Ashesi University student Innocent Chikwanda named 2026 Rhodes Scholar

Innocent Farai Chikwanda ’25, ‘M27 has been named among the Rhodes Scholar Class of 2026, the world’s oldest and one of the most competitive academic honors.

Chikwanda is among 108 Scholars selected this year and will pursue two postgraduate degrees at Oxford: an MSc in Advanced Computer Science, followed by a Master of Business Administration (MBA). He is one of three Scholars from Zimbabwe.

Established in 1903 and based at the University of Oxford, the scholarship recognizes young people who combine academic excellence with character, leadership, and a commitment to addressing society’s most pressing challenges. “I want to deepen my technical expertise and complement it with a strong understanding of the business world, because there is still so much to be built for Africa,” he shared, reflecting on his choice of study.

Raised in Ruwa, Zimbabwe, Chikwanda traces his journey to his parents’ strong belief in education. That foundation led him to Ashesi University through the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program, where he joined the Computer Science Class of 2025 and later progressed into the Master’s in Intelligent Computing Systems Class of 2027.

At Ashesi, Chikwanda began translating his learning into practical problem-solving, leveraging the university’s entrepreneurship ecosystem. In his first year, he co-founded Chariot Africa, a social enterprise focused on expanding digital access in rural communities.

With funding and ideation support from the Ashesi Center for Entrepreneurship’s Design Lab, the initiative operated a mobile digital lab equipped with Wi-Fi and computers to introduce foundational IT skills to basic school students in Berekuso.

He also founded 1Village, which began as a peer-to-peer rental platform and later evolved into an event intelligence business. The venture was further developed, and won a startup competition, during his study abroad semester with University of California Berkeley’s Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (SCET), deepening his interest in scalable, technology-enabled community platforms.

Chikwanda is a Senior Fellow of the Melton Foundation, serving on its board from 2022 to 2023. He also served as President of the Zimbabwe Child Parliament, where he contributed to significant legislation, including the Marriage Bill of 2019 which outlawed child marriage.

He credits these experiences with broadening his perspective on leadership and cross-cultural collaboration. At his undergraduate commencement in 2025, he was one of three awarded the Ashesi President’s Scholarship, Leadership, and Citizenship award.

At Oxford, his academic focus will centre on artificial intelligence, with particular interest in addressing the underrepresentation of African languages in AI systems. He sees this work as both a technical and social imperative, with implications for inclusion, access, and global equity in emerging technologies.

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