a hand in 24 goals for Lille where he had 18 goals and six assists in 38 appearances in all competitions. He won Lille’s player of the season award and went on to win the Marc-Vivien Foe prize given to the best African player in Ligue 1.

11. Olugbenga Agboola

Co-founder and CEO of Flutterwave, Olugbenga Agboola

Olugbenga Agboola is a Nigerian software engineer and entrepreneur. He is the CEO and co-founder of Flutterwave, an African-based fintech company that provides a payment infrastructure for global merchants and payment service providers across the continent.

Gbenga is a graduate of the MBA program at MIT Sloan School of Management.  Prior to founding Flutterwave in 2016, he worked as an application engineer at PayPal and in product management at Google. He was on Time’s Next 100 2021 list and also listed on Fortune’s 40 Under 40 list in 2020.

▶ Meet Flutterwave CEO, Olugbenga Agboola

12. Dr Oluyinka Olutoye

Dr Oluyinka Olutoye is a renowned fetal and pediatric Nigeria-born surgeon based in Texas. In 2016, he successfully operated on a baby-in-utero. The mother, at the 23rd week of pregnancy, had gone for a routine ultra-sound and it was discovered that her baby had a rare birth defect known as sacrococcygeal teratoma, a large tumour located on the fetus’ tailbone. Olutoye led a team of 21 doctors to remove the tumour.

The five-hour surgery involved removing the baby from the uterus for 20 minutes so as to remove the tumour and then placing the baby back into the womb for the remainder of the gestation period, after which she was safely delivered. In a sequel report, Dr Olutoye was promoted to the rank of Chief Surgeon at a US hospital.

13. Bishop David Oyedepo

Founder of Living Faith Church, Bishop David Oyedepo

Bishop David Oyedepo is a Nigerian preacher, and the founder and presiding Bishop of the Living Faith Church Worldwide, popularly known as Winners Chapel.

The clergy heads a network of churches located in over 300 cities, in all states of Nigeria, and in several cities in 45 African nations, including Dubai, the United Kingdom, and the United States. He is the Chancellor of Covenant University and Landmark University. He was among the Forbes richest pastor in 2011.