Theme

Innovation & Technology in Entrepreneurship: A Stimulant for Economic Growth

Onyeka Akumah is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Farmcrowdy leading a team of 40 innovative Nigerians to establish Nigeria’s First Digital Agriculture platform which has so far impacted the lives of over 7,000 small-scale farmers across 10 states in Nigeria in less than 2 years.

Farmcrowdy has created and is leading a new category of online platforms to focus on increasing food production, impacting on the lives of small-scale farmers in Nigeria and encouraging 1 million Nigerian youth to participate in agriculture.

His work experience spans leading roles in diverse sectors of the economy, including Travel, E-commerce, Banking and Technology, having worked with brands including Jumia, Konga, Wakanow, GTBank, British Council and Deloitte.

Solape is a business executive with over 19 years’ experience in Management Consulting, Risk Management, Banking and Financial Advisory.

She is Co-Founder and CEO of Impact Hub Lagos, a collaborative centre for entrepreneurs which provides work space, offices, consulting services and capacity building programs that inspire, connect and enable impact. Impact Hub Lagos is part of the rapidly expanding Impact Hub network of over 16,000 members across 102 hubs in 50 countries worldwide.

She is also the Founder and CEO of Ten Talents Limited, a business advisory firm providing business planning, recruitment, strategy development, process improvement, organizational transformation, risk management, performance management, programme management and financial advisory services.

Solape commenced her consulting career at Accenture, leaving as a Manager in the Finance and Performance Management Market Unit. Prior to that, she spent over 3 years in the Credit Administration and Risk Management department of MBC International Bank, then a subsidiary of BNP Paribas (now part of First Bank of Nigeria Plc.) She also previously served as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a financial advisory firm based in Lagos with clients across Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia and other parts of Africa.

She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the University of Ibadan and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) degree from INSEAD

Solape is passionate about social change and serves as Secretary to the Board of Trustees for the Handicapped Education Foundation (HANDEF) and is a member of the International Women’s Society (IWS), Hospitals for Humanity (HFH) and the Nigerian Leadership Initiative (NLI). She also serves as the Chairperson of KHAN Regenesis, a not-for-profit organization focused on bringing positive change to the vocational sector, particularly as relates to construction. KHAN specializes in concept development, programme management, vocational training support, placement services, policy development and advocacy.

She also sits on the Board or Advisory Councils of various for-profit organisations including Olorunsogo Power Plc, Page Financials, Gerocare.org, Studio Lumiere, Mums in Tech UK LLC and Rue14 Studios.

Adia Sowho is the Managing Director, Nigeria for Mines: a machine learning-powered digital credit platform. Mines offers a 'credit-as-a-service' platform that enables mobile operators, banks, retailers and payment processors offer credit to their customers, tackling the challenge of consumer credit for Nigeria's 90 million adults without easy access to credit. One of Mines' deployments of note is kwikcash which is currently available by dialing *561# from your 9 mobile phone or *554*561# from Airtel or Glo lines. It is also available on the web at kwikcash.ng.

Previously, she was the Director of Digital Business at 9mobile (formerly Etisalat Nigeria) where she was responsible for partnering with startups to deliver mobile content, advertising, financial and API services. This was after being a management consultant at Deloitte Consulting's Chicago office and a Radio Frequency Engineer at a US mobile operator called U.S. Cellular. Adia graduated from the Kellogg School of Management with an MBA after her Electronic and Electrical Engineering degree.

Anthonio is the Director of Operations at Andela, responsible for helping to scale Andela’s operations and facilities from hundreds to thousands of employees.He joins Andela with almost a decade of experience leading cross-functional teams to achieve business objectives.

Prior to joining Andela, Anthonio was on the management team at Pinconsult Associates, a structural engineering firm, where he held a multi-faceted role involving business strategy, financial management and customer relationship management. In this role, he helped refine the organization structure to enabled a more collaborative and faster decision making process.

Anthonio is passionate about analyzing and solving complex business problems and working with others to create sustainable business structures.

Anthonio B. Pinheiro holds a BSc. in Economics and Finance (2006), and an MBA (2009) from Wichita State University.

He is a highly versatile investment and financial adviser with over 20 years’ experience in the finance industry both locally and internationally.

He trained as an accountant in Ernst & Young and as a stockbroker in City Securities Limited where he headed Stockbroking operations. He expanded his research and financial advisory skills at Agusto & Co where he was a Senior business consultant. He also worked at MBC International Bank as the Divisional Head, Corporate Finance and Syndications and later became the pioneer CEO of Associated Asset Managers Limited. His international exposure includes various project and investment advisory work at Manulife Financial and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board both in Canada.

Bola read Economics at the University of Leeds (UK). He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers, and a Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria and the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments. He sits in a non-executive capacity on the Boards of directors of several non-public companies and has participated in capital market courses conducted by Euromoney (UK), the Canadian Securities Institute

Bukky Akomolafe is the Commercial Manager of Travelstart, Africa’s largest online travel agency. She manages marketing, the affiliates & partnership program, online customer service and business development. She has spearheaded many campaigns including two very successful Black Friday sales in 2017 and 2018, the 2018 sponsorship of the Nigerian Bobsled & Skeleton team to the Winter Olympics in South Korea. Prior to joining Travelstart, she was the Head of Marketing for Rhythm Unplugged, a Flytime produced popular Nigerian concert with headline sponsor Pepsi. Here, she created online & offline marketing campaigns for the 2015 concert featuring Trey Songz and the 2016 concert featuring Nigeria’s best performing artist. She was also responsible for sponsor client relationship management, press relations and branding

Bukky has over eight years of experience in marketing. She attended the George Washington University in DC in 2005. She graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelors of Business Administration, concentration in Marketing and Finance. She then moved to New York to join Ogilvy & Mather, one of the largest marketing communications companies in the world, as an Associate in their prestigious Associates Training Program. There, she helped to launch a $2 million growth, strategy and innovation consulting business by converting new business pitches into client assignments. Her client roster included BP, UBS, BlackRock, Catholic Charities and more. She later attended the Yale School of Management for her MBA where she graduated in 2014. At Yale, she had a variety of leadership roles; she was the Second Year Career Development Chair on the Student Government, Co-chair of the Black Business Alliance, a Student Admissions Interviewer, a member of the Community and Inclusion Council and the Marketing Director for the Integrated Leadership Case Competition. After graduation, Bukky moved to New York where worked at JP Morgan Chase & Co. She was a Social Media Manager where she served as the content strategist and voice for JP Morgan Chase & Co. on LinkedIn as well as provided content advice for JP Morgan. Her last role at JP Morgan & Chase, before moving to Nigeria in 2015, was in the Auto Finance, where she worked in business development.

Bukky is happily married and lives with her husband in Lagos.

Mr. Abayomi Awobokun is a business leader from Nigeria, a 2016 recipient of the Young Global Leader award from the World Economic Forum (WEF), a 2017 recipient of the prestigious Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu Fellow from the African Leadership Initiative (AFLI) in South Africa and in 2018, a 3-time recipient of the top 100 African Business Persons under 40 award by the Choiseul Institute in Paris, France.

He is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Enyo Retail & Supply, a new downstream player in Nigeria poised to utilize technology to simplify and optimize fuels retailing in Nigeria.

Before his role in Enyo Retail & Supply, Abayomi was the CEO of Oando Plc’s Downstream Businesses (in Nigeria, West Africa, Europe & the Middle East) for over 6 years. Under his leadership, this business achieved annual turnover of over $1bn in 2015, growing its marketshare by over 6% to 15% of the private sector supply & distribution of refined products into Nigeria. Other achievements recorded include successfully expanding Oando’s trading division into Southern Africa and Middle Eastern markets and leading the 2016 $250m equity injection into the business by two international investors. This successful deal was one of the largest in the downstream sector in Nigeria in 2016.

He is the founder of “The September 20 Foundation (TS20F)”, a voluntary donor-funded initiative to support the operations of Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in Nigeria. He is married with 2 children.

Collins Onuegbu, an IT entrepreneur and investor with over two decades’ of experience in the African IT space, is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Signal Alliance - Nigeria’s topmost IT services provider. He also founded Sasware, a technology investment subsidiary of Signal Alliance focused on providing seed investments to early stage startups within the technology industry.

Signal Alliance, under his leadership has won numerous industry awards, including the coveted Microsoft System Integrator of the Year Award, and he was a nominated finalist for the 2013 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award.

He holds a BEng degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Nigeria Nsukka, an alumnus of Lagos Business School as well as the Harvard Business School.

Collins is currently a Director at the Lagos Angel Network (LAN); Expert-in-Residence at the Enterprise Development Centre of the Pan Atlantic University; an Executive of the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON). He also seats on the board of GEN Nigeria, and is the co-manager of the Technology Circle of the Harvard Business School Association of Nigeria (HBSAN).

Uyi Akpata is Country Senior Partner for PwC Nigeria and Regional Senior Partner for PwC West Africa.

Uyi has worked to significantly enhance the standards and practice of accounting in Nigeria, contributed in shaping the Nigeria economy as a trusted advisor to many top businesses, impacted government policy and governance across various levels and also contributed to the community through various causes and initiatives.

Uyi joined the renowned accounting firm of Coopers & Lybrand (today known as PricewaterhouseCoopers or PwC Nigeria) in October of 1984 and became a Partner in October 1992. In his 24 years as Partner, Uyi has served as Assurance Engagement Leader in the audits of clients especially in the Oil & Gas Industry. His notable clients include Chevron, Exxon Mobil and Oando. He has also supported a number of clients in the downstream and services subsectors of the oil industry in the area of strategy and operations advisory services.

In recent years, Uyi has been focused on providing business advisory services to clients in the public sector. He has overall responsibility for supporting in the development of economically viable and sustainable policies and implementation of innovative projects towards engendering inclusive growth and entrenching good governance in society.

Prior to assuming his current position, Uyi served in numerous leadership positions within PwC Nigeria and Africa. From 2008 to June 2012, he served as Chairman of the Governance Board of Africa Central and from 2012 to 2016 he was head of Oil & Gas for Africa. He took over the current position in July 2015, managing a PwC team of 45 Partners and over 1300 staff.

In recognition of his contribution to the business environment in Nigeria, Uyi was recently awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Management Science by the Well Spring University Benin City, Nigeria.

Uyi is a 1984 graduate of Accounting from the University of Lagos. He joined the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) in 1986 and is currently a Fellow of the Institute.

A keen sportsman, Uyi has served as Golf Captain in the prestigious Ikoyi Club 1938 in 2003/2004. He is the Chairman of the Edo State Cricket Association and was in June 2017 elected as Vice President of the Nigeria Cricket Federation.