Entrepreneurship and Startup Growth

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; leading the AfriLabs community to achieve its vision of a thriving innovation economy in Africa, and heading 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.

Arjuna Costa is driven by a deep compassion for vulnerable populations across the globe, and partners with entrepreneurs using innovative technologies to enhance their customers’ financial well-being. He co-manages Flourish, with a primary focus on venture investing across emerging markets in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Before Flourish, Arjuna was a partner at Omidyar Network, where he built a global portfolio of early-stage, inclusive fintech companies. Prior to that, Arjuna developed a deep understanding of the potential to radically alter traditional “brick-and-mortar” economics through mobile money solutions for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Before that, he invested equity and debt in consumer finance companies in emerging markets at The Rohatyn Group, a multi-billion dollar emerging markets investment firm.

In 2003, Arjuna cofounded a $120-million private equity fund focused on the turnaround of distressed commercial banks in Africa. The fund grew out of advising governments on the restructuring and privatization of its banking sector. Arjuna began his career at Lehman Brothers, where he spent five years financing power plants and airports globally.

Arjuna earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in computer science from Columbia University.

Esselina Macome - Associate Professor at the Eduardo Mondlane University. She holds a Doctoral Degree (PhD), in Information Technologies by University of Pretoria, in South Africa in 2003; she also has a Master Degree (MSc) in Analysis, Design and Management of Information System by London School of Economics and Political Science of the University of London, in 1992. Dr. Macome is Licentiate in Teaching of Mathematics by Paedagogische Hochshule Dresden- Germany, in 1987. In 2016, she concluded an international certification in Leadership for Financial Inclusion offered by Fletcher School. She successful completed the courses on Digital Money, Leading Markets: A Global Tour, Leading for Frontiers, Bitcoin: Back to the Future, Gender, regulating Fintechs, Humanitarian payment, product management all offered by the Digital Frontiers Institute in partnership with Fletcher School as part of the certified digital finance practitioner 3 years program, which I successfully concluded in September 2020. In 2018-2019 she participated with success in the Africa Board Fellowship programme organized by the Center for Financial Inclusion Accion (2018-2019). She participated in a course on Strategic Leadership in inclusive finance offered by Harvard Business School (Março / Abril 2019). In 2 March 2022 she successfully completed a course related to leadership on gender equality for organizational transformation on gender equity, offered by DFI.

Dr. Macome joined the Central Bank of Mozambique in 2005 as Executive Director and Member of the Board, position that she holds until 2015. Presently, besides the academic activity, she also working at the FSDMOç (Financial Sector Deepening Moçambique) as a Chief Executive Officer since July 2027 and since December 2022 she chairperson of Standard Bank. Her areas of interest include the usage of Information Communication Technology for development and financial inclusion with more focus to Digital financial services (DFS), green finance and Gender related issues.

Irene Arias Hofman is the CEO of IDB Lab, the innovation laboratory of the Inter-American Development Bank Group, the leading source of development finance for Latin America and the Caribbean. The purpose of IDB Lab is to drive innovation for inclusion by supporting early-stage entrepreneurial solutions capable of transforming the lives of vulnerable populations.

Previously, Irene worked for 20 years at the IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, where she managed the Financial Institutions Group and also the LAC region with its 16-billion-dollar portfolio. Her focus has been on innovation and technology, venture capital, and organizational development.

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.

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.

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.

Named to the prestigious global top 30 Accelerating Entrepreneurs by Ernst & Young, Navin is hooked to building new doors, writing new playbooks, and creating new enterprise value. He hung up his corporate boots after gaining significant experience across Retail Banking, Wealth & Asset Management, in leadership roles with APAC remits at Citi, ING and BNY Mellon. He started a banking technology company which invented the world’s first digital twin for banks aiming to help mid-sized banks accelerate their digital transformation.

Navin serves on the Board of Nomura in Taiwan, and is Advisor to the Board of Elevandi. He is creator and host of the TED-inspired The Founders Peak stage, and Podcast.

A familiar face on global news channels, Sharanjit Leyl has brought you the news from Asia on BBC World News, Bloomberg Television and the CBC for a quarter of a century. She spent eighteen years with BBC World News, covering business and politics, anchoring from its Asia bureau and from London's Broadcasting House. She regularly anchored live on location on breaking stories such as the Trump-Kim summits, the Hong Kong protests, the missing Malaysian Airlines flight among others, while contributing to BBC World Service radio and the BBC news website. A Singaporean native, she's produced and presented BBC documentaries on TV and radio about her city. Sharanjit now regularly moderates high level debates for the United Nations, the World Bank, the ADB and other multilateral and financial institutions while balancing a board career and advising various companies on media strategy and ESG. She divides her time between Singapore and Bath, UK.