Karim Khoja

Karim Khoja is a founding partner of AKA Partners (AKA), an implementation company committed to doing well by Doing Good! AKA is working with its technology partners to leverage digital technologies to drive improvements in the quality of life in the emerging markets from both a social and economic perspective. One of AKA’s main projects is to expand rural broadband coverage in East Africa, starting with Rwanda. AKA has recently acquired an ISP company in Rwanda, Trans Africa Communications (TrAC) and has now established its regional headquarters in Kigali. Karim has worked for over 20 years for the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED) and was the CEO of Roshan which Karim started in 2003, post the fall of the Taliban. As part of the mandate, Karim also looked to bring competition and best practices to the telecommunications industry in Afghanistan and Tajikistan. He has focused not only on financial results, but also on how technology can be used to change lives. Karim has over 30 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, including starting and managing extremely successful GSM companies in Pakistan, Poland, Croatia, Tajikistan and Afghanistan. Karim was most recently the Chief Executive Officer of Industrial Promotion Services, Asia Region. In that role Karim was responsible for investments in the Infrastructure and Industrial areas. These included telecom, clean energy and agribusiness. Prior to that, Karim was the Chief Executive Officer of Roshan. Under his leadership, Roshan grew to be Afghanistan’s market leader, with more than six and a half million customers. Karim started his GSM career as the CEO for Mobilink in Pakistan, and then launched Era GSM in Poland. He then went on to spin out the mobile company, T Mobile, from the incumbent Croatian Telecom Inc. Karim has also served on the board of IPS West Africa, IPS Pakistan and Tcell in Tajikistan and the executive committee of Accelerator Prosperity. He was a Board Member/Chairman of the Afghan Institute for Civil Society (AICS) and an adviser to the GSMA Development Fund. He was the Chairman of the Afghan Investment Climate facility (Harakat), a £30 million fund to encourage private enterprise (June 2017) and until recently an Associate Board Member of the Legatum Center at MIT. Karim has a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from Chelsea College University of London. Master’s degree in Management Science from Imperial College University of London and the AMP from Harvard Business School.