Speakers

Prof Abubakar S.Sambo(OON)

Born on the 31st July, 1955 in Zaria, Kaduna State of Nigeria, Prof Abubakar Sani Sambo graduated from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria with a First Class Honours in Mechanical Engineering in 1979. In 1983, he obtained his DPhil degree also in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Sussex, United Kingdom. Prof Sambo started his working career at Bayero University, Kano (BUK) as a Graduate Assistant in Mechanical Engineering Department in 1980 and rose to become a Senior Lecturer in 1987. In 1989 he joined Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS) as Reader (Associate Professor) in Energy Studies and Director of the Sokoto Energy Research Centre (SERC) of that University. In 1991 he was appointed Professor of Energy Studies at Sokoto. From 1995 to 2004 Prof Sambo served as the Vice Chancellor of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi. He served briefly, that was between August to December 2004, as the pioneer Vice Chancellor of Kaduna State University before his appointment as the Director General of the Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN) where he served for two terms of a total of eight years from 1st January 2005 to 31st December 2012.

While at the BUK, between 1980 and 1989, Prof Sambo taught courses in Applied Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics, Heat Transfer and Engineering Drawing. He conducted research and development in Solar Radiation Studies, Flat Plate Solar Collectors and Thermosyphon Solar Water Heaters. He also served as the Sub Dean and later Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Technology as well as Head of Mechanical Engineering Department all at BUK. At the SERC of UDUS Prof Sambo, as the Centre’s Director, coordinated the research groups to conduct pioneering R&D activities in Solar Radiation Studies, Solar Thermal Conversions, Biogas Digesters & Stoves, Improved Wood Burning Stoves and Solar Photovoltaic Applications. He started the Nigerian Journal of Renewable Energy and produced the maiden edition of the Directory of Renewable R & D Activities in Nigeria. While at UDUS, Prof Sambo also served as the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic) for two terms between 1990-1994. At ATBU Prof Sambo strengthened the academic programmes and ensured that all the engineering degree programmes were accredited by both the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) and by the National Universities Commission (NUC).

He established the departments of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering as well as three Schools (Faculties): Science Education, Management Technology and the Post Graduate School. For revenue generation Prof Sambo established the University’s company, ATBU Trust and Investment Limited and for attracting external projects he established the Directorate of Linkages while for staff welfare he established the institution’s Staff Secondary School. At the ECN, being the Government’s agency for energy planning, policy formulation as well as advocacy and promotion of sustainable energy practices, Prof Sambo saw to it that the overall National Energy Masterplan was produced and substantial work done on the National Energy Databank as well as the National Energy Manpowerplan. During Prof Sambo’s tenure at the ECN new energy research centres were setup at Bauchi, Benin City, Ilorin and Lagos and two new departments were established at the head office. The energy modelling activities were strengthened by using newly acquired computer modelling tools and the pilot projects of the Commission were also strengthened by securing more funds from the National Assembly. Prof Sambo established the Journal of Energy Planning Research and Development (JEPRD) and modernised the Commission’s Newsbulletin.

Prof Sambo has supervised 14 PhD and 10 Masters degree candidates to successful completion and has written more than 200 articles in books, journals, conference proceedings and seminars and workshops. He is registered by COREN to practice as a Mechanical Engineer and he is a FELLOW of the following 8 associations: 1. Nigerian Academy of Engineering; 2. Nigerian Academy of Science; 3. Nigerian Society of Engineers; 4. Solar Energy Society of Nigeria; 5. Nigerian Institution of Mechanical Engineers; 6. Nigerian Association of Energy Economists; 7. Renewable and Alternative Energy Society of Nigeria; and 8. Energy Institute of the U. K. He has served as the Vice Chairman for Africa of the World Energy Council from November 2007 to October 2013. He was named the Special Adviser to the President on Energy in July 2011. He is the recipient of two national honours: the National Productivity Order of Merit (NPOM) in 1997 and the Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) in year 2000. He is happily married and has four children.

Barbara Kamba-Nyathi
Author,TEDx Speaker,Namibia

Barbara is on a mission to heal the world through her inspirational and life changing talks.  She passionately believes in everyone’s ability to learn, grow and prosper in the face of adversity by using her formula of:

• STOP making excuses
• DROP all that’s toxic
• RUN towards life, healing, freedom, and grace

She is an inspirational speaker, author and psychologist, who is passionate about making bold choices, holistic wellbeing, and inspiringaudiences to bravely rise above life challenges and boldly stepping into and embracing their purposes. She gives inspirational talks and masterclasses that impart actionable tools that help audiences find emotional contentment and stability which translate into high performance in all other areas of their lives. She has spoken on Tupopyeni, Good Morning Namibia, Namibia Women’s Summit 2017, Miss Namibia Women Empowerment, Avani Hotel wellness, NUST secretaries day, PSAN The Authentic Stage Conference, Foreversun Inspirations, and WILD Inspiring the Next Generation of Women Leaders. She has been featured in the Namibian, the Republikein, the Confidante newspapers and the Sister magazine. She was voted one of the Namibian Women who impacted 2017, and was an Economist Businesswoman of the year 2015 business owner category finalist. Her book, Pain, Heartache & Forgiveness is about her journey through both physical and emotional pain, how she did not crumble and allow her circumstances to destroy nor define her. The book is a celebration of life, gives hope and testifies to the amazing power of forgiveness.

Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta is the Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Office (EVC/CEO) of the Nigerian Communications Commission.

Born in Danbatta Local Government Council of Kano State, Prof. Danbatta obtained his BEng, MSc degrees from the Technical University of Wroclaw in Poland and his PhD from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) UK respectively.

He has served as a lecturer in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Technology of Bayero University Kano for 28 years, where he taught courses in telecommunications engineering and electronics and held academic positions of Dean of the Faculty and Head of Department at different times. His main administrative responsibilities, in the university, included Deputy and Acting Dean of Students’ Affairs, Administrator of the Works Department and later, Director of the Centre for Information Technology (CIT).

He was also a member of over 60 University committees and task forces, including numerous stints as Chairman. In administrative and other responsibilities outside the university, he has served on over 20 committees, prominent among which was his Chairmanship of the Implementation Committee of Kano State University of Science & Technology, after which he became its pioneer Deputy and Acting Vice-Chancellor when it took off in 2001.

Prof. Danbatta has supervised more than 60 PhD, MEng and BEng projects in diverse areas of telecommunications and has also served as external  examiner  to  seven universities  and  polytechnics  and  is  an  assessor,  technical  reviewer and editorial member to eight research journals. He has to his credit more than 50 articles in journals, conference proceedings and technical reports. He is also the author of a six-chapter, 167-page book titled Elements of Static Engineering Electromagnetics.

He is a recipient of 18 distinguished awards and certificates of honour. Prof. Danbatta has served two terms of five years as a Member of Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), and is also a COREN registered engineer and member of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE).

He  was  the  Vice  President  of  the  Digital  Bridge  Institute  (DBI), International Centre for Advanced Communications Studies, which was established in the year 2004 by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to build capacity for the Nigerian/African telecom industry in the diverse areas of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). While at DBI he has developed expertise in the following major areas of ICT implementation, policy and regulation:

• Regulation of the Telecommunications Sector of the Nigerian Economy;
• Competition, Interconnection and Price Regulations in a Developing Economy;
• Issues concerning Authorization of Telecommunications Services in a Developing Economy;
• Strategies for ensuring Universal Access and Service to Telecommunications Services;
• Strategies towards Effective Spectrum Management in a Developing Economy;
• Issues on Institutional and Legal Framework for Effective Regulation of Telecommunications Services; and
• New and Emerging Technologies and Impact on Regulation of the Telecommunications Sector of a Developing Economy.

Until his appointment as the EVC, Prof. Danbatta, who recently served as a member of the Implementation Committee of the Northwest University Kano, served as the Acting Vice-Chancellor of the Kano University of Science & Technology, Wudil.

Obinnia Abajue
CEO,Hygeia HMO

Obinnia  joined Hygeia HMO Limited as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) In November 2016. He has about 20 years of experience in banking and financial services. Prior to joining Hygeia HMO, Mr. Abajue was based in South Africa and was in charge of Business Transformation for Standard Bank’s Personal and Business Banking business in Africa.

Prior to this, Obinnia served as Executive Director and Head of Personal and Business Banking at Stanbic IBTC Bank. This business encompasses small, medium and commercial business banking, high net worth individuals and personal markets banking. Before then, from 2009 – 2011, he was Acting Chief Executive Officer of Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers Limited and Head of Wealth Management for Stanbic IBTC overseeing the pensions, asset management and trusteeship businesses.

Obinnia holds a Bachelor’s degree in Actuarial Science from the University of Lagos and an MBA from the prestigious Imperial College London. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (FCA), of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (FCIB), and of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers of Nigeria (FCS).

Tosin Faniro-Dada
Head, Startups (Lagos Innovates)
Lagos State Employment Trust Fund.

Tosin Faniro-Dada (TFD) is a 2006 Summa Cum Laude graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and a Master’s degree from Boston College. She is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in Massachusetts.

Tosin currently heads the Lagos Innovates program at the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF). She joined LSETF as the Head of Strategy & Partnerships in 2016. Prior to her time at LSETF, she worked in the Corporate Banking Division at Skye Bank – now Polaris Bank, and also, as a Financial Analyst at ARM. She spent three years in PricewaterhouseCoopers in Boston auditing mutual and private equity funds.

Prof Nii Quaynor
Africa Internet Pioneer
Chairman,Ghana Dot Com

Dr. Nii Quaynor pioneered Internet development and expansion throughout Africa for nearly two decades, establishing some of Africa’s first Internet connections and helping set up key organizations, including the African Network Operators Group. He also was the founding chairman of AfriNIC, the African Internet numbers registry.

He earned a PhD in Computer Science in 1977, from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and helped establish the Computer Science Department at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana, where he has taught since 1979.

He was the first African to be elected to the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and served as an at-large director of ICANN for the African region from 2000 to 2003.

Dr. Quaynor was a member of the United Nations Secretary General Advisory Group on ICT, Chair of the OAU Internet Task Force and President of the Internet Society of Ghana.

In 2007, the Internet Society awarded him the Jonathan B. Postel Service Award for his pioneering work in advancing the Internet in Africa. He is a member of the IGF Multi-Stakeholder Advisory Group (MAG).

Adesola Alli

Adesola Alli
Head, Renewable Energy,Strategy and Innovation
Sterling Bank Plc

Adesola Alli graduated from the University of Lagos.She has worked in several organizations as a financial analyst.She joined Sterling bank plc in 2011 and now has the responsibility of overseeing Strategy and innovation at the bank and also as the head,Renewable energy.

Kyane Kassiri
Investment Associate at Loftyinc Capital Management

As alumnus of NESA UGRAD and Coca-Cola MENA exchange programs, Kyane teamed up with a group of other U.S. Department of State programs alumni to apply for the Alumni Engagement and Innovation Fund (AEIF).  Their project idea was selected and the team managed to launch Young Tunisian Coders Academy (YTCA). As a coding training program, YTCA uses open-source programming languages, to help more than 500 kids – between the ages of 10 and 15 and having limited access to technology – to program their own interactive stories, games and animations.

Kyane is also the Co-founder and CEO of Hannilab, a start-up specialized in mobile app development and web solutions for companies and businesses.

Squadron Leader Adefolajuwon Amoo (Rtd)

Founder,GridCode

Adefolajuwon Amoo is an ICT expert and a former Squadron leader in the Nigerian Air Force.He is the founder of GridCode,a mobile app that solves the problem of addressing  and location in developing countries like Nigeria.The app can be found on the website www.findgridcode.com

Prof Wellington Oyibo
Director,Research and Innovation office
University of Lagos

Wellington Oyibo is a Consultant Medical Parasitologist and an Associate Professor at the College of Medicine of the University of Lagos, Nigeria. His graduate studies were at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Lagos and at the Division of Geographic Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Alabama, USA. With fifty published papers in medical literatures, Wellington Oyibo is a member of the Steering Committee on Malaria Rapid Diagnostic Test Evaluation of the World Health Organization.

Adetayo Bamiduro
Co-Founder/CEO Max

Adetayo’s logistics company provides swift and reliable local delivery services to residents and corporations in the commercial centers of Lagos. EM Logistics uses motorbikes, GPS enabled maps and route optimization technology to make intra-city deliveries. His venture trains and employs hundreds of young workers searching for opportunities in Africa’s fastest growing and most populous city.

While working in Lagos, Adetayo experienced firsthand the inconveniences of spending several hours commuting short distances to purchase, retrieve or deliver goods in a crowded city. EM Logistics uses motorbikes, which are more efficient in navigating congested highways, keep cars off the highways, use less fuel, and save clients time and money.

Adetayo has entrepreneurial experience in the technology and energy sectors and has worked in Nigeria’s banking and manufacturing industries. Adetayo volunteers for the FATE Foundation and has established community development initiatives that educate and empower young aspiring entrepreneurs across Sub-Saharan Africa.

Adetayo earned a Bachelor’s in Computer Science from the University of Ibadan. He is an MBA candidate at the Sloan School of Management where he is focusing on Entrepreneurship & Innovation.

Chika Yinka-Banjo (PhD)
Senior Lecturer, Department of Computer Sciences,
University of Lagos,
MIT-ETT Fellow (2019)

Dr Chika Yinka-Banjo holds a Master’s and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Sciences from the University of Port Harcourt and the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria. After graduating from AIMS in 2010, she completed her PhD in Computer Science at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, before eventually returning to her home country, where she plans on establishing a research group in the area of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Lagos.

In her research at AIMS, she developed a model that ensures that autonomous robots are able to detect and avoid obstacles as they carry out various tasks assigned to them. In her research at UCT, she developed a model that can guide multirobots to perform a pre-entry safety inspection in underground mines/tunnels. This model which is applicable in the mining industry suggests strategies that curtail exposure of miners to underground mine accidents and disasters such as, inhalation of dangerous gases and exposure to mine roof fall .The benefits of such models are abundant and the results when implemented would catalyze the mining sector towards sustainable growth, reduce the loss of human capital which occurs from underground mine accidents, and set a foundation for building robots that can perform conventional and unconventional tasks that are too dangerous for humans.

Facilitated through the AIMS Alumni Small Research Grant (AASRG), administered AIMS under the “Research for Africa” project which is funded by the Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), as an emerging female scientist, Chika will now be able to realise her vision of establishing a research group in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Lagos. She has already resumed work as a full-time lecturer there and the grant funds will see to her rapid career growth within this environment. Dr Yinka-Banjo represents a classical example of an AIMS alumnus contributing to brain gain by returning to their home country specifically, and remaining on the African continent to contribute directly to teaching and research capacity building of young scientists in Africa, while introducing novel mathematical science research concepts and their applications. Her research which is linked to aspects related to Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Swarm Intelligence, Robotics, Mathematical Modelling and their associated applications has the potential to advance knowledge and inform practices and policies in the mining sector in Nigeria specifically, and other countries in general.

In 2013, she won the prestigious L’Oreal- UNESCO for Women in Science Sub-Saharan Africa Fellowship Award. She has built her academic career on inspiring younger generations through teaching computer science, and one of her goals is to become an academic role model for young African girls in science.

Abayomi Baiyere
Asst.Professor,Copenhagen Business School
Denmark

Abayomi Baiyere is an Assistant Professor at Digitalization Department of Copenhagen Business School; a Research Affiliate at MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research and a visiting scholar at University of Turku. Before joining academia, he worked for companies such as SAP, ABN AMRO (Dialogues Incubator) and as an Entrepreneur. His research interest seats at the intersection of digital innovations, digital disruption and the societal impact of digitalization. His studies have looked at digitalization issues from both an organizational and societal perspective – with focus on digital transformation, digital strategy, disruptive innovations as well as digital work. His works take a design science and qualitative methods orientation among others. He received a best paper award in MCIS 2018 and the runner up award for the best student paper at the 2017 AoM conference. He has served as the PhD community coordinator for ISPIM and currently serve as an executive member (International Representative-at large) of the OCIS division of AoM. His work has been accepted in journals such as Information Systems Research (ISR), Journal of the Association for Information Systems (JAIS) and Technovation.

Prof Bongo Adi
Senior Lecturer,Lagos Business School.

Prior to his faculty appointment, Bongo Adi was CIPRA MTN Research Fellow at Lagos Business School where he facilitated classes in Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), project finance and development.

He led various collaborations on research, case studies and stakeholder engagement with various government agencies including ICRC, NERC and several ministries involved in PPPs.

He has over 15 years experience in teaching, policy research, and consulting. As an assistant professor, he has lectured at the University of Tsukuba, Japan, where he was a JSPS fellow, and at the American University of Nigeria. He has received several international awards including the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) award. He is a UNU Fellow and a World Bank scholar.

Adi has consulted for the World Bank, UNCTAD, JIRCAS, JICA and UNU. He is widely published and his current research interests include electricity market design, private public partnerships, and political economy of mega projects.

He holds an MA and a PhD in development economics from the prestigious University of Tsukuba, Japan. He undertook post doctoral training at the Data Mining Team of the National Agricultural Research Centre, Tsukuba, Japan where he developed routines for forecasting rice yields from paddies using remote sensing data from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

Yeside Dipo-Salami
Senior Associate, Stakeholder Engagement/Business Development
Clean Tech Hub

Yeside Dipo-Salami obtained a bachelors degree in Electrical Electronics engineering from Nile University,Nigeria.She went further to obtain a Masters degree in Energy Engineering from University of Illinois,Chicago,US. Yeside has worked as energy procurement specialist for Broadway energy in the US.She has also consulted for my companies on energy related matters.She is now a senior associate and handles stakeholder engagement/business development at Clean Tech Hub,Abuja.Nigeria.

Dr Victor Odumuyiwa
Acting Director,Centre for Information Technology and Systems(CITS)
University of Lagos.

Dr. Odumuyiwa is a lecturer in Computer Science at the University of Lagos, Nigeria. He combines computer and information sciences approaches in his research activities centered on information retrieval and collaboration systems, competitive intelligence, sentiment analysis and Web intelligence. He holds a PhD in Information Science from Université Nancy 2, France. He obtained a master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He was an ETT fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, USA from September to December 2013. He has been a recipient of the Lagos state research and development grant.

Joel Ogunsola

Senior Special Assistant to the Governor  of Ondo State on Innovation and Partnerships

Joel Ogunsola is a multi-faceted young man, with strong passion for sustainable development, access to skill and opportunity for young people, technology, social entrepreneurship, and ideas.

Professionally he currently serves as the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Innovation and Partnerships where he heads the Ondo State Office of Innovation and Partnerships – the agency is the first innovation agency of its kind in Nigeria and Sub-Sahara Africa. Our goal as an agency is to ensure that citizens of the state are equipped with skillset and opportunities that allows for access to decent work, efficiency and innovation at the workplace as well as drive entrepreneurship

Prior to his appointment to serve in Ondo State, Joel was the founder/Sales Lead for Prunedge an enterprise technology solutions provider based out of Nigeria. Prior to him co-founding Prunedge he was the Microsoft Education Technical Advisor for Microsoft Nigeria where he worked for two years.

He is the curator for TEDxAkure, an independently organized TED events. He also co-founded Ng HackerSpace, an open source hardware development community. As Microsoft Student Partner, he was one of the organizers of the Maker Faire Africa, Lagos, 2012 event, the first Maker Space event in Africa.

A graduate of Mechanical Engineering from the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Joel founded Tech4Dev – a technology non-profit organization that seeks to prepare and enable young people for the future of work by providing opportunities and access to skills.

He also most recently based on his passion for development across the African continent, founded a non-profit – Emerging Communities TechUp initiative; focused on helping to grow intentionally the technology ecosystem within emerging underserved communities across Africa, through a multi-dimensional approach.

Fadera Williams is the Chief Executive Officer of Hermon Empor Landscape Ltd, an environmental services firm. Hermon Empor Landscape is committed to innovation, value and respect for the environment. Their desire is to provide each customer with high-quality personalized service and they have a commitment to delivering the best service. Their goal is to bring people and nature together. Research shows a landscape can increase rental rates for buildings by 7% and influence buyers to pay 15-25% more at retail stores. Their clientele ranges from the individual house owner to the large multi-national construction and real estate firms in the private sector and different tiers of government in the public sector. At Hermon Empor Landscape they deliver professional landscape services at a more affordable cost to their clients and with prompt delivery of landscape construction and execution, saving not less than 20% of the delivery time compared with competing landscape firms. As professional botanists and landscape architects offering services in a nation where the profession of landscape architecture is still developing, Fadera sees her company as being strategically positioned through their cutting edge knowledge and global best practices in our service delivery to the overall satisfaction of our client. They offer landscape design, flowerpot production, urban vegetable gardening, plant sales and their Landscape Academy training program to their clients. Fadera views landscape design and execution as both a science and art that integrates construction and the environment. They offer their clients topnotch landscaping services for both commercial and residential properties where they provide services including tree services, irrigation systems and pest control. Though their Flower pot line they produce and sell an array of pots for plants. To address the challenges that people face in accessing fresh vegetables, Fadera launched in 2012 a model that allows urban dwellers the opportunity to grow their own favorite edible vegetables, guaranteeing uninterrupted supply for the preparation of indigenous soups and stews. To provide plant sales, Hermon Empor Landscaping also has an online Plant Mart for plant supplies and plant sales. In the course of providing landscaping services since founding the company Fadera has received a series of requests for training, to meet this need they have founded the Hermon Empor School of Garden Design.

Afolabi Akinrogunde
Programs and Investments Manager
All On

‘Folabi is responsible for leading All-On’s origination, deal structuring, negotiation, due diligence and investee management functions.

He has two decades of communications, commercial operations, deal delivery, business development and economics experience in the marketing communications, telecoms and oil/gas industries. Over the last decade he identified, progressed and successfully negotiated 30 gas supply agreements for Shell Nigeria Gas Limited, generating over $200million in gas sales. He has also used his experience as an economist to support Shell’s onshore, shallow water and exploration business, performing risk-based economic evaluations to determine project and portfolio viability – facilitating investment and portfolio-based decision-making for some of Nigeria’s biggest oil and gas projects and assets.

Prior to Shell, ‘Folabi worked in stakeholder relations, marketing and corporate communications across various industries. His first job was in marketing communications, where he created advertising and communications strategies for brands like La Casera, Daewoo and Mitsubishi. He then moved to the Honeywell Group, where he worked directly as an aide to the executive chairman, providing governance and engagement support. He also worked at Globacom – where he helped craft and operate its pre and post launch brand management and communications activities.

He has a rich multidisciplinary experience and background, with first and post-graduate degrees in the humanities, public and international affairs and business management. He has also attended numerous training courses in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

In his spare time, ‘Folabi enjoys swimming, reading, playing chess and discussing geopolitics. He is married to ‘Folasade and they have 3 lovely children.