by Oge Okonkwo

Winner of The Future Awards Africa Young Person of the Year, Ashish J. Thakkar celebrated his award with a thank you message to the organisers of the award on Twitter.

Its an absolute honor to have received the Young Person of the Year Award – #Africa; very humbling; THANK YOU everyone @TFAAfrica #TFAAfrica

— Ashish J. Thakkar (@AshishJThakkar) December 21, 2013

Thakkar who could not be physically in Nigeria to receive his award called in to the event live from his location  in Brazil, South America.

He is the Managing Director of Mara Group, founded his  conglomerate he founded at the age of 15 which includes IT, real estate, manufacturing companies, and more with operations in 26 countries, spanning four continents, and employing over 7,000 people worldwide, and has been named Africa’s youngest billionaire.

The awards held on Friday night at the Aztech Arcum event centre in Port Harcourt, Rivers State with the Governor, Rotimi Amaechi in attendance. Other winners include actor, OC Ukeje; designer, Aisha Bello and several other honourees.