After a short professional career as a marketing and web strategy consultant for SQLI Group in France, he returned to his native country, Senegal. At 24, he was one of the digital marketing pioneers in his country with the creation of People Input. 

Serigne Barro (photo) is the CEO and founder of consulting firm People Input. The Dakar-based firm was established in 2002. It guides firms in their strategic marketing decisions and develops innovative solutions that give those firms competitive advantages.  

According to its CEO, People Input creates websites for its clients and helps them get visibility, on social media particularly. When it started operations, the startup had to face notable challenges. “When we first entered the [Senegalese] market, firms were not aware of the importance of the services we were offering and did not care much. We had to inform and convince them,” the CEO explains. He succeeded in doing just that. Nowadays, besides Senegal, the startup is also present in Cameroon, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire, and Burkina Faso. 

Thanks to People Input, he received several awards, including the 2012 WAEMU Award for best ICT Initiative. He also received the national award for the best ICT company in Senegal in 2012. Then, in 2016, he received the award for the best digital agency in Senegal and the best business solution in West Africa. 

In 2014, he co-founded the communication agency Voice Africa, a joint-venture formed with advertising firm Dentsu SSA. Since 2018, he is the CEO of Dentsu SSA’s Francophone Hub. In 2020, in recognition of his achievement in the digital sector, he was appointed a member of Senegal’s National Digital Council.  

Melchior Koba