Okezue Bell is the founder and director of Fidutam, which aims to provide an alternative to big banks for underserved communities. They have developed a decentralized banking infrastructure that provides bank accounts to unbanked individuals, providing them with funding and support to mobilize upward. The project won the 2021 DECA ICDC Competition and was named top 10% of all applicants by Y-Combinator in 2021. Fidutam has won over $100,000 in awards and are continuing to scale. Okezue was finalists in the Three-Dot-Dash/WaFF Global Teen Leader Awards for his work with the startup project, and also nominated for a Forbes 30 Under 30 Award and Time Kid of the Year in 2022.
Okezue is a current research intern at the MIT Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces group, where he is helping to develop computational cognitive and simulatory tools. He also conducts neuroscience and neural signal processing research at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital. Okezue is the winner of the Spirit of Ramanujan award for excellence in mathematics, an international BioGENEius finalist, and an ISEF Grand Award Winner for his research. His most recent project was in developing a low-cost and robust below the elbow prosthesis. Okezue was 1 of 81 students globally to be named an MIT-RSI Scholar this year, which is considered the most prestigious research honor for high school students worldwide.
As a champion of social justice, Okezue speaks with corporate leaders and youth across the world. To date, he has spoken to over 80,000 people and spoke to over 250,000 people in March at the Human Potential at Work Show with Debra Ruh. He recently spoke at Web Summit, SwissCognitive, and WorldSummit AI. He has also played violin at Carnegie Hall and with the prestigious Bach Orchestra.
He is an avid writer, producing content for Medium and top Nigerian magazine Sundiata and their 1mm+ subscriber base as a part of his outreach efforts. He has also written in his local Green Ponderer magazine, Medium, CellAgri, and UNICEF Voices of Youth, receiving over 15,000 views on his writings.
Aside from his current research and startup, Okezue advises on sustainability and healthcare on the leading food tech companies, such as at Perfect Day alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, where he also founded their inaugural Gen Z board and is also an Aleph Farms Gen Z Advisor. He has also advised Shiok Meats and popular brand evolvetogether. In collaboration with the Cellular Agriculture Society, he will be helping to author the world's first cellular agriculture textbook. He was recently interviewed by Accenture for his work in sustainability, which aired at COP26.
Okezue's work is supported by various companies, including Softbank, OpenBCI, and more, and his projects have received over $50,000 in various awards and around $10,000 in funding and support. In addition to his research and entrepreneurial efforts in enterprise technology and science, Okezue has been featured in various news outlets, including Forbes, gal-dem, Power Lunch Podcast, GettingSmart Podcast, Yahoo News, Market/Business Insider, and more.
