Fadilah Tchoumba is the CEO of ABAN and the fund manager for Catalytic Africa, a co-investment facility for early-stage startups in Africa. She also serves as the Director of the African Business Angel Vehicle, a fund focused on sector-specific ventures. Additionally, Fadilah is a founding member and senior analyst at Amzill, a data collection and analysis firm, and she is on the advisory board of ENRICH in Africa.

Before joining ABAN, Fadilah managed investment portfolios for institutional investors with interests in African trade. She also served as Director of Business and Innovation for the Royal Commonwealth Society, where she led the development of innovative projects aligned with Commonwealth values.

Fadilah has been instrumental in creating tech-driven funds for innovative startups, including sharia-compliant vehicles, establishing herself as a leader in alternative asset classes in Africa. Passionate about innovation and sustainability, she advocates for early-stage investing, cross-border investments, and policy development to drive success in Africa’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Fadilah holds a BA in Economics and Philosophy from Connecticut College, a diploma in International Commerce and Trade from Georgetown University, and a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics.

Hilda is an award-winning entrepreneur and author. She has more than 15 years of entrepreneurship experience in Fintech and working with multinationals supply chain firms like Coca-Cola to develop innovations across Africa. She is a unique forerunner in many ways, including the fact that her first tech start-up was the first recorded multi-million dollar exit in the Kenya ecosystem – way back in 2015. This exit catapulted the ecosystem as entrepreneurs and techies saw what was possible. She is currently the Founder & CEO of Pezesha, a holistic digital financial infrastructure powering working capital and credit scoring to SMEs and institutions across Africa. Pezesha is using more than 100 million points of data, and has disbursed over 500,000 SME loans. She has been profiled by Bloomberg as one of the Bloomberg LP New Economy Catalysts in 2023. Most recently in early 2024, she was awarded the winner of the Tech & Innovation by Forbes Woman Africa. She is also the newly appointed UN (United Nations) UNCTAD, - eTrade for Women Advocate for English-speaking, Africa region 2024-2025.

Hortense MUDENGE is the Chief Executive Officer of Kigali International Financial Centre, the agency promoting and developing Rwanda as a leading financial destination for international investment and cross-border transactions in Africa.

Hortense is a seasoned management consultant, with over 12 years of experience in private sector development and finance.

Hortense holds an MBA from Hult International Business School in the US and is a graduate of the United States International University- Africa.

My name is Innocent Kawooya, NIM, a co-founder and CEO of HiPipo, a digital innovation and financial inclusion company founded in 2005. HiPipo is a leading champion of digital and financial inclusion across Africa and is widely recognised for advancing Instant, Inclusive Payment Systems (IIPS) under the HiPipo Include Everyone Program, working with governments, regulators, FinTechs, and development partners across the COMESA region and beyond.
I am a FinTech and financial inclusion specialist, women empowerment advocate, internet entrepreneur, computer programmer, film producer, humanitarian, and entertainment executive. In 2021, I stood as a Kampala City Lord Mayoral candidate, driven by a vision of inclusive urban development and digital transformation.
I have received multiple recognitions for leadership and impact, including CEO of the Year 2021–2022 by TIG Network Afrika and FinTech CEO of the Year (MEA Region) for 2024 and 2025. In October 2024, I was awarded the Presidential Diamond Jubilee, National Independence Medal by H.E. the President of Uganda for contributions to digital and financial inclusion. In 2023, the Mojaloop Community Council voted me Co-Chair for the second time in three years.
HiPipo has been ranked among the World’s Top 20 Companies Escalating Innovation in Digital Financial Services by Global Business Leaders Magazine and named Best Financial Inclusion Organisation in East Africa at the FinTech Awards 2022 and 2023, and awarded Financial Inclusion Organisation of the Year in the MEA Region for 2024 and 2025 by Wealth & Finance International.
Through initiatives such as Digital Impact Awards Africa (DIAA), HiPipo Music Awards, Women in FinTech, 40 Days 40 FinTechs, My Doctor (telemedicine), Solar M7 (clean energy access), and HiPipo University, my work focuses on building practical, scalable solutions that expand access to health, finance, energy, education, wealth and opportunity for millions of people across Africa.
#MadeOfGOD

Experienced executive at the intersection of technology, finance and innovation. Focus on digital financial inclusion at the Gates Foundation. Board chair at the Mojaloop Foundation and board member at the Interledger Foundation. Former Chief Architect at Swift. Author: The Castle and the Sandbox.

Natalie Jabangwe is the CEO of the Timbuktoo Foundation, that houses a $1bn start up fund, a leading organization focused on driving innovation across Africa. Under her leadership, the foundation has become a key player in empowering young innovators and entrepreneurs, fostering creativity, and promoting sustainable development through technology and education.

Before joining Timbuktoo, Natalie served as the Group Digital Executive Officer at the Sanlam Group, Africa’s largest non-bank financial company in Africa and overseeing 34 countries and a budget of $600m. From 2014-2021, she was CEO of EcoCash, Zimbabwe’s largest mobile money service, where she was one of the youngest female CEOs in Africa’s mobile financial sector. Her career has been marked by her commitment to leveraging technology to create impactful solutions, earning her recognition as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2018. Natalie is also a 2017 Oxford University Tutu Fellow, reflecting her leadership and influence across Africa.

Ola Oyetayo is the Co-Founder and CEO at Verto. With a robust background in finance, consulting, and entrepreneurship, Ola’s career includes significant roles at American Express, Barclays, and Lloyds Bank.
Ola’s educational journey began in Nigeria, where he completed his early education. He then studied Economics and trained as an Accountant.

Ola was inspired to found Verto by the challenges he observed some of his friends facing when making international business payments. It became apparent that businesses located in emerging markets often encountered difficulties in executing seamless cross-border transactions. Always drawn to solving large-scale problems, Ola gravitated towards addressing this issue, leading to the establishment of Verto with the vision to facilitate smoother global commerce.

Under Ola’s leadership, Verto was awarded the Fintech of the Year 2022 at the London Fintech Awards. Outside of work, Ola enjoys reading and playing golf.

Dr. Patrick Njoroge served as the ninth Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya from June 2015 to June 2023, after a 20-year career at the International Monetary Fund. He is currently a member of the Advisory Boards of the "Yale Program on Financial Stability" and the "Global Finance and Technology Network," chair of the "Africa Financial Industry Summit" (AFIS) Supervisory Council, and a member of the Africa Expert Panel for South Africa’s G20 Presidency. He has received several awards and recognitions, including four awards for Africa’s Central Banker of the Year, and recognition in 2023 as a Top 25 African Finance Leader. He holds a PhD in Economics from Yale University. He is MLK, Jr. and Phyllis Wallace Visiting Scholar at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Paula Ingabire is Rwanda’s Minister of ICT and Innovation. Before she was appointed Minister, she served as Head of the Technology portfolio under the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) where she led the implementation of National ICT programs notably eGovernment and Cyber Security. She also served as the coordinator of the Kigali Innovation City Project, a flagship program of the Government designed to nurture and strengthen a Pan-African Innovation eco-system in Rwanda.

Minister Ingabire coordinated the creation of Smart Africa, an initiative that seeks to drive coordinated digital transformation across African member states that are part of the Smart Africa Alliance. Today, Smart Africa has 40 African member states that have joined the Alliance.

A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s School of Engineering & Sloan School of Management, in the System Design and Management program; Paula was named among the young Global Leaders in 2020. She serves on the WEF Board of Trustees, Global Council of the World Summit Award Board of Directors, World Economic Forum Cyber Security Board, the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Global Network Advisory Board, and she serves as a founding board member of the EDISON Alliance.

Dr Segun Aina is a global professional banking leader, internationally rated fintech ecosystem builder and respected futurist.

With three decades of distinguished banking career in three banks including six-year tenure as Bank Chief Executive Officer, Dr Aina is the inaugural Chairman of Global Banking Education Standards Board (GBEStB), former Chairman of Accion Bank Nigeria, Odua Investment Co Ltd, former Director of First Atlantic Bank Ghana, among other past board positions. He served as 17th President of Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria.

He is the founding President and currently Chairman, Board of Trustees of Fintech Association of Nigeria (FINTECHNGR), founding President of the Africa Fintech Network (AFN) , founding member of the Board of Global Fintech Alliance and pioneer Chairman of International Digital Economies Association (IDEA)
In these roles, he has championed, coordinated, and led advocacy and initiatives aimed at improving financial and payment systems, banking regulations, financial literacy and innovation in financial services across Africa and globally.

As an innovation ecosystem builder, Dr Aina who has been variously described as Africa's Fintech Grandmaster, has 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 UK- Africa Fintech Investment Group, a UK Govt initiative.

Dr Aina's unique contributions to the academic sector includes membership of the pioneer Advancement Board of Obafemi Awolowo University and currently Chairman Advancement Board of Federal University of Technology Akure, co-Chairman National Think Tank on Research for Innovation and Policy (initiative of 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 University of Lagos and University of Ibadan and had executive business education in INSEAD France, Harvard Business School (HBS), IMD Switzerland, and the Lagos Business School (LBS). He is Fellow of London Institute of Banking and Finance, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, Charteted nstitute of Directors, Institute of Chartered Arbitrators among others.

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

Serigne Dioum is the Group CEO of MTN Group Fintech, where he leads the company’s mission to build Africa’s largest and most inclusive digital financial services platform. Since joining MTN in 2009, he has driven the expansion of MTN MoMo to 14 African countries, serving over 63 million customers and enabling transactions worth over US$212 billion in the first half of 2025. Under his leadership, MTN Fintech achieved a landmark US$5.2 billion valuation through a strategic partnership with Mastercard. A telecommunications engineer by training, Serigne is passionate about using digital innovation to drive financial inclusion and economic growth across Africa.

Sopnendu Mohanty is the Co-founder and Group CEO of the Global Finance & Technology Network (GFTN), a global advisory and investment firm. At GFTN, he leads innovative strategies that drive development and transformation in the financial sector through four operating arms: Forums, Advisory, Platform, and Capital.

He served at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) as its first Chief Fintech Officer for nearly a decade, establishing Singapore on the global map as a leading center for innovation in the financial sector and a dynamic hub for fintech development. He continues to advise MAS on technology and innovation.

He currently serves on several boards, including the board of A*STAR, Singapore’s leading public sector agency dedicated to advancing scientific discovery and technological innovation. Before his leadership role in the public sector, he spent nearly two decades at Citigroup. He is credited with developing many public goods, including the notable PayNow, Singapore’s digital public infrastructure for payments. He conceptualized the globally well-known Singapore Fintech Festival and its global network of forums; today, the GFTN forum is the world’s largest convenor of tech, policymakers, and the financial sector community. Mr. Mohanty has co-authored several patented works in digital finance and received numerous industry accolades. He advises governments and various institutions on policies and implementation strategies for innovation, infrastructure, and ecosystem development in the financial sector.

Hon. Soraya Munyana Hakuziyaremye was appointed Governor of the National Bank of Rwanda on February 25th, 2025. Prior to this role she was Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Rwanda since March 15, 2021. Hon. Soraya was also appointed as Chair of the Alliance of Financial Inclusion (AFI) Board of Directors on September 3rd, 2025.

She served as Minister of Trade and Industry from October 2018 to March 2021, in Rwanda, where she led the implementation of the Made in Rwanda policy, contributing to a 9% average annual growth in the industry sector and a significant increase in exports. During her tenure, she also chaired the EAC Sectoral Council on Investment and Trade, playing a key role in the entry into force of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA). Additionally, she was a member of Rwanda’s National COVID-19 Taskforce, overseeing the management of domestic and cross-border trade flows during the pandemic.

Before joining the Cabinet, Hon. Soraya held several senior roles in international banking and finance. From 2016 to 2018, she was Vice President in the Financial Institutions/Financial Markets Risk Department at ING Bank in London. She also previously worked in senior risk management positions at BNP Paribas Group in Paris, Fortis Bank, and the Bank of New York Mellon in Brussels between 2002 and 2011. From 2012 to 2014, she served as Senior Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Rwanda.

In addition to her leadership in finance and government, Hon. Soraya has played an active role in corporate governance and investment initiatives. She was a Board member at Ngali Holdings and co-founded the Brussels-Africa Hub, an international non-profit organization led by banking and finance professionals to facilitate sustainable and responsible investments in Africa.

Hon. Soraya brings rich leadership experience in global banking and financial advisory, combining expertise in financial markets, risk management, and economic policy. She holds a postgraduate degree in International Management from the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University (U.S.) and a Master’s in Business Engineering (Ingénieur de Gestion) from the Solvay Business School at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium). She is also an alumna of the Executive Public Leaders Program at the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government.

Steve has led diverse impact-driven teams for 22 years in over 10 countries between work in the government, non-profit and the private sector. He aims to influence a more equitable and fair world, particularly through inclusive financial services. At the Mojaloop Foundation, he is driving interoperable real time payments that reach everyone by helping various stakeholders to understand their role in building locally owned, locally controlled, and locally operated payments infrastructure. He holds degrees in Mathematics from West Point and the University of Padova.

Uyoyo Edosio is the Chief ICT and Innovation Expert at the African Development Bank, with 14 years of experience in infrastructure finance, human capital development, and ICT for development. She leads the Bank’s Digital Transformation Action Plan for Africa and oversees its four-year ICT investment strategy. Her work involves structuring and leading large-scale investments, managing sovereign operations, and shaping digital policy for governments, the private sector, and Regional Economic Communities.
She currently leads a digital portfolio of over $850 million. This includes the $618 million Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises (iDICE) in Nigeria, the $60.8 million Rwanda Innovation Fund, and the $51 million Cabo Verde Technology Park. She also leads the Regional Fintech Sandbox for the WAMI region, and the Bank’s partnership with Smart Africa to harmonize digital trade policy across ten countries.
On infrastructure finance, Uyoyo is also leading the design of a 90,000 km fiber connectivity program in Nigeria known as the Fibre Forward Project. Structured as a blended public-private investment, the project is backed by AfDB, the World Bank, EU, Islamic Development Bank, and others. It includes the establishment of a new SPV, national demand stimulation for affordable smart devices, and targeted digital usage across underserved communities and productive sectors.
In human capital and ICT development, Uyoyo leads the Bank’s work on AI policy at the G20 and other global platforms. Previously, she led the Bank’s Coding for Employment program, training over two hundred thousand youth in demand-led digital skills. She also championed academic-led innovation hubs in collaboration with the African Union and East African Community, extending the triple-helix model through the Pan African University and Nelson Mandela Institutes in seven countries.
Before joining the Bank, Uyoyo worked at KPMG and PwC in London, advising clients across Europe, North America, and Africa on innovation, digital strategy, and operational risk. She has contributed to the African Union’s 2024 AI Strategy, ECOWAS’s Human Capital Strategy, and served on boards including the Mastercard Foundation’s Secondary Education Advisory Board. She also advises the United Nations and African Union on technology and youth employment.
Uyoyo serves on the boards of Meet a Need Today Foundation and the Covenant University H.O.P.E Foundation. She has spoken at Cambridge University, Oxford University, MIT, GITEX, Africa Tech Festival, AfricaCom, Transform Africa Summit, and other global platforms.
She holds degrees/certificates in International Social and Public Policy (specialized in Development), Computer Science, Development Project Management, and Investment Appraisal from the London School of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Covenant University and Bradford University.

Veerathai Santiprabhob is a distinguished macroeconomist and financial professional with over 30 years of experience spanning economic policy design, commercial banking, and capital markets. He served as the 23rd Governor of the Bank of Thailand (2015–2020), where he led the digital transformation of Thailand’s financial system and steered the country’s macroeconomic and financial stability through a period of global uncertainty.

Prior to his governorship, he held senior executive roles at the Stock Exchange of Thailand and Siam Commercial Bank, and contributed to national economic and financial policy as a member of several high-level committees.

Internationally, he served on the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) of the IMF and chaired key groups including the BIS Central Bank Governance Group, the BIS Asian Consultative Council, and the SEACEN Board of Governors.

Currently, Veerathai serves as an independent director of leading corporations, including SCBX, Bangkok Dusit Medical Services, Siam Piwat, and Thai Namthip Corporation.

Deeply committed to social impact, he focuses his efforts on sustainability, education, and Buddhism. He chairs the Independent Oversight Advisory Committee of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the board of Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI). He also serves on the board of Mae Fah Luang Foundation under Royal Patronage, Royal Initiative Discovery Foundation, and Chiang Mai University as well as on the International Advisory Board of Global Finance and Technology Network (GFTN).

Veerathai holds a Ph.D. and A.M. in Economics from Harvard University, and a B.A. in Economics (First Class Honors) from Thammasat University. He is a recipient of the Anandamahidol Foundation Scholarship and the Eisenhower Fellowship.

Yemi Keri is a technology executive, board leader, and angel investor with over 24 years of experience shaping digital transformation, innovation, and investment across Africa’s public and private sectors. Recognized as one of Nigeria’s foremost women in technology, she has consistently delivered solutions that drive business growth, socio-economic development, and increased participation of women in early-stage investing.

She is the Co-Founder of Rising Tide Africa, a women-led platform advancing cross-border angel investing and investor mentorship, and the CEO of Heckerbella Limited, a technology solutions company delivering scalable and sustainable IT innovations across the continent. Through these roles, she champions education, strategic collaboration, and indigenous digital transformation initiatives.

Yemi serves on the boards of First City Monument Bank (FCMB), Investment One Financial Services, GAIA Africa, Beyond Credit Limited, Nigeria Climate Innovation Centre, and M&E Kaiser Limited.

She is the President of the Nigerian-German Chamber of Commerce (NGCC), President of the African Business Angel Network (ABAN), Chair of the Board of Governors of the Lagos Angel Network, and a member of the Investment Committee of Acumen’s Resilient Agriculture Fund (ARAF).

In academia and mentorship, Yemi is an Expert-in-Residence at the Enterprise Development Centre (EDC) and a facilitator on Corporate Governance and Digital Technology & Trends at Pan-Atlantic University/Lagos Business School. She continues to mentor digital and technology-enabled startups across Africa, shaping the next generation of leaders and investors.