The Global Platform for Financial Inclusion & FinTech for Good

Anna Ekeledo is the Executive Director of AfriLabs - a Network organisation of 400 technology and innovation hubs spread across 52 African Countries and the diaspora. Anna leads the AfriLabs community to achieve its vision of a thriving innovation economy in Africa, and heads a pan-African team to develop initiatives and build multi-stakeholder partnerships that support African innovation hubs and other stakeholders in raising high potential entrepreneurs that stimulate economic growth and social development in Africa.

Anna is an international speaker, trainer, innovation ecosystem builder, and mentor. She is also an advisor, in several advisory roles; is a member of the Africa-Europe Foundation Digital Strategy Task Force, she is also engaged in a High-Level Policy Dialogue on the Science, Technology and Innovation working group AU-EU Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) and a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on the Future of technology policy. 

Prior to joining AfriLabs, Anna was involved in pioneering various impact-driven projects and new business units with organisations such as the Visiola Foundation, Wild Fusion Digital Centre, Google, Lagos Business School - Nigeria, and Ingenico - a French global financial technology company.

Anna has a first-class degree in Psychology from Covenant University, Nigeria and an M.Sc. International Marketing Management from Leeds University Business School, UK.

She has also been recognised as a top African economic and tech leader by bodies such as Choiseul 100 Africa, and Agile 50, the World's 50 Most Influential People Navigating Disruption, by Apolitical and World Economic Forum

Esselina Macome is an Associate Professor at the Eduardo Mondlane University. She holds a Doctoral Degree (PhD), in Information Technologies from the University of Pretoria, in South Africa; she also has a Master's Degree (MSc) in  Analysis, Design and Management of Information Systems from the London School of Economics, and Political Science from the University of London. Dr Macome holds a Licentiate in Teaching of Mathematics from the Paedagogische Hochshule Dresden- Germany. In 2016, she concluded an international certification in Leadership for Financial Inclusion offered by the Fletcher School. She also successfully completed courses on Digital Money, Leading Markets: A Global Tour,  Leading for Frontiers,  Bitcoin: Back to the Future,  Gender, Regulating Fintechs, Humanitarian Payment and Product Management all offered by the Digital Frontiers Institute in partnership with the Fletcher School as part of the certified digital finance practitioner 3-year program. In 2018-2019 she participated in the Africa Board Fellowship programme organised by the centre of Financial Inclusion Accion. She also participated in a course on Strategic Leadership in Inclusive Finance offered by Harvard Business School in April 2019.  In March 2022, she successfully completed a course related to leadership on gender equality for organisational transformation offered by DFI.

Dr Macome joined the Central Bank of Mozambique in 2005 as Executive Director and Member of the Board, a position that she held until 2015. Presently, besides academic activity, she's also Chief Executive Officer at the FSDMOç (Financial Sector Deepening Moçambique), and since December 2022 she has been the chairperson of  Standard Bank.  

Her areas of interest include the usage of Information Communication Technology for development and financial inclusion with more focus on digital financial services (DFS), green finance and Gender related issues.

Iyinoluwa Aboyeji is an investor and entrepreneur in the public interest. He is passionate about partnering with mission driven innovators and investors building an African future where prosperity and purpose is within everyone’s reach. He is currently the CEO and General Partner of The Funds for Africa’s Future an early-stage venture capital firm with a portfolio of over 100 companies collectively worth over $6 billion dollars.

Prior to founding the Fund, he was the founding CEO of Flutterwave, a billion-dollar global payments platform connecting African businesses and individuals to the global economy. Flutterwave is currently Africa’s most valuable startup processing payments of over $1billion dollars in payments every month and backed by global investors like Y Combinator, Greycroft, Mastercard, Visa and Tiger Global amongst others. He was also the co-founder of Andela, a billion-dollar business which matches Africa’s top engineering talent to global technology companies. Andela is also backed by top global investors like Spark Capital, Google Ventures, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and Softbank amongst others.

Dr. Obiora is Deputy Governor (Economic Policy) in the Central Bank of Nigeria, having served as an Alternate Executive Director in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington DC, USA. In this capacity, he was a member of the Executive Board, collectively responsible for conducting the daily operations of the IMF. He also assisted to represent the interests of 23 African Countries, including Nigeria, at the Board.

He first joined the IMF through the globally competitive “Economist Program” in 2007 and worked in both the European Department as well as the Strategy, Policy, and Review Department, whilst carrying out extensive work on exchange rate assessment, debt sustainability analyses, decoupling and spillovers, real sector analyses, as well as several reviews of Financial Sector Assessments. Prior to this, Dr. Obiora worked at the West African Monetary Institute in Accra, Ghana and the Centre for Econometric and Allied Research at the University of Ibadan.

While on secondment from the IMF, Dr. Obiora simultaneously worked as Technical Adviser to the Nigeria’s National Economic Management Team as well as Special Assistant to the President Jonathan’s Chief Economic Adviser from October 2011 to May 2014. During this time, he played key roles in helping shape the country’s economic policies on several fronts, including on energy subsidies, power sector reform, measurement of job creation, architecture of development financing, diversification of the economy, oil price benchmarking in the budgetary process, regulatory framework for doing business, port reform, and asset-based economic mapping and modeling.

From June 2014 until July 2018, Dr. Obiora served as Special Adviser on Economic Matters to the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). During this role, he contributed to the overall analytical and policy work of the CBN, bringing his extensive international and domestic economic experiences to bear in helping the Bank understand the ramifications of, and deal with spillovers from, the external shocks emanating from the significant drop in global oil prices.

Dr. Obiora has a first degree from the University of Benin as well as Master's and Doctorate degrees in Economics from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

Olayinka David-West is a Professor of Information Systems with professional experience in the IT and financial services industry and a passionate advocate for digital transformation and inclusive finance. Her research and practice engagements involve policy and strategic management interventions towards digitally transformed businesses and society.

Professor David-West is actively engaged in the implementation and effective use of IT in business organisations and governments; focusing on organisational design and business transformation challenges. In addition, she focuses on digital policy formulation. While her goal remains to optimise the effective use of ICTs, her experiences span multiple domains including, but not limited to software selection practices, change management, strategic planning, IT Governance, and IT competency assessment across various industry sectors. With contextual knowledge in emerging markets, she has developed approaches to plan, design, implement, manage, measure, and sustain changes in business processes and work practices as a result of IT systems deployments. In government, this practical knowledge has been employed in the analysis and development of policies, especially in local content, broadband and financial inclusion.

Professor David-West is a thought leader and active participant in the Fintech (IT, financial services and regulation) and financial inclusion ecosystems. With the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), she leads the Sustainable and Inclusive Digital Financial Services (SIDFS) initiative, a research and advocacy programme dedicated to enhancing financial inclusion in Nigeria. With her technical knowledge and communication skills, she frequently facilitates active discussions in the capacity of technical Master of Ceremony (MC), panel discussion moderator and interlocutor. She has led consulting engagements for organisations including the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), the World Bank Group (WBG) and Microsoft Nigeria. She is the author of several academic papers, technical reports and case studies.

Professor David-West advocates engendering male-dominated industries and mentors young women in STEM. She has featured on the Tech Women of Lagos exhibition, listed among the Leading Women in Nigeria’s Financial Technology Industry, and profiled in FintechTimes as a leading African financial inclusion expert.

Mr Ravi Menon was appointed Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in 2011. He was previously Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Trade & Industry and Deputy Secretary at the Ministry of Finance.

Mr Menon began his career at MAS in 1987. During his 16 years in MAS, he was involved in monetary policy; econometric forecasting; organisational development; banking regulation and liberalisation; and integrated supervision of complex financial institutions. Mr Menon spent a year at the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, as a member of the secretariat to the Financial Stability Forum. A recipient of the Singapore Government's Meritorious Service Medal and Public Administration (Gold) Medal, Mr Menon has served on a variety of boards in the public, private, and people sectors in Singapore. On the international front, Mr Menon chairs the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System as well as Chair of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero APAC Network Advisory Board. He is also a member of the Financial Stability Board (FSB) Steering Committee. Mr Menon holds a Master's in Public Administration from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Social Science (Honours) in Economics from the National University of Singapore.

Dr. Segun Aina OFR is an internationally rated FinTech thought leader and innovation ecosystem builder, global professional banking leader, regulatory technology enthusiast, serial entrepreneur, and respected futurist.

With three decades of distinguished banking career in three banks including six-year tenure as Bank CEO with a focus on technology as an enabler of financial services, Dr Aina is the inaugural Chairman of Global Council of Global Banking Education Standards Board (GBEStB) 2017 to date, former Chairman of Odua Investment Company Limited and past President of Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN 2012 to 2014).

Dr Aina is the founding President and Chairman, Board of Trustees of FinTech Association of Nigeria (FINTECHNGR) and founding President of the Africa Fintech Network (AFN), both of which he initiated. In these roles, he has initiated, coordinated, and led the development of regtech and suptech capacity development programs for various regulators in Nigeria and across Africa. He is the Founder/Chairman, The Fintech Institute (TFI) and Opolo Global Innovation Limited, and host of innovation related businesses.

As an innovation ecosystem builder, Dr. Aina who has been variously described as Nigeria’s FinTech envoy and Africa's Fintech Grandmaster incubated a number of successful fintech startups and sits on the Boards of various institutions in Banking, Insurance, Agriculture and Technology sectors. He also serves as a member of the UKAfrica Fintech Investment Group, a UK Govt initiative co-Chaired by the Lord Mayor of London and UK Prime Minister Ambassador for Business Fintech.

In addition, Dr Aina’s contributions to the academic sector is legendary – he was a member of the pioneer Advancement Board of Obafemi Awolowo University from 2006 to 2012 and is currently Chairman Advancement Board of the Federal University of Technology Akure (2011 to date), co-Chairman National Think Tank on Research for Innovation and Policy (an initiative of the University of Ibadan Research Foundation of which he is a member) and Member, Osun State University Advancement Board.

Dr. Aina is a distinguished alumnus of the University of Lagos, University of Ibadan, INSEAD France, Harvard Business School (HBS), IMD Switzerland, and the Lagos Business School (LBS). He is a Fellow of London Institute of Banking and Finance, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, Nigerian Institute of Chartered Arbitrators, Institute of Directors, Nigerian Institute of Management as well as Member, Toronto Region Board of Trade, Canada and Canadian Council for Africa.

He holds the Nigeria National honors of Officer of the Order of Federal Republic (OFR) since 2010 and has received honorary doctorate degrees from four renowned Universities

Tidjane Thiam is the Board Chairman of Rwanda Finance Limited as well as being the Executive Chairman of Freedom Acquisition 1 Corporation. He is also the Chairman of the Audit Committee of the Kering Group, a member of the International Olympic Committee, and a Special Envoy on Covid 19 for the African Union. 

Before this, Mr. Thiam was Chief Executive of Credit Suisse from 2015 to 2020 and Group Chief Executive of Prudential plc from 2009 to 2015, after one year as Chief Financial Officer. Between 2002 and 2008, Mr. Thiam held various leadership roles at Aviva after being a partner at the consulting firm McKinsey & Company. From 1994 to 1999, he was Chief Executive of the National Bureau for Technical Studies and Development and subsequently Secretary of Development and Planning for Côte d’Ivoire. 

Mr. Thiam co-chaired the World Economic Forum 2016 in Davos and joined the Group of Thirty (G30), a select group of leaders in international finance, in 2015. He has been on the Board of Directors of 21st Century Fox from 2014 until 2019. He was named Chairman of the Board of the Association of British Insurers from 2012 to 2014. In 2018, Mr. Thiam received the Euromoney Award for Excellence ‘Banker of the Year’. 

Mr. Thiam is a graduate of the École Polytechnique and the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris and holds an MBA with distinction from INSEAD. Mr. Thiam is a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honour.