The new generation of founders

She left a materials-science PhD to make cement that absorbs carbon instead of emitting it. Three years later, Basalt supplies three of West Africa’s biggest builders. Meet her — and 49 other founders under 30 rewriting their industries.

Interview

Sipho Ndlovu

Photographs

Yaw Boateng

Published

Oct 25, 2026

· 15 min

Role

Founder & CEO, Basalt

Founded

2023, Abuja

Customers

3 of West Africa’s top builders

Age

The conversation

Zainab Bello was 24 when she left her PhD programme with a jar of grey powder and a conviction that construction could become a carbon sink.

Why cement?

Because Africa will build more in the next thirty years than in the last three hundred, and almost nobody outside the industry thinks about what it is made of.

What does it feel like to top the Next 50?

Like a deadline. Lists are lovely, but the climate does not read them.

LIGHTNING ROUND

Five quick ones

01

First job?

Lab technician, night shifts.
02

Book on your desk?

Concrete Planet, by Robert Courland.

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Why cement?

What does it feel like to top the Next 50?

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