Motivating Africa Personality of the month

You are not too young to make a change in your community, city, country or continent at large.

Zommi Kungne Vanessa, a young lady from Cameroon is definitely a change agent. She identified a problem in her community and she found a solution to it.

Born into a family of six, Vanessa developed a keen interest in social entrepreneurship from her teenage years. She has the vision to affect a lot of lives through entrepreneurship.

She found an opportunity to bring her vision into reality when her mother was diagnosed with diabetes, a chronic disease that had earlier taken her grandparents. Vanessa carried out a research on how she could help her mother. Her research led to her discovery of the Moringa plant which has numerous qualities. The plant has more than 40 antioxidants and can solve more than 50 diseases including diabetes.

At a very tender age of 17, Zommi Vanessa started making her own tea made from moringa and went ahead to establish Afya Tea made from moringa. The tea is quite popular in the Buea region of Cameroon and is gradually spreading to other parts of Cameroon, Africa and the world at large. Vanessa is also empowering local farmers in Cameroon by teaching them how to plant moringa. She also gives them the seeds so that they can plant it and make money.

Afya tea is aimed at addressing diabetes, a chronic disease drastically reducing the Cameroonian population. Moringa tea is a natural solution with the ability to increase the energy in the body as well as reduce the sugar level in the body. Vanessa’s vision is to see her community, nation and continent healthy through her Moringa tea.

Vanessa is currently a graduate student at Villanova University where she studies for an award of an M.S degree in Chemical engineering by Fall 2017.

Vanessa’s tea has gotten a lot of media attention as well proposed investment from global organisations.

Zommi Vanessa is the first woman from Cameroon to be selected as an Anzisha Fellow. Her work has been featured on CNN, ThisisAfrica, Media 256 and Forbes.

In May 2016, she was named amongst Forbes Africa 30 under 30 most promising African entrepreneurs

In the same year, she was chosen as a Forbes under 30 summit scholar.

Her interests are in sustainable consulting, life cycle assessment, marketing, business development, manufacturing operations and brewery operations.