Nigeria’s airspace newest entrant, Green Africa Airways Ltd is already making bold steps as it plans to make its debut flight beginning from June this year and it is winning the hearts of Nigerians.
Founded in 2015, Green Africa Airways is a Nigerian start-up based in Lagos, Nigeria was founded by Babawande Afolabi who is the Chief Executive Officer. It describes itself as a low-cost carrier targeting the Nigerian air travel market.
The airline’s board consists of some industry veterans such as Tom Horton, former chairman and CEO od American Airlines, William Shaw, current CEO of InterJet, Virasb Vahidi, former COO of American Airlines, Wale Adeosun, founder and CEO of Kuramo Capital as well as Gbenga Oyebode, founder and Chairman of Aluko & Oyebode.
Babawande Afolabi was educated at Illinionis Wesleyan University where he bagged his degree in Political Science and Economics and had his Masters in Business Administration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Prior to founding Green Africa Airline, he was a former analyst with Morgan Stanley between 2010 and 2012 and was a summer associate with American Airlines between 2013 and 2016.
He is also the founder and Anchor Cheerleader of Future 100, a foundation that seeks to empower communities by developing talents.
Born in Ile-Ife, Osun state, he is the oldest of five children, Afolabi was raised to believe the world can be changed. “My mother is an elementary school teacher, and my father is a financial analyst on a very small scale,” said Afolabi. “They both instilled in me the knowledge that education can make things better. I must learn all I can and build my credentials so the financial institutions in Nigeria will truly understand how this can help. Before people change the world, they have to change themselves.”
He is also the founder of Teatime Capital, a venture capital initiative focused on making micro-equity investments to ultra-small Nigerian businesses in often overlooked regions of the country.
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