Yvonne Manzi Makolo | African DOers Powerlist 2026-2027

Rwanda | Aviation · Telecommunications · Strategic Leadership · Women in Industry · Pan-African Connectivity

Why she is in the Top 750

Since 2015, the African DOers Powerlist by Tropics Magazine has recognised 750 leaders annually, selected exclusively on documented impact, Agenda 2063 alignment, and SDG contribution. No lobbying. No purchase. Impact only.

Yvonne Manzi Makolo earns her place at the very top of this cohort. As CEO of RwandAir since 2018 and the 81st Chair of the IATA Board of Governors, the first woman in history to hold that position, she is not simply leading an airline. She is reshaping what African aviation looks like, who leads it, and where it goes. Her trajectory from Chief Marketing Officer at MTN Rwanda to Deputy CEO to CEO of Rwanda’s national flag carrier to the chair of the world’s most influential aviation governance body is one of the most compelling executive ascents the continent has produced in a generation.

She did not break the glass ceiling at IATA. She replaced it with a runway.

The Jury’s Assessment AfCFTA Score: 9.4/10 · SDGs Score: 9.1/10

The jury was emphatic. Yvonne Manzi Makolo sits at the most strategic intersection available to any African executive today: aviation and continental integration. Under AfCFTA, the free movement of people, goods, and services across African borders is not a policy aspiration, it is an economic imperative. And it cannot happen without a robust, African-led aviation infrastructure. Her leadership of RwandAir, transforming it into one of the continent’s fastest-growing and most respected carriers, is a direct, operational contribution to AfCFTA’s mobility and trade corridors.

Her IATA chairmanship amplifies that contribution to a global scale: she now shapes international aviation policy from the position of highest institutional authority, as an African woman, representing a continent that has historically been on the receiving end of global aviation decisions rather than the making of them.

She advances SDG 5 (Gender Equality, first woman to chair the IATA Board of Governors), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth through aviation sector development and job creation), SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure through airline modernisation and route expansion), SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities through connectivity that bridges African markets), and SDG 17 (Partnerships through IATA’s global governance network).

Priority expansion markets under AfCFTA: Ethiopia, Nigeria, Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire, and South Africa, the continent’s five most critical aviation hubs where RwandAir’s route strategy and her IATA influence create immediate commercial and diplomatic leverage.

The Jury’s Signature Citation

“Yvonne Manzi Makolo understands that connectivity is not a service — it is sovereignty. Every route RwandAir opens is a corridor of African integration. Every decision she makes as IATA Chair shapes the rules of the sky for an entire continent. She is not just leading an airline. She is leading Africa’s right to fly on its own terms.” — African DOers International Jury, 2026

Her Place in the African DOers Council

Yvonne Manzi Makolo’s nomination makes her immediately and automatically a full member of the African DOers Council, the pan-African Act Tank turning individual excellence into collective continental impact. Her mandate within the Council, across the Economic Diplomacy & Trade cluster and the Finance & Investment cluster, through her aviation infrastructure and IATA governance leadership, will be defined and activated through the Council’s dedicated institutional channels.

See You at the Tropics Summit

African DOers do not just connect online, they show up. Yvonne Manzi Makolo will be in the room at the 10th Annual Tropics Summit & Countries Showcase, October 14 to 17, 2026, alongside fellow laureates from 54 African countries and the global diaspora, exchanging ideas, building partnerships, and turning conversations into action.

If you want to meet her, the room is the Tropics Dealroom. No intermediaries. No formalities. Just the right people, at the right table, ready to move.

Come ready to deal.

The Altitude Leader. At the Tropics Summit. October 2026.

African DOers Council Secretariat General: brands@tropicsmag.com · cc: tropicsbusinessevents@gmail.com