A systems thinker and strategist, passionate about designing solutions that bring real value to customers, corporations, and communities.

Mansoor Hamayun is the Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Bboxx, a next generation utility, transforming lives and unlocking potential through the provision of affordable, reliable, and clean energy.

Mr. Essiel has over 30 years’ experience working in education. He is currently the National General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Private Schools a position that he has held since 2016. Before then he was the Chairman of the Greater Accra Zone 18. Mr. Essiel was the co-founder of St. Ann’s International School and Kingscourt, International School. He is also very active leader in his community.

Mr. Essiel holds a Master of Business Administration degree from GIMPA, Master of Education in Educational Administration from the University of Cape Coast and BSc in Basic Education Dip Education from the University of Cape Coast.

Dr. Arnold Kavaarpuo is a published author, keynote speaker and award-winning business executive with nearly 2 decades of experience covering strategic, tactical and operational delivery in banking, insurance and FinTech.

Arnold is currently the CEO of StacAi – an asset-lite, omni-channel financial infrastructure on a mission to drive down the high cost to assets ratios in the delivery of financial services in Africa. Prior to this, Arnold served as a Managing Director at Kuda Technologies UK and was a founding team at Jumo where he led the development and commercialization of mobile loans in Ghana.

He has also served on various governance roles including being the board chair of a publicly traded mutual fund regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Ghana and served on the board of a Mastercard and Bill and Melinda Gates funded project to respond to the divide between available data and the ability of financial services providers, policy makers and financial intermediaries to collect, make sense of and embed this data in their decision making.

Arnold is most excited in driving game-changing financial services with a focus on exploring the nexus between edge technologies and financial products. Arnold holds a BA in Geography and Rural Development, a Master’s in Business Research, an MBA in Global Business, and a Doctorate in Business Administration.

Hafsha Ismail Adulum 

Fellow of Black Sisters in STEM and Developers in Vogue 

Hafsha Ismail Adulum is a graduand of the University of Development Studies with a BSc. in Applied Biology. As a Woman in Tech beneficiary and Communications Team Lead for The Learners Girls Foundation, she is committed to promoting gender equality and empowering young women through education and technology.

Hafsha was the overall best student of Huawei Seeds for the Future (2021) and represented Ghana at The Enactus World Cup, together with her teammates for two consecutive years as national champions. 

Currently serving as a National Service Personnel at Huawei. She is a fellow of Black Sisters in STEM and Developers in Vogue.

Hafsha has engaged in various programmes to improve her personal growth and leadership development. She firmly believes that “Silence doesn’t effect Change, Action does!

Ms Patricia Adusei-Poku 

Executive Director – Commissioner 

Patricia Adusei-Poku, the Executive Director of the Ghana Data Protection Commission; She is a seasoned privacy practitioner in the public, private and non-profit sectors globally.

Some of her recent appointments include the Head of Data Protection at the London 2012 Olympic Games and Global Director for Data Protection & Privacy at World Vision International.

Patricia holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA – Project Management & Consultancy), a BSc (Hons) in Computing Science, A Certified Information Privacy Manager (CIPM) issued by the globally recognized International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), Certified Practitioner in European Union General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR).

She enjoys reading, travelling and charity work.

Christopher Lalusha

Group Chief Information Officer

Christopher is an experienced CIO and business executive with extensive experience in IT governance and Technology Management, Digital and business transformation, Cyber security, risk management change management, Data science, program and project management, etc. He has over 17 years of experience, the majority of which has been spent in the banking sector. He is a Zambian national who brings a wealth of both cultural and business experience, having worked in countries such as Zambia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, etc.

Prior to Joining Fidelity bank, Christopher served as the Group Chief Information Officer – Banking and Financial services, for Equity Group Holdings, Kenya; where he was responsible for the IT infrastructure, digital platforms as well as IT Service management of the whole group. He was instrumental in executing the bank’s digital strategy and achieving the agreed KPIs on IT stability and availability which contributed to Equity attaining the number one bank status in East Africa. Christopher was the Chief Information Officer for ABSA Bank PLC, Zambia, where he played an instrumental role in implementing the Technology separation project which involved migrating IT systems from Barclays Bank UK to ABSA bank SA. 

In addition, he held other senior management positions in other banks having worked for the Atlasmara Group (BANCABC Zambia Limited) and the National Savings and Credit Bank as Country Head of Information Technology and Director, Information & Communication Technology, respectively.

He currently holds an MBA in International Business from the University of Greenwich, London, UK, an MSc. degree in Information Systems Management from the University of Greenwich; London UK, a BSc. in Computer Science from the University of Zambia, and various professional certifications. He is a Fellow member of the Information and Communication Technology Association of Zambia (ICTAZ), a member of ISACA, and was previously a full member of the British Computer Society

Director of Insights and Policy for Digital Inclusion – GSMA 

Gaia is Director of Insights and Policy for Digital Inclusion at the GSMA, the global association representing the mobile industry worldwide. She provides thought leadership, expert advice and research on digital policy issues relevant to telecom operators globally and works to advance policies and regulations that enable a safe, sustainable and innovative digital sector for all. 

She is interested in digital and tech policy, digital inclusion and development.

Caroline Mbugua

Senior Policy Manager Sub-Saharan Africa

Caroline Mbugua is the Senior Policy Manager SSA, she leads policy activities in the East Africa region. Caroline drives GSMAs advocacy programs and supports members though engagements with Regulators, Policy makers and other stakeholder in the ecosystem in order to shape the Policy and Regulatory landscape in the region to achieve connectivity for everything and everyone for a better future.

She has over 13years experience in the Telecommunication industry, before joining the GSMA, Caroline worked at Safaricom PLC as the Policy and Stakeholder engagement lead. She implemented various policy programs with a variety of national and regional stakeholders.

She engaged with industry regulatory bodies and government on topical issues that affect the telecommunication sector such as; spectrum, infrastructure, interconnect, competition, taxation, privacy, etc. She contributed to the shaping of the policy environment in Kenya and East Africa at large by representing Safaricom at the East Africa Communication Organization (EACO) and Africa Telecommunication Union (ATU).

Caroline holds an MBA from the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology and is an alumnus of Strathmore Business School, Policy Executive Program.

Seyni Malan FATI

Senior Policy Manager Sub-Saharan Africa

Seyni Malan FATI is a Senior Policy Manager with over 14-year rich ICT Regulation experience. He is responsible for GSMA’s advocacy programs and supporting members in policy and regulatory matters in West Africa.

Before joining the GSMA, Seyni was the Head of Projects at the Smart Africa Secretariat in Kigali, Rwanda. He was mainly leading the implementation of One Africa Network project and the Free Roaming initiatives between Smart Africa members countries and before that he was the Director of Economics and Telecom Markets at the Regulatory Authority of Telecommunications and Posts (ARTP) of Senegal, from 2015 to end of 2018.

He has led and participated in several projects and studies such as the development of the strategy of the Universal Telecommunication Service of Senegal, the audit of the costs of licensed operators, the implementation of unbundling the local loop, the approval of interconnection catalogs of the powerful designated operators, the implementation of number portability, the operators QoS measurement campaigns and the identification of subscribers in Senegal. In 2017, he was one of the focal points for the West Africa Free Roaming One Area implementation.

Since 2005, He has been actively involved in ITU-RGS3-AFR and is currently Vice-Chairman of ITU-T Study Group 12 about QoS. He is also Chairman of the African regional group of the Study Group 12.

After a year of mathematics Superior in Paris, he went to the Polytechnic School of Montreal to be a Telecom Engineer in 2001 and is passionate about sports, especially football and is also a member of the Lions Club International in the Dakar Baobab club in Senegal.