Africa Business Forum: Innovating with Emerging Europe

Moderator

Joel Karubiu
Country Representative/ Export Adviser in East Africa 
Enterprise Estonia
 

Joel Karubiu is a seasoned professional with over 20 years of experience as an innovative and creative solutions provider with an edge in Business Development for major firms such as Kenya Network Information Centre (KeNIC), Marketing Society of Kenya (MSK), PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA), British Airways World Cargo (BAWC) and Haco Industries limited.  

He has been recognised for building strong brands using integrated marketing methodologies while being a key contributor to strategic business planning and developing long-term growth plans

Joel is the Country Representative and Export Adviser for Kenya and East Africa at the Business and Innovation Agency (Enterprise Estonia); his agenda is to enhance the trade relations between Estonia and Kenya and support Estonian companies' venture into new markets.  

He holds a Bachelor of Science in International Business Administration ( Management) and a Master's in Business Administration (Strategic Marketing) from the United States International University (USIU). He also has diplomas in leadership and management from E-Cornell University and other certifications. 

Joel is a Non-Executive Board Member of TransUnion Credit Reference Bureau (TU CRB), African Top-Level Domains (AFTLD), and Lenana School,  a Member of the Institute of Directors (IOD- Kenya), Marketing Society of Kenya, Kenya Private Sector Alliance ( KEPSA)  Executive Council Member Super Brands Kenya amongst other roles.

Joel's social inputs are felt as a charter member of the Lions Club of Nairobi South and a marketing Committee Member at Lions Firsteye Hospital

Joel is passionate about youth development in marketing and entrepreneurship, leads talks with student marketers on their career journeys, and mentors many; he has also been involved in strategic input to various marketing activities for private and public organisations. 
 

Education and Innovation

Moderator

Sabina Sägi
Project Manager at EdTech Estonia

Sabina Sägi is a graduate of the University of Glasgow, Scotland. Sabina's background in filmmaking and the broader creative industries allowed her to live and work in 8 countries (thus far), from Bulgaria to Israel. She hosts the Erasmus+ podcast and has moderated panels and events in English, German and Estonian on education, entrepreneurship, project management and filmmaking, as well as been an on-camera host in short films. Her strengths are ample preparation, breaking down topics into easily understood messages and making guests feel at home. As a project manager at EdTech Estonia, her role includes facilitating the exchange between Estonian education technology startups and foreign delegations, universities, investors, government stakeholders and other parties relevant to the ecosystem. 

Speakers

Lydie Hakizimana 
CEO of AIMS Global Network

Lydie Hakizimana Chief Executive Officer, African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) Lydie Hakizimana is a seasoned educator, successful entrepreneur, and the Chief Executive Officer of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS).

As founder & CEO of Drakkar Ltd, a pioneering Rwandan educational publishing house, Lydie has over 10 years of experience in production and distribution of textbooks. Through her work at Drakkar, Lydie edited and published 16 Kinyarwanda titles and distributed over one million textbooks. Drakkar’s textbooks have been supplied to 3,800 primary and secondary schools, reaching three million children across Rwanda.

Lydie founded Happy Hearts Preschools in 2015 to provide quality preschool education for all. Now the fastest growing network of private preschools in Rwanda, Happy Hearts serves children aged 1-6 years from diverse backgrounds, utilizing an innovative and harmonious blend of Montessori pedagogic principles with Rwandan values and culture.

Lydie previously worked for OTF Group, a Boston-based consulting firm which advised the governments of Rwanda and Gabon in Information Communication Technologies, the Hides and Skin, and Timber industries respectively.

Lydie earned a Master’s in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in 2018, and is a certified Montessori teacher from the North American Montessori Center (NAMC) in Canada. She is a recipient of numerous awards, including the “Prix de la Femme Francophone de l’Année” conferred by the International Association of Francophone Mayors (AIMF) in 2021, the Mandela Washington Fellowship in 2016 and the Archbishop Desmond Tutu Fellowship in 2013. She sits on the board of the African Leadership University.

Antti Rammo
CEO of OPIQ

Antti Rammo is an educational publisher and edtech entrepreneur from Estonia. Since 2009 the main field of activity for Antti have been various digitalisation projects within and outside the publishing house, also establishing an educational technology company in 2014 to offer services for the publishing industry to progress into the digital space. Those activities have been pivotal in making Estonian schools embrace high quality digital learning materials and develop the digital content market into a valuable resource for the educational publishers. The model and experience is now shared to other countries including Kenya and Uganda, where Antti is partnering with the local educational content providers to create a fully digital approach to the curriculums.

Rafał Lew-Starowicz
Vice President of the EdTEch Poland Foundation

Until recently, deputy director of the department of the Ministry of National Education, where he was responsible for innovation in education. A graduate of the University of Warsaw, PhD studies at APS and Top Public Executive IESE Business School in Barcelona. Polish delegate to the OECD Educational Policy Committee, expert of the European Commission Agency: Research Executive Agency, Innovation and Networks Executive Agency and member of the Media Education Team at the Pedagogical Research Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Was recognized as one of the 100 people who contributed the most to the development of digital competences in Poland by the members of the SPRUC chapter.

James Sunney Quaicoe
Research Fellow - Digital Transformation and Lifelong Learning,
Tallinn University

James is a research fellow and a teacher at Tallinn University (School of Digital Technologies) Estonia.

Academically, he holds a doctoral degree in Information Society Technologies, and master’s degrees in Estonian Studies, Information Technology, and Educational Administration.

His research focus is digital transformation and lifelong learning at the workplace; the digital divide and whole school-based digital innovation; teacher training for technology uptake and strategies for innovative teaching and learning practices.

.

Digital Transformation

Moderator

Kedi Välba
CEO, Aktors

Kedi Välba is the CEO of Estonian software company Aktors. She has worked with Africa for the past 7 years. Kedi has her background in business administration and languages and since 2013 she focused on working in ICT field. She holds a degree of Master of Science in Engineering in e-Governance Technologies and Services and is also a member of e-Governance Master’s program advisory committee of Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech). Company Aktors is one of the companies behind the development of the Estonian national interoperability platform X-Road, the creator of State Treasury and national collection of economic and financial statistics, as well as numerous other e-governance finance and major homeland security solutions and services. The company has a subsidiary Aktors Iraq in Kurdistan region, where it has built up an extensive Court Information System with related infrastructure. Aktors has previously had projects in Tunis, Morocco and Libya related to interoperability and has ongoing projects in Tanzania and Uganda.

Speakers

Linda Bonyo
Founding Director at Africa Law Tech, Founder of the Lawyers Hub

Linda Bonyo  is a Digital Law and Data Governance expert working on the Regulation of emerging Technologies in Africa. Ms. Bonyo is the Founding Director at Africa Law Tech and the Founder of the Lawyers Hub- a Pan-African Digital policy and Justice innovation organization. Linda is a member of the World Economic Forum's Council on the future of Technology Policy.

Linda sits on the Technical Committee of the Africa Union’s Data Policy Framework endorsed by Heads of states in 2022, The ongoing AI Policy Framework for Africa as well as the Single Digit Market Initiative. As a thought leader in Tech regulation, consulting for the United Nations, GIZ, AfCFTA Secretariat, amongst many organisations on Artificial Intelligence Policy, Digital Identity Laws and Internet Governance.  Ms. Bonyo is a Tech Women Fellow 2020 convened by the US Department of State, and a Schmidts Futures Fellow 2023. She was globally awarded in 2020 as a Good ID community champion on Privacy. Linda Bonyo  is a respected Tech lawyer and a licensed attorney of the High Court of Kenya.
---------------------
The Lawyers Hub is a Law-Tech organisation based in Kenya that focuses on Digital Policy and Justice Innovation. Lawyers Hub run several initiatives on the confluence of Law and Technology, including Capacity building under the Africa Digital Policy Institute and offer technical legal support to innovators and startups through the Africa Startup Law Accelerator. Lawyers Hub also convenes weekly policy discussions as well as bringing together digital policy change actors annually at the Africa Law Tech Festival in July and Judicial actors during the Africa Legal Innovation Week each December. The Lawyers Hub is also the publisher of the Africa Journal on Law & Tech. With a thematic focus on Ai and Data Governance, Digital Platforms and infrastructure Regulation, Intellectual Property, Internet Governance, Justice-Tech, and digital Democracy.
 

Anna-Greta Tsahkna
Vice President, Estonian Association of Information Technology and Telecommunications (Estonian ICT Cluster) / Founder & CEO of Timbeter

Anna-Greta Tsahkna is the founder and CEO of Timbeter and Vice-President of the Estonian Association of Information Technology and Telecommunications . Timbeter is an innovative, global AI-based solution that enables quick, accurate and transparent digital measurement of timber and data management. Timbeter helps the forestry industry to save time and costs by making processes more objective and transparent, enabling better control and fair trade. Solution helps companies to manage their timber sustainably and governments with the fight against illegal logging. Timbeter as company started off from hackathon Garage48, an event that was specially dedicated to bring more women to IT. Today, Timbeter operates in 5 African countries. Before founding Timbeter, Anna-Greta worked in the field of IT, communications and politics. 

Daniel Homorodean
Vice President, Cluj IT Cluster

Daniel Homorodean is vice president and in charge of the internationalization of the Cluj IT Cluster, representative association of the Romanian digital innovation ecosystem. He is a seasoned IT entrepreneur and consultant in e-government and digital transformation with working experience in Europe, Africa and LATAM. As community expansion lead for the TYPO3 Association, he supported the Government of Rwanda in establishing a national standardized model for developing and maintaining the websites of the government and all public institutions, strategically leveraging the use of open source and local talent pool

Green Technologies

Speakers

Nana Gyasi
CEO of Kanay

Nana Gyasi is the CEO of Kanay, a forward-thinking sustainable energy startup that has climate and technology at the core of its business

Nana is an intrapreneur turned entrepreneur, with over 20 years of experience in commercial roles at ExxonMobil's downstream fuels and chemicals divisions.

A deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities in the energy industry gives him a unique perspective, which allows for a different innovative approach. He is passionate about delivering energy equity and sustaining the environment.

He founded Kanay with a clear mission to provide reliable, affordable energy whilst transitioning customers to a cleaner, greener future. 

His team at Kanay embraces the bold vision that sustainable energy should be a fundamental right and accessible to all.

Africa is a significant growth market opportunity in the energy space, and Nana believes that unlocking African countries potential using abundant green energy is crucial to opening up new markets, job opportunities, wealth creation including the digital economy.

With Kanay's technology-driven approach that leverages its virtual energy network and advanced technologies, such as A.I., developing innovative solutions that meet the needs of the world today and preserving the planet for future generations.