Over the past three years, she has provided quality fintech, edtech, and enterprise solutions in the Cameroonian market. Her startup has developed a payment solution that has become a reference means for tuition payment in secondary schools in Cameroon.  

Ako Joelle (photo) is a Cameroonian computer scientist and entrepreneur. In 2018, the same year she graduated from the University of Buea with a Bachelor of Computer Engineering, she co-founded Innovative Clan (I-Clan), a Douala-based startup.  

The startup, whose co-founders are all computer science graduates, commits to developing software that solves major social issues. With her team, Joelle -who heads I-Clan as the CEO- developed a payment platform that allows schools to collect tuition via local mobile payment methods while ensuring financial transparency and also tracking the funds collected. The solution can be used by parents with or without an internet connection, thanks to the USSD technology. Currently, it is the major platform used by most Cameroonian secondary schools to collect their tuition fees. The country’s examination boards also adopted it as the official means for exam fee payment.

Before embarking on the I-Clan adventure, Ako Joelle worked, as a front-end developer, for the job search engine Njorku Ltd. This year, she was selected among the female founders that will take part in the VC4A Venture Showcase 2022. In 2021, on behalf of I-Clan, she won the Hackathon PAK 2021 organized by the Port Authority of Kribi, Cameroon.  Two years earlier, in Kenya, she was one of the finalists of the Daikin - Samurai Incubate Ideathon Airtech Bootcamp Africa. She was selected for the launch of the Youth Conneckt Africa initiative in Rwanda and invited to take part in the Google Sub-Saharan Africa Community Summit in Accra, Ghana.  

Melchior Koba