December 20, 2025 — The latest wave of Africa-focused business, technology, and leadership news is being shaped by one headline theme: influence is shifting toward boardrooms and breakthroughs in artificial intelligence.
That shift is at the heart of New African magazine’s 2025 “100 Most Influential Africans” (MIA) list, which is drawing fresh attention on December 20, 2025 as outlets across the continent amplify its highlights — and as individual honourees receive new, country-by-country recognition. [1]
A notable pivot in African influence: business and finance move to the front
New African’s annual MIA list has long served as a snapshot of who is shaping the continent’s trajectory — politically, economically, culturally, and technologically. But the 2025 edition signals a particularly clear pivot: for the first time in several years, Business and Finance has overtaken the Creative category in representation, reflecting how Africa’s economic agenda is increasingly being set by corporate strategy, capital formation, and industrial execution as much as by culture and soft power. [2]
New African editor Anver Versi described the list as more than just a ranking — and noted that for many it has become “life-changing recognition,” a phrase that underscores how this annual roll-call functions as a career catalyst as well as a barometer of power. [3]
What the 2025 list says about the moment Africa is in right now
The key takeaway from the 2025 MIA list is not simply who made it — but what sectors are commanding the most attention.
According to New African’s breakdown, the 2025 list spans 32 African nations and includes 64 men and 36 women. Category counts show Business leading with 21 entries, followed by Creatives (19), Public Office (15) and Thinkers & Opinion Shapers (15), then Sports (13), Change Makers (9) and Technology (8). Nigeria remains the most represented country overall with 21 names. [4]
The storyline behind those numbers: economic leadership is becoming inseparable from Africa’s sovereignty agenda — from industrialization and infrastructure to digital capability and AI.
AI ownership and “sovereignty” enters the mainstream influence conversation
One of the most repeated themes in the 2025 coverage is that technology — and specifically artificial intelligence — has graduated from being a niche interest to a pillar of continental strategy.
New African’s summary emphasizes “AI Ownership & Sovereignty”, highlighting leaders working on African-specific AI solutions designed for local realities, with an explicit aim of ensuring the continent is a creator in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, not only a consumer. [5]
That emphasis matters for SEO and for substance: “AI in Africa” stories are increasingly tied to questions of data governance, public-sector digital infrastructure, local language models, health and agriculture applications, and the broader question of whether African economies can capture value from the technologies reshaping global productivity.
NJ Ayuk’s recognition spotlights Africa’s energy sovereignty debate
A second major thread running through today’s coverage is energy policy — and the growing insistence from African energy advocates that development priorities must be set on the continent, not imported.
NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber (AEC), was highlighted in coverage tied to the MIA list for his advocacy of Africa’s “right to determine its own energy future,” a framing that has become a signature of the current energy-sovereignty narrative. [6]
Ayuk’s argument is anchored in the scale of Africa’s energy-access gap — a gap that remains one of the most consequential constraints on industrialization:
- The International Energy Agency estimates almost 600 million people in Africa lack access to electricity. [7]
- The World Bank similarly points to nearly 600 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa living without electricity, a gap targeted by initiatives such as Mission 300. [8]
- On clean cooking, the IEA has warned that around one billion people in Africa still lack access to clean cooking solutions, with major health and development implications. [9]
Within that context, Ayuk and the AEC have argued that hydrocarbons — especially natural gas — still have a place in the near-term development pathway for many African states, even as renewables scale. (Whether one agrees or not, the point is that energy access is being treated as a prerequisite for everything else — jobs, manufacturing, and competitiveness.) [10]
Dr Brook Taye’s spotlight reflects Ethiopia’s “smart state capitalism” story
On December 20, 2025, Ethiopia’s business press added a country-specific headline to the wider MIA conversation: Dr. Brook Taye, CEO of Ethiopian Investment Holdings (EIH), was reported as being named among Africa’s Most Influential Africans in 2025 — a recognition framed around his role in Ethiopia’s evolving economic reform agenda. [11]
The significance here is larger than a single profile. Taye’s recognition points to a broader question increasingly central to African economic strategy: how governments manage, reform, and monetize public assets without undermining long-term national value.
StockMarket.et’s report described Taye’s approach as a step-by-step opening of the economy with an emphasis on governance, long-term value creation, and competitive market structures, and said EIH has announced transactions across sectors including logistics, real estate, telecommunications, and agriculture aimed at unlocking value in state assets. [12]
EIH itself describes the institution as Ethiopia’s sovereign wealth and strategic investment arm, created to manage and optimize key national assets across strategic sectors — and it identifies Dr Brook Taye as CEO. [13]
Taye’s appointment to lead EIH was publicly announced in 2024, when the institution said he was departing his prior leadership role at Ethiopia’s capital markets authority to take on the CEO position at the sovereign wealth fund. [14]
In other words: in the 2025 MIA context, Ethiopia’s story is being read as a case study in public asset reform, state capacity, and the push to turn national balance sheets into growth engines — a theme other African countries are wrestling with in their own ways.
Creatives remain a powerhouse — and 2025 has a headline-making winner
Even with Business and Finance taking the top slot, the Creatives category remains the second-largest pillar of the list — and the arts story attached to the 2025 edition is unusually global.
New African’s highlights pointed to Turner Prize 2025 winner Nnena Kalu as a standout inclusion, describing the win as a historic “first.” [15]
That is strongly supported by independent reporting and official arts institutions. Tate’s press materials confirm Nnena Kalu won the Turner Prize 2025, and major outlets reported she became the first artist with a learning disability to win the prize — a milestone widely discussed across the global arts community. [16]
For Google Discover audiences, that intersection — African heritage, global cultural institutions, and a barrier-breaking win — is exactly the kind of cross-border narrative that travels, and it reinforces why “influence” can’t be measured only in GDP or politics.
Diaspora influence expands: Zohran Mamdani and the politics of global cities
The 2025 MIA list also reflects a widening definition of influence: diaspora political power in global capitals.
New African flagged Zohran Mamdani, of Ugandan heritage, following his election in New York — framing him as a potential ally for African interests in the United States. [17]
Mamdani’s election has been covered by major news organizations in the U.S., including the Associated Press, which reported his victory in New York City’s mayoral race and the transition that follows. [18]
Whether one views this as symbolic or strategic, the message is clear: African influence is increasingly being recognized not only within Africa’s borders, but also through diaspora leadership in places where global capital, media, and geopolitics converge.
Why the “Most Influential Africans” list still matters in 2025
As the coverage circulating today makes clear, the MIA list has become more than a magazine feature.
The African Energy Chamber’s write-up describes the MIA list as one of New African’s most widely read features and says it is compiled with input from correspondents and collaborators across Africa — a formulation that helps explain why the list has staying power and why it continues to generate follow-on headlines like those seen on December 20. [19]
And, crucially, the list is being discussed not as an abstract celebration but as a real-time reflection of what the continent is prioritizing right now:
- Capital and execution capacity (business leadership, investment institutions, reform agendas)
- Technological agency (AI development, data sovereignty, local innovation ecosystems)
- Energy realism (electricity access, industrialization pathways, transition politics)
- Cultural breakthroughs (global awards, representation, and creativity as influence)
What to watch next
The conversation sparked by New African’s 2025 list — and amplified in today’s reporting — suggests that 2026’s influence debates will intensify around a few flashpoints:
- AI governance and local value capture: who owns datasets, who trains models, and where the economic returns land. [20]
- Energy access as a competitiveness issue: electrification and clean cooking are increasingly framed not only as social goals but as prerequisites for industrial policy. [21]
- Public asset reform and sovereign investment strategy: the “how” of modernization — governance, partnerships, and market design — will remain a differentiator for countries trying to scale growth. [22]
For readers encountering the story via Google News or Discover, the bottom line is simple: the people being recognized today are increasingly those who can build — systems, markets, infrastructure, and technology — not only those who can speak about them. [23]
References
1. newafricanmagazine.com, 2. newafricanmagazine.com, 3. newafricanmagazine.com, 4. newafricanmagazine.com, 5. newafricanmagazine.com, 6. energychamber.org, 7. www.iea.org, 8. www.worldbank.org, 9. www.iea.org, 10. energychamber.org, 11. www.stockmarket.et, 12. www.stockmarket.et, 13. eih.et, 14. eih.et, 15. newafricanmagazine.com, 16. www.tate.org.uk, 17. newafricanmagazine.com, 18. apnews.com, 19. energychamber.org, 20. newafricanmagazine.com, 21. www.iea.org, 22. www.stockmarket.et, 23. www.thesierraleonetelegraph.com
