Benjamin Fernandes
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Benjamin Fernandes (born 25 November 1992) is a Tanzanian entrepreneur and former national television presenter. He worked at
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), a merging of the William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Learning Foundation, is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was l ...
in the United States in their Digital Team and Financial Services team. He is the first Tanzanian to attend
Stanford Graduate School of Business The Stanford Graduate School of Business (also known as Stanford GSB) is the graduate business school of Stanford University, a private research university in Stanford, California. For several years it has been the most selective business schoo ...
as an Africa MBA Fellow and the youngest African to ever be accepted to Stanford Graduate School of Business. In 2017, Fernandes became the first Tanzanian in history to attend both
Stanford Graduate School of Business The Stanford Graduate School of Business (also known as Stanford GSB) is the graduate business school of Stanford University, a private research university in Stanford, California. For several years it has been the most selective business schoo ...
and Harvard
John F. Kennedy School of Government The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...
for an executive education program.


Early life

Raised in Tanzania, Fernandes was born to Pastor Vernon and Anny Fernandes in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Fernandes attended Haven of Peace Academy on scholarship where he was known as being one of the lowest academically performing students who failed to improved by the time he left. Fernandes was given a conditional scholarship offer by the
University of Northwestern - St. Paul A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
, in Roseville, Minnesota, Fernandes performed well academically during his time at UON and he also managed to hold  presidentship of numerous clubs and groups on campus. Finally, he graduated with top honours at the University of Northwestern. After Northwestern, he returned to Tanzania and volunteered as a community organizer in
Dar es Salaam Dar es Salaam (; from ar, دَار السَّلَام, Dâr es-Selâm, lit=Abode of Peace) or commonly known as Dar, is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over s ...
. In addition, he worked with his sister for their church started by his father in Tanzania to co-found an orphanage called Diamond Village. They cleared a field in Bunju, Dar es Salaam to build the orphanage, teaching the children English and Mathematics.


TV career

Fernandes began his career as a television personality from the age of 17 when he worked at Agape Television Network where his father Rev. Dr. Fernandes was one of the directors. Fernandes was then moved into national TV. He began hosting sports shows and later started interviewing politicians and entrepreneurs. and continued his work in the television industry where he built mobile money products for TV subscription packages. In 2012, Fernandes received national attention during the
London 2012 Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
as a national television presenter in Tanzania. In mid-September 2016, he was featured on several live television shows on Clouds TV Tanzania, CNBC Africa, and TV1 Tanzania.


Stanford

In 2014, he was accepted to
Stanford Graduate School of Business The Stanford Graduate School of Business (also known as Stanford GSB) is the graduate business school of Stanford University, a private research university in Stanford, California. For several years it has been the most selective business schoo ...
, winning a $160,000 Stanford Africa MBA Fellowship to attend–an award received by 8 students from 8000 African applicants to Stanford. In August 2015, Fernandes moved to
Palo Alto Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was estab ...
, California to begin his time at Stanford Graduate School of Business. He is part of the Africa Business club and has been working on a financial technology project to launch in Tanzania. In January 2016, he was selected by TRUE Africa as one of the "Top 16 Africans leading change in 2016.". Shortly after, FastJet airlines featured his work in Tanzania in their online airline magazine. He was listed as a "Voice of Hope for Tanzania." In March 2016, he was selected to attend the MBA World Summit in Miami, Florida, and, at the conference, he was awarded as the best speaker for the event. He was presented with the MBA World Summit Award for 2016. In 2016, Fernandes worked at the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), a merging of the William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Learning Foundation, is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was ...
in Seattle, Washington before returning to his final year of business school at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Fernandes continued to work with the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), a merging of the William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Learning Foundation, is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was ...
on a consultancy basis until after his graduation from Stanford. In 2017, Fernandes won several awards at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Fernandes won the Frances and Arjay Miller Award in Social Innovation for his work in developing the financial services sector in Tanzania. Additionally, he won the Miller Social Change Leadership award nominated by fellow students and professors at Stanford Graduated School of Business.


Return home to Tanzania

On June 17, 2017, Fernandes graduated from Stanford Graduate School of Business and decided to return home to Tanzania. A decision that stunned many Tanzanians given his potential salary offerings in the United States. Stanford Graduate School of Business has the highest post MBA Salary than any other school in the world. His decision to return home was covered all over the press in Tanzania, initially through a viral interview video by MillardAyo, mentioning his potential salary offerings he could have received in the United States which was shared across the country, then making the front page of national newspaper, Mwananchi.


Youth Seminars

Fernandes has held 26 seminars on entrepreneurship in 4 different regions across Tanzania, with over 22,000 people in cumulative attendance. Government officials show up in support of Fernandes' youth initiatives around the country and Fernandes started to focus on women empowerment by engaging fellow Tanzanian celebrities including Idris Sultan and Millard Ayo and a few others.


Tanzania Tourism and animal conservation

Fernandes is an active contributor to the tourism industry in Tanzania, Since 2015, Fernandes and his sister have hosted over 1000 graduate students from the United States. Every year, he hosts a trek with graduate students from Stanford and Harvard in Tanzania, hiking up
Mount Kilimanjaro Mount Kilimanjaro () is a dormant volcano in Tanzania. It has three volcanic cones: Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira. It is the highest mountain in Africa and the highest free-standing mountain above sea level in the world: above sea level and ab ...
, going on safari through
Ngorongoro Crater The Ngorongoro Conservation Area (, ) is a protected area and a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Ngorongoro District, west of Arusha City in Arusha Region, within the Crater Highlands geological area of northern Tanzania. The area is nam ...
and the
Serengeti The Serengeti ( ) ecosystem is a geographical region in Africa, spanning northern Tanzania. The protected area within the region includes approximately of land, including the Serengeti National Park and several game reserves. The Serengeti ...
, visiting
Zanzibar Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islands ...
and finally exposing his peers to business investment opportunities in
Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...
. Fernandes uses tourism as a way to support the community, building solar panels in remote regions of Tanzania and Zanzibar, providing them with electricity for the first time. Fernandes is also a brand ambassador for WildAid Africa, an organisation that seeks to promote aimal conservation in Africa.


Harvard

October 2017, Fernandes became the first Tanzanian in history to attend both (
Stanford Graduate School of Business The Stanford Graduate School of Business (also known as Stanford GSB) is the graduate business school of Stanford University, a private research university in Stanford, California. For several years it has been the most selective business schoo ...
- MBA) and (Harvard
John F. Kennedy School of Government The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...
). On, October 8, 2017, Fernandes began his first class at Harvard Kennedy School of Government for a program in executive education. Fernandes also becomes the youngest person in history to be accepted to Harvard Kennedy School of Executive education, a program catered to senior executives in business. Fernandes received a full scholarship to attend the executive program at Harvard.


Entrepreneurship

At the age of 24, Fernandes founded NALA, where he currently serves as founder and CEO. NALA is, an international financial technology company that enables people and businesses to make cross-border payments between the USA, UK and Europe to Africa. Nala was the first East African fintech company to be selected for Y-Combinator in the USA. In 2022, NALA raised $10m backed by
Accel Partners Accel, formerly known as Accel Partners, is an American venture capital firm. Accel works with startups in seed, early and growth-stage investments. The company has offices in Palo Alto, California and San Francisco, California, with additional ...
,
Y-Combinator Y Combinator (YC) is an American technology startup accelerator launched in March 2005. It has been used to launch more than 3,000 companies, including Airbnb, Coinbase, Cruise, DoorDash, Dropbox, Instacart, Quora, PagerDuty, Reddit, Stripe ...
, Amplo and Bessemer Ventures. Other NALA investors include angels such a
Alex Boazziz
the founder of Deel,
Vlad Tenev Vladimir Tenev (; born 13 February 1987) is a Bulgarian-American entrepreneur who is the co-founder (with Baiju Bhatt) and CEO of Robinhood, a US-based financial technology services company. Early life Tenev was born in Bulgaria, and his parent ...
, the founder of Robinhood an
Jonas
the founder of Monzo Bank in the UK. In 2022, NALA became one of the first African tech companies to sign contracts with Apple Pay and Google Pay. In 2023, NALA announced their recent partnership with Mpesa. This enables 21 countries around the world to send money directly to Mpesa wallets.


Awards

Fernandes has been selected to receive numerous awards throughout his tertiary education and career. In 2020, Fernandes was listed as the 15th most influential Tanzanian. In 2022, Fernandes was listed in the inaugura
ROW100 most influential technology leaders in the world


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fernandes, Benjamin Living people 1992 births People from Dar es Salaam Tanzanian television presenters Tanzanian people of Indian descent Stanford University alumni Stanford Graduate School of Business alumni Entrepreneurship Harvard Business School