Nissi Ogulu Wins ‘Youth Icon Award At Forbes Women Summit

Nigerian musician, Nissi Ogulu has been honoured with the presti­gious ‘Youth Icon Award at the Forbes Woman Africa Leading Women Summit 2025. Nissi, who is the younger sis­ter of Grammy winner Burna Boy, also delivered a compel­ling speech at the award cer­emony.

Nissi, whose career tra­verses the worlds of music, visual arts, engineering, and entrepreneurship, shared an inspiring message on the pow­er of creativity, resilience, and innovation in shaping Africa’s future.

Her address highlighted the rise of women in leadership, the evolution of sustainable technology, and the responsibility of African creatives to own their narra­tives.

In her speech, Nissi high­lighted her work with Kemet Automotive, the pioneering electric vehicle company she co-founded to revolutio­nise mobility in Africa.

She emphasised the urgent need for sustainable innovation, infrastructure investment, and policies that empower Af­rican entrepreneurs to drive lasting change.

Drawing from her ex­periences as an engineer who contributed to the design of the 2023 Range Rover model, she challenged young women to step into industries tradi­tionally dominated by men, reminding them that true leadership is born at the in­tersection of creativity and courage.

“We are not waiting for a seat at the table anymore; we are building our ta­bles,” she declared, igniting a wave of applause from the audience.

Asides being an artiste, Nissi is also the visionary behind Creele Animation Stu­dios and co-founder of Kemet Automotive. Her debut single ‘Pay Attention’ was released in September 2016.

That same year, she released another single titled ‘Familiar’ which was produced by Nigerian music producer Chopstix. In 2020, she released her EP titled, ‘Ignite’, which was fol­lowed by singles, ‘Hold’ and ‘Gravity’.

In 2021, she was one of the Jaguar Land Rover engi­neering team members that designed and put together the 2023 Range Rover Model and launched a charity NFT collection on the Binance NFT marketplace.

She also released a 3D Animation short film titled ‘The Satch­el’ where she worked in the roles of a director, producer and composer created by her company.