Africa Prize Final 2023

Professor Elsie Effah Kaufmann - Keynote Speaker

Elsie is a biomedical engineer and currently serves as the Dean of the School of Engineering Sciences at the University of Ghana, as well as being an associate professor and the Founding Head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering. She has contributed immensely towards science and engineering education and has hosted the Ghana National Science and Maths Quiz since 2006. Professor Kaufmann is a Fellow of the Ghana Institution of Engineering (GhIE), a Fellow of Biomaterials Science and Engineering and a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is a past President of the Ghana Society of Biomedical Engineers. She has received a number of prestigious local and international awards, including the Distinguished Woman in Engineering Excellence Award in 2022 from the Ghana Institution of Engineering. She is the Founder of the Elsie Effah Kaufmann Foundation.

Sewu-Steve Tawia

Sewu-Steve Tawia is a Ghanaian-French investment and development finance professional with over 20 years of experience in development finance, strategy consulting, angel investing and venture capital funds in Europe and Africa. He is currently General Partner at Jaza Rift Ventures, a $5 million seed fund backing East to West Africa-focused healthtech, medtech and biotech startups, developed in partnership with Villgro Africa. Through Asime Ventures, he’s also a prolific angel investor with a track record across the continent in fintech, healthtech, e-commerce, insuretech, retailtech, renewable energy and edtech. A venture capital, private equity and impact investing expert, he is also a strong advocate of gender equality and women’s economic empowerment. He further supports the development of Africa’s investment ecosystem through engagements as an ANDE Investment Management Trainer, a coach and mentor with the African Angel Academy, a co-Founder of Accra Angels Network, and through involvement in the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation.

Ato Ulzen-Appiah - Host

Ato Ulzen-Appiah is a (social) entrepreneur, consultant, social media influencer and blogger. He studied at MIT and Stanford in civil engineering and management. Ato is the director of the GhanaThink Foundation, a social enterprise which mobilises and organises talent, with programs in networking, mentoring, volunteering and training for young people. He consults in the youth, tech and agritech spaces and for organisations such as the International Trade Centre and the World Bank. As Entrepreneurship Development Specialist at the Kosmos Innovation Center incubator, he mentors and coaches startups. International forums he has spoken at include the World Bank Diaspora Trade Forum, African Business Conference at Harvard, and the World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town. He's a member of the Global Shapers Alumni and the World Economic Forum community. He co-founded African music website museke.com and blogs at mightyafrican.blogspot.com

Malcolm Brinded CBE FREng

Malcolm Brinded CBE FREng is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, former Chair of EngineeringUK and former President of the Energy Institute. Malcolm has served as a UK Prime Minister’s Business Ambassador, on the China Council for Environment and Development, and as a Trustee of the International Business Leaders Forum. Until 2017, he was Chair of the Shell Foundation, focusing on access to renewable energy in India and Africa. He was previously a Board member of Shell, BHP, CH2M and Network Rail. Today he invests in and supports startups. Malcolm was awarded a CBE in 2002.

Dr Ibilola Amao

Dr Ibilola Amao is the Principal Consultant of Lonadek Global Services, a woman-owned, ISO:9001:2015 certified firm of consultants, providing engineering technology and innovation solutions. Lonadek is focused on deploying talent and state-of-the-art technology for operational excellence. Dr Amao focuses on STEM and innovation in energy, power, infrastructure, oil, gas and agriculture. Her passion is to empower, mentor and coach women and youth for positive transformation. She is a committed and dynamic change agent who established Lonadek in 1991, the Vision 2020: Youth Empowerment and Restoration Initiative in 2006, and the Cedar STEM and entrepreneurship hub in 2008.

Dr John Lazar CBE FREng

John Lazar is co-founder and general partner at Enza Capital, and Chair of the Raspberry Pi Foundation. In 2019, with two partners he co-launched Enza Capital which backs founders and teams using technology to solve large and meaningful problems across Africa. Headquartered in Nairobi, Enza has invested in more than 30 African tech companies to date. John sits on the board of four of Enza’s portfolio companies. As well as being a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, he is also a Fellow of BCS, the UK’s chartered institute for IT. He is chair of the Academy’s Enterprise Committee which oversees the activities of its Enterprise Hub, supporting start-ups and scale-ups across the UK. For the past eight years, he has also been a judge and mentor on the Academy’s Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation, which backs 15-20 early-stage African engineering companies annually. He has also spent many years working on tech-related non-profit initiatives in Africa, especially building “digital blacksmiths” and maker labs. John has also been an active angel investor and technology start-up mentor in the UK and Africa, with more than 40 individual pre-seed/seed investments. In 2016, he stepped down as Chairman and CEO of Metaswitch Networks. He joined the company in 1987 as a software engineer and became Chief Executive Officer, and then Chairman, as the company established its leadership in cloud communications software. Metaswitch was acquired by Microsoft in 2020. He graduated from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar with an M.Sc in Computation and a D.Phil in History. He was awarded a CBE for services to engineering in 2016.

Dr Alessandra Buonfino

Dr Buonfino is responsible for GIF’s strategy on climate. She has been working at the nexus of government, investment and not for profits for over 15 years and is a passionate advocate for social change and business as a force for good. Before joining GIF, Dr Buonfino was Head of International Development at the law firm Mishcon de Reya and a civil servant in the UK government. Within this role, she set up a joint unit between the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the Department for International Trade to cultivate foreign direct investment and philanthropic relationships with private investors and family firms from over 20 countries into the UK. She started her career as an academic in international affairs (migration and security) and spent several years working in policy and think tanks, thinking and writing about migration, social innovation, unmet needs, and inequality. Alongside her role at GIF, Dr Buonfino is an International Research Fellow at Said Business School within Oxford University; a trustee of the cross party think tank Demos; and a member of the advisory council of Expectation State, a consultancy working with emerging states. She holds a PhD in international relations; an MPhil in development studies; and a degree in anthropology and archaeology.

Rebecca Enonchong FREng

Rebecca Enonchong is the Founder and CEO of AppsTech and I/O Spaces. She is Chair of ActivSpaces (African Center for Technology Innovation and Ventures), an incubator in Cameroon. She is also Board Chair of Afrilabs, a network of over 220 tech innovation spaces across Africa, supporting over one million entrepreneurs. She is Co-Founder and a Board Member of Cameroon Angels Network and African Business Angels Network. She also sits on the boards of VC4Africa, Suguba, UN ECA Center for Digital Excellence, and the African Media Initiative.

Ethel Cofie

Named one of the top 5 women influencing technology across Africa, Ethel Cofie is an entrepreneur, author, global speaker and board chair. Until recently, she was one of the advisory voices for tech and digitalisation for the office of Vice President in Ghana. As an entrepreneur she founded and built a Pan African consulting brand called EDEL Technology, consulting primarily on board and C-level business and digital transformation advisory. EDEL Technology Consulting was named IT consulting firm of the year by the telecoms and IT industry in Ghana in 2017. Her work supporting women leadership includes Women in Tech Africa (WITA), Africa’s largest women in tech group, with members in over 30 African countries in the diaspora. In 2019, WITA was awarded the UN EQUALS Award in New York during the UN General Assembly week. She authored her first book in 2020 named, ‘In pursuit of the Gazelle (A series of Essays on Technology Ecosystems in Africa)’ and has had her opinion pieces featured on CNN, BBC and other influential media sites. She sits on numerous boards including one of West Africa’s largest insurance firms and Fintech and logistics startups across East and West Africa. She is chair of the Ghana Government ICT Sector Skills Board. She is involved in design and implementation of computer science curriculum for technical universities Her awards include the Glitz Ghana Woman of the Year, Technology award, as well as being recognized as Africa's Most Influential Woman in Business and Government for ICT by CEO Global.

Harriet Thompson

Harriet Thompson is the British High Commissioner for Ghana, arriving in June 2021. She is also the non-resident Ambassador Designate to Burkina Faso, Benin and Togo. Before her arrival in Ghana, Ms Thompson was the British Deputy High Commissioner in Lagos, Nigeria where she led a large and growing mission covering the full spectrum of the UK’s work in the country, with a particular focus on commercial and economic development. She arrived in Lagos in July 2019 after nearly 3 years as British Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria in Abuja. Previously Ms Thompson enjoyed a varied career working across the British government, leading policy and programmes across trade, energy, climate change and other areas. She negotiated trade policy at the UK’s Permanent Representation to the EU, led the UK delegation to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) climate change negotiations, led the UK’s strategy to counter serious and organised crime, and ran a major change programme at HM Revenue and Customs to create the Fraud Investigation Service.