Thabile Ngwato has spent much of her career doing things that had not been done before. From co-founding a Pan-African television news channel to building broadcast technology businesses, she has repeatedly entered industries where women, and particularly Black women, have historically had limited ownership and influence.

Today, however, Ngwato is thinking beyond being first.

As the Founder and CEO of Rapid Innovation Group and co-founder of Newzroom Afrika, she is focused on building an ecosystem of media, technology and creative businesses that can create opportunities at scale while taking African innovation into global markets.

Her entrepreneurial journey began after a career in broadcasting, including time at the South African Broadcasting Corporation. In 2019, she co-founded Newzroom Afrika, a 24-hour Pan-African news channel that broadcasts on DStv Channel 405 and reaches audiences across 52 African countries.

For Ngwato, Newzroom Afrika was about more than launching another television channel. It represented an opportunity to build a media organisation from a different starting point – one that could create space for new voices, new talent and a different approach to African storytelling.

The channel has since become part of a broader ecosystem that Ngwato has continued to develop through Rapid Innovation Group, the connected services company she founded in 2016. The group specialises in broadcasting technology, content distribution and television channels, with businesses including Newzroom Afrika, Bluestream Technologies, Ray Content Hub and EMERGE.

Bluestream Technologies is particularly significant within that ecosystem. Founded by Ngwato in 2021, the broadcast satellite business was established as South Africa’s only 100% Black and woman-owned uplink business, providing satellite, fibre, teleporting and streaming services for content distribution.

Her portfolio has continued to expand into content and creative communications, including the co-founding of Movie Room and Play Room and the launch of Ray Content Hub and EMERGE.

What connects these ventures is not simply the media industry. It is ownership.

Ngwato has consistently sought to build businesses in sectors where Africans can be more than participants. Her ambition is to create companies that own infrastructure, develop intellectual property, employ people and create commercial opportunities for others.

That focus on opportunity is central to how she measures impact.

Over the past eight years, she says, the goal has been to build an ecosystem in which editors, engineers, creatives, technologists, production houses, suppliers and emerging entrepreneurs can grow alongside the businesses themselves.

“The multiplier effect is something we protect fiercely,” she says.

It is an important distinction. For Ngwato, the success of a business is not measured only by revenue, audience numbers or awards. It is also measured by the livelihoods created around it and the number of people who are able to build careers because the ecosystem exists.

Her leadership has attracted international recognition. In 2024, Ngwato was selected as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, joining a global community of emerging leaders recognised for their professional achievements and potential to contribute to positive change.

The recognition reflects the scale of a career that has moved from South African broadcasting into entrepreneurship, technology and media ownership.

But Ngwato’s ambitions are now becoming increasingly global. Through Encore Investments, she is pursuing opportunities beyond the African market, beginning with expansion into the United Arab Emirates. Her intention is not simply to export individual businesses, but to create connections between African talent, technology and storytelling and global markets, investors and partners.

That next stage requires a different kind of leadership.

Ngwato says she is intentionally moving away from the need to always be the first. Having already demonstrated that a Black woman can own, build and operate at the highest levels of African broadcasting and technology, she is now more interested in making the path wider for those who come after her.

That means investing more deliberately in mentorship and legacy-building, rather than focusing exclusively on business growth.

It also means becoming comfortable being a newcomer again. Expanding into international markets requires the willingness to enter rooms where her previous reputation may not carry the same weight. Ngwato describes this as an opportunity to develop greater humility – to rebuild credibility, listen and learn in unfamiliar environments rather than relying on the validation of a home market.

There is another discipline she is cultivating too: stillness. After years of building at extraordinary speed, she is learning that sustainable leadership requires knowing when to pause. Reflection, listening and allowing strategy to develop can be just as important as momentum.

“The woman I am becoming is not louder or more decorated than who I am today,” she says. “She is wiser, more intentional and more free.”

That evolution is reflected in her five-year vision. Ngwato wants to take the multiplier effect she has been building in South Africa into global markets. She sees the opportunity to connect African storytelling, talent and technology with audiences and investors around the world, while continuing to create employment and commercial opportunities at home.

Her ambition is not growth for its own sake. She describes the next phase as “scale with soul” – becoming bigger without losing the ethical, people-first foundation that has shaped her businesses from the beginning.

That principle also informs the lesson she offers other women navigating industries that were not designed with them in mind.

“Your work is your loudest voice,” she says.

Early in her career, Ngwato experienced the pressure to over-explain and constantly prove that she deserved a place in rooms where women like her were underrepresented. Over time, she learned that there is another way to establish credibility: build.

The businesses she created became evidence. The channel became evidence. The satellite company became evidence. The people employed and opportunities created became evidence.

Eventually, the work could communicate what words could not.

Her advice is therefore not to spend too much energy trying to convince every room to make space for you – build your own.

For Ngwato, resilience is not about being constantly loud or confrontational. It is the quieter discipline of continuing after setbacks, maintaining excellence and choosing to create rather than complain.

It is also about understanding that being the first is only one form of leadership. The more significant achievement may be making sure you are not the last.

That is the next chapter Ngwato appears to be writing. Having helped prove that African women can own and lead major media and technology businesses, she is now focused on building platforms that can outlast individual milestones and create opportunities for others to participate in Africa’s economic and creative future.

The ambition is global, but the foundation remains deeply rooted in the continent: build businesses that create value, create employment, create ownership and create pathways for people who have historically been excluded.

For Ngwato, the future is not simply about reaching more markets, it is about arriving in those markets with something worth sharing – and making sure that more people can come with her.

Thabile Ngwato is an honouree in the 2026 Future 54 Leading Women Cohort, recognising women shaping Africa through leadership, innovation, entrepreneurship and meaningful impact.