Farouk is the Vice Chairman of Tropical General Investment (TGI) Group. TGI is a global conglomerate operating in 13 countries across Africa, the Middle East and Asia in various business verticals such as Food and Agribusiness, FMCG, Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals and Financial Services. Farouk is Chairman of some of the TGI Group companies including WACOT Rice among others. He is also the immediate past Chairman of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority and sits on the boards of Corporate Council on Africa and Africa Business Coalition on Health.

Rebecca Enonchong is the founder and CEO of AppsTech, an enterprise software company. A native of Cameroon, she champions tech innovation in Africa. She chairs ActivSpaces, is Trustee and Chair Emeritus of Afrilabs, and co-founded Cameroon Angels Network and African Business Angels Network. She serves on the International Chamber of Commerce Global Executive Board and is Vice-Chair of the WHO Foundation. Named Business Insider Africa’s 2022 "Female Leader of the Year," she’s also among Africa’s most influential per NewAfrican and Jeune Afrique. A WEF Global Leader for Tomorrow, she became an International Fellow of the UK Royal Academy of Engineering in 2022.

Dikko Umaru Radda is a Nigerian economist and politician, currently serving as the governor of Katsina State following his election in 2023. With a distinguished career in public service, he previously led the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) as director-general and held key roles, including Chief of Staff to the Katsina State Governor and Chairman of Charanchi Local Government Council. As governor, he has prioritized infrastructure development, education reform, healthcare improvement, agriculture promotion, and job creation.

Mr. Alex Apau Dadey is a successful Entrepreneur and Philanthropist with over 30 years’ experience working across multiple industries and sectors across the globe including Fintech, Logistics, Agric, Property Development and Commerce particularly in the United Kingdom and Ghana. He functions in various c-suite capacities and serves on boards of multiple institutions including Ecom Agro Industrial, Premier Textiles Group in the United Kingdom, Birchfield Investments Limited in Jersey, Channel Islands and Dubai, KGL Capital (UK) Limited and Dominion Direct (UK) Limited to name a few.

Dennis Nana Dwamena, professionally known as KiDi, is an acclaimed Ghanaian singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame as the winner of MTN Hit Maker (2015) and soon signed with Lynx Entertainment, where he quickly became a household name with hits like Odo, Say Cheese, Enjoyment, I Lied, and Likor (with Stonebwoy).

KiDi has received numerous awards, including Artist of the Year at the 2022 Ghana Music Awards, and has been recognized by the BBC as one of the “10 African Music Stars to Watch”. His music, known for its smooth melodies and engaging lyrics, continues to dominate the charts and captivate audiences worldwide.

Aishah N. Ahmad is a global finance and policy expert with nearly 30 years of experience in public policy, private markets, and governance. As Deputy Governor for Financial System Stability at the Central Bank of Nigeria (2018–2023), she led key reforms, including BOFIA 2020 and Nigeria’s domestic card scheme (Afrigo), driving financial inclusion to 74%.

A thought leader on financial innovation and Africa’s climate future, she has spoken at Harvard Kennedy School and Oxford Saïd Business School. In 2023, she received Nigeria’s national award of OFR for her impact on finance and gender advocacy.

A CFA and CAIA charterholder, Aishah serves on the global boards of the Financial Alliance for Women and SOS Children’s Villages International.

Kabiru Rabiu is the Group Executive Director of BUA Group, a leading Nigerian conglomerate with interests in cement manufacturing, food processing, infrastructure, and more. He joined the company in 2002 and has played a pivotal role in overseeing BUA's growth strategy, new investments, and project development.

Kabiru’s work spans several industries, including manufacturing, agriculture, infrastructure, and energy, significantly contributing to Nigeria’s economic development. He has been instrumental in major corporate transactions, such as the merger of CCNN with BUA’s Kalambaina Cement and the subsequent listings of BUA Cement and BUA Foods on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

Beyond his leadership at BUA, Kabiru is also an entrepreneur, having founded several companies across sectors like real estate, manufacturing, and technology, further cementing his role as a key player in Nigeria’s business landscape.

Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes is the Founder and CEO of Aruwa Capital Management, one of the few women owned and managed, growth equity and gender lens funds in Africa. She has over 15 years of investment banking and private equity experience in developed and emerging markets from global institutions such as J.P. Morgan. In 2023, Adesuwa won the 2X Global Woman Fund Manager of the Year award, and was recognised as one of the 150 Eko Aspire Women by the Lagos State Governor and recognized as one of the 100 Laureates by Institut Choiseul (2021-2023) under the age of 40 shaping Africa’s future. Adesuwa is also the only female in Nigeria to raise over $10 million in a first institutional fund.

Mansa is a transformative leader with over 25 years’ experience in the financial services industry. She is currently the Chief Executive of Standard Chartered Bank Ghana PLC, the first female to hold that position in the Bank’s 128-year history in Ghana. She is passionate about driving growth opportunities across Africa and spearheads Standard Chartered’s Working Group on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Additionally, she serves on Standard Chartered Group’s Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Council. She has been involved in several public assignments including serving on the President of Ghana’s five-member Advisory Committee on Sustainability which provided the framework for developing the Country Financing Roadmap for SDGs. She also led the Ghanaian Banking industry engagements with the Government of Ghana and key stakeholders in the country’s Domestic Debt Exchange negotiations.

Andrew joined British International Investment in October 2019 and is currently Chief Investment Officer: Equity & Funds. He chairs BII’s direct equity and funds investment committees across all sectors. Prior to joining British International Investment, Andrew was Chief Investment Officer of Emerging Capital Partners (ECP), a leading pan-African private equity fund manager and at Société Générale Asset Management Alternative Investments and Amundi, he was Chief Investment Officer for their private equity investments in North Africa and the Middle East. Andrew previously worked for CDC Group and Actis in London and Cairo and began his career as a management consultant with Coopers & Lybrand in London and Zambia. 

Elsa is a visionary scientist, entrepreneur, and policy advocate dedicated to driving innovation and equity. With a B.Sc. in Molecular Biology and a Ph.D. in Infectious Disease and Global Health. She has authored seven academic publications, including two in Nature.  As the founder of  SökerData, Elsa is bridging critical data gaps in genomics, focusing on under-represented groups—women and ethnic minorities—starting with breast cancer and cardiovascular diseases. In less than 2 years, SökerData has gained recognition through the KQ Labs Accelerator (run by the Francis Crick Institute), gaining an Innovate UK Grant and successfully completing a Techstars program with 0.8% acceptance. SökerData has gained traction working with pharmaceutical companies such as Bayer and securing speaking engagements at others such as Bristol Myers Squibb. Named 'The Science-Entrepreneur’ by Forbes Africa, Elsa is celebrated as one of Europe’s top 25 female innovators and a leading voice in UK Tech, earning accolades such as 40 Under 40 Future Black Leaders and Top 50 Most Influential Black Voices in Tech.

Kojo is an experienced ICT for Development practitioner, with 20 years’ experience working with governments, fixed-line and mobile operators, development partners, online service providers, content creators, and civil society organisations. In recent years, his work has focused on broadband affordability and infrastructure development; the use of mobile infrastructure and devices for the delivery of social services; strategic planning for ICT regulators; tech regulation, privacy, and competition; and the evolution of the Metaverse and Artificial Intelligence. In 2023, Kojo was listed among the UK’s top 100 most influential black people

Mr Francis Malige is the Managing Director, Head of Financial Institutions Business Group at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), leading investments across 36 economies. He navigated the EBRD's financial sector response to the COVID crisis and the war on Ukraine, implementing vital responses. Prior to this, he served in various roles at the EBRD, including Managing Director for Eastern Europe and the Caucasus based in Kyiv. Before EBRD, Francis was Managing Director for Corporate Development at BNP Paribas, and previously worked with Arthur Andersen and McKinsey. An ESCP Europe graduate and a French citizen, Mr Malige speaks English, German and Italian. He frequently contributes to various newspapers.

Arunma Oteh, Officer of the Order of Niger, has been Executive in Residence at the School since January 2019. 

Her research areas of focus are capital markets, economic development and financial technology. Arunma advises the School on Africa, Entrepreneurship, Finance and Sustainability, and most recently co-chaired the School’s  Anti-Racism Initiative Taskforce. She is a member of the London Stock Exchange Africa Advisory Group. She was previously Treasurer of the World Bank, Director General, Securities and Exchange Commission Nigeria, Group Vice President and Group Treasurer, African Development  Bank Group. 

Arunma has received several awards notably Nigeria’s Officer of the Order of Niger (OON) National Honour. Arunma is one of Power List’s 2020 top 100 people of Black Heritage in the UK and was named one of Africa’s 50 most influential African women by Forbes Africa in March 2020.  

Andrea Heinzer is the Managing Director & Founder of Omnia Impact Advisors, an independent investment advisory and consultant company based in Switzerland. Andrea has two decades of hands-on experience in impact investing, development finance and sustainable investments via various roles at Obviam (Chief Investment Officer, Member of the Executive Committee), SIFEM (Investment Manager Sub-Sahara Africa and responsible for ESG & Impact) and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO (Project Manager). She also advised impact investors (institutions, foundations and HNWIs), developed bespoke investment strategies and deployed capital on their behalf. Andrea served on numerous Advisory Boards and Boards of emerging markets private capital funds. 

Kenfield Griffith is the CEO and Co-Founder of tappi, a SaaS platform helping small businesses find and retain customers. After earning a Ph.D. from MIT, he built Ajua, an enterprise SaaS solving first-party data challenges. Ajua powered customer acquisition, retention, and efficiency for major African brands like MTN, Safaricom, and Standard Chartered—impacting 12M+ consumers and capturing $1B in data transactions. 
 
Kenfield launched tappi to bring enterprise-grade software to small businesses across Africa. He holds degrees in Computer Science and Systems Engineering and hails from Montserrat, a 5,000-person island in the Caribbean.

MaameYaa has over 17 years of experience advising sovereign wealth funds, central banks, family offices, insurance companies, pension funds and development finance institutions around the world on their investment arrangements. On a daily basis, MaameYaa advises investors on asset management issues and strategic global and national issues.  Her work includes public investments and private fund investments (both cornerstone and smaller amounts), single investor mandates and co-investment arrangements covering all asset classes including infrastructure and energy, as well as a wide variety of other agreements and financial services regulatory issues. MaameYaa spent time on secondment to a government entity in Riyadh in 2017 and an Emirati government entity in 2021.

Franklin Olakunle Amoo is a co-founder and the Managing Partner of Baylis Emerging Markets, a leading pan-African investment firm with headquarters in New York and Lagos; he is also the Chairman of both Baylis Digital and Baylis Industrial. He is the Chair of the Digital/ICT Subcommittee of the United States’ President’s Advisory Council for Doing Business in Africa (PAC-DBIA), a board director for the US-Nigeria Council on Food Security, Trade & Investment (USNC) and an informal commercial liaison for the Japanese External Trade Organization (JETRO). Franklin holds a BA in Economics from Columbia University and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Dorothy Nyambi is a distinguished leader with more than 25 years of experience in the international development, entrepreneurial, and humanitarian sectors. Her career is defined by a resolute commitment to ensuring that women and girls are not left behind, particularly through impact investing and blended finance. With lived experience across Africa and the Global South, Dorothy has become a champion of economic transformation, driving initiatives that create jobs for women and youth, particularly within agri-food systems. As Chief Executive Officer of Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA), Dorothy leads its impactful work across Africa, leveraging the Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund to drive economic change. Prior to joining MEDA, she served as Executive Vice President of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) and held significant roles at the U.S. Peace Corps, World Health Organization, and USAID. Fluent in both English and French, Dorothy has held senior leadership positions in diverse organizational phases, including start-up, growth, crisis management, and turnaround, across Africa, North America, Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America. 

Kwadwo is the Ghana Country Lead for Paystack, a Stripe-owned fintech empowering businesses across Africa to collect payments globally. Since expanding to Ghana, he has helped establish Paystack as a top fintech, enabling thousands of businesses—from startups to global brands—to process millions in transactions daily. 
He began his career in investment banking, first with IC Group, an Africa-focused investment banking and securities trading firm, and later with Fincap Securities, a boutique investment firm. He holds a BSc in Computer Engineering and previously co-founded Enscript, where he led product development. More recently, he co-founded Moonshot Venture Partners (MVP Africa) to support early-stage African tech startups.

Yaw Appiah Lartey is a seasoned financial advisor with over 15 years of experience at “Big 4” accounting firms, including Deloitte, PwC, and Ernst & Young (EY). He specialises in a wide range of corporate finance services including mergers and acquisitions, financial restructuring, due diligence, financial modelling, investment appraisal, deal structuring, and negotiation support. He has played a pivotal role in delivering numerous complex Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects, project financing, project structuring, and contract negotiations for infrastructure projects valued at over USD10 billion across Africa, including Ghana, Kenya, Zambia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Botswana, Eswatini, and South Africa. 

Dayo is a Partner and Co-Head, Energy and Natural Resources and Partner, Investigations, White Collar and Compliance Practice Groups at TEMPLARS, one of Africa’s Largest Law Firms with offices in Nigeria and Ghana. He has 25 years of legal and commercial experience and holds a law degree from the University of Jos, Nigeria and a master’s degree in law from the University of London. After 10 years of law firm practice, he took a hiatus to move in-house to join the corporate world as Group General Counsel and Company Secretary of an upstream oil and gas company where he worked out of offices in Lagos, Zurich and London. Dayo moved to a business role in 2015 as an Executive Director of an indigenous oil service company providing Marine Logistics support to energy companies in Nigeria and the wider West Africa region. Dayo rejoined Templars in 2018 and is a recognized and respected lawyer in Energy & Projects and Corporate Law.

Jitendra Mistry ("Jitu") has over 15 years of investment banking experience focused on Africa, having advised numerous corporate and banks in emerging markets on financings, liability management and securitization. Jitu holds a Master’s degree in Physics from the University of Bristol.

Dr. Sena Dei-Tutu is a legal scholar whose research interests range from public international law to security sector reform, data governance, and gender studies. Over the last two and a half decades, Dr. Dei-Tutu has built a career in International Civil Service, Academia, and legal consulting. She is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana School of Law, and currently a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University Law School. She has worked for the United Nations, African Union and the Government of Ghana, in various capacities and consulted for several government and international agencies. Dr Dei-Tutu has been admitted to practice law in Ghana and New York.

Tidjane has worked for over 15 years in the tech industry in Africa as an entrepreneur, consultant, and senior business manager. Tidjane then spent seven years at Google, leading activities in Africa before launching the Google Francophone Africa office in Dakar. In this role, Tidjane led ecosystem efforts across 15+ countries and launched YouTube in six markets. Prior to Google, Tidjane founded and led CommonSys, a company deploying e-government solutions in West Africa, and also co-founded an e-reputation platform in Europe. Tidjane began a career at Cap Gemini in France before joining Cosine Communications, a Silicon Valley startup specializing in network virtualization technology for carriers.

David Awuah-Darko founded IC Group in 2001 and is responsible for strategic initiatives and business development for the Group. IC Group is an Africa-focused investment banking, securities dealing and investment management firm that provides corporations, institutions, governments and individuals with a broad range of financial services. Prior to founding the Group, David started his career at Lehman Brothers International (Europe) in London as a European Equities trader. David read Mathematics & Computation at Balliol College, University of Oxford, where he earned an MA (Oxon) degree and won two half-blues in polo. 

Henry Odogwu, Managing Director, is Head of UK Defined Benefit sales within the UK Institutional Client Business, where he and his team are responsible for driving growth with UK DB pension schemes utilising the full suite of BlackRock investment solutions across index, alpha and private markets. Henry is a member of the UK ICB leadership team, and the UK Executive Committee. Prior to this role Henry led iShares & Wealth sales for UK Institutional clients, while he was also Co-Head of the EMEA Asset Management Leadership Team and a member EMEA iSW Sales Leadership Team. Henry joined BlackRock in 2020 from London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), where he spent 4 years as Head of European Asset Owner & Consultant sales in the FTSE Russell business and in his final year he was additionally head of the wider continental European sales team. Henry co-founded and co-chaired the Black Employee Inspired Network Group (BEING) during his time at LSEG. Henry spent 7 years at MSCI were he led teams responsible for selling risk and portfolio management analytics to buy side & sell side institutions. He began his career in banking, working in a variety of roles at firms including Barclays Capital, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch. Henry holds a BEng (hons) in Mechanical Engineering from Brunel University and holds the Investment Management Certificate (IMC). Henry is a member of the board of trustees of Barnardo's children's charity

Rashid is a managing director at Goldman Sachs. He is the global head of the firm’s web and mobile platforms, the global head of engineering for the Executive Office division, in addition to leading the Engineering division’s Product Design, Financial Cloud Platform, and Productivity & Engagement teams. He is also the managing director sponsor for the Black Analyst and Associate Initiative for Engineering in EMEA and a member of the executive steering committee for the EMEA Black Engineers Network. 

Prior to joining the firm, Rashid worked at Accenture as a technology consultant, supporting clients in the financial services industry.

Rashid earned a BSc, with honors, in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Khartoum in Sudan and an MPhil in Computer Speech, Text and Internet Technology from the University of Cambridge in the UK.

Vish is the Country Senior Partner for PwC in Ghana. He was admitted into partnership in 2007. Altogether, Vish has over 32 years of professional experience, 24 of which have been spent with PwC. 

His primary expertise is in assisting businesses and governments to navigate the complex field of transactions and deals, including due diligence work, investment appraisals, and business valuations. He has advised both selling and buying parties on transactions across a variety of industries, including banking and financial services, power and utilities, manufacturing, transportation and logistics. 

Vish holds a Masters degree in Engineering from the University of London, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine. He is a Chartered Accountant and a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana (ICAG) and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (FCA). 

Kisseih is the founder and Managing Director of Sentinel Asset Management (SAM), a leading investment management firm in Ghana that offers strategies tailored to meet the needs of institutional and retail clients across various asst classes including equities, fixed income, real estate and cash. Prior to SAM, Kisseih was the Managing Director of EDC Investments Ltd, the Ghanaian subsidiary of Ecobank Capital’s Asset Management business. He also doubled as the Anglophone West Africa Regional Head of Ecobank Capital’s Securities, Wealth and Asset Management businesses. Kisseih is a Governing Council member of the Pan-African Managers Association and is Vice-President of the Ghana Securities Industry Association. He also serves on the steering committee of the Ghana Securities and Exchange’s Capital Market Master Plan which is a blueprint for developing Ghana’s capital market over a ten-year period. He is also a member of the Investment Committee of the ValuAlliance Value Fund managed by ValuAlliance Asset Management, a leading Nigerian fund manager. He was also a member of the Board of Trustees of Ghana’s Venture Capital Trust Fund.

Begna Gebreyes is Head of Heavy Industries, Telecoms & Technology (HITT) at Africa Finance Corporation (AFC).

As Head of HITT, he oversees a portfolio of US$1 billion in debt and equity investments. He has over 20 years' experience of investment banking and private equity across North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

For the last 10 years he has been financing greenfield and brown expansion projects across AFC’s 40 member countries in the natural resources, transport, heavy industries, telecoms and technology sectors.

Prior to AFC, he held various roles at Standard Chartered Plc, CapitalSource Inc. and Bank of America N. A. He received his BA from Stanford University, MBA from University of California: Berkeley Haas and is a CFA charterholder