Africa Innovation Summit 2018 | Africa Innovation Summit | 6 June 2018 | Kigali Convention Center, Kigali, Rwanda

The AIS is an Africa-wide and home grown initiative aimed at harnessing the innovation potential of the continent. It aims to mobilize the people and, especially those with the ‘power to act’, including investors, the people with the ideas, the policy makers, the researchers and academics, the business community, the youth, as well as innovators and thinkers into a coalition for collective action to promote and build an enabling environment for innovation in Africa. The goal is to engage as many people as possible in order to build.

The AIS is a platform for multi-stakeholder dialogue. The Summit brings together participants from all over the world, but with significant share coming from Africa. Participants will include:

• Heads of States and Governments
• Ministers and other government officials and senior policy makers
• Heads of the regional and continental organizations
• CEOs of established companies and founders of start-ups
• Partners from Venture capital firms and private equity, as well as Bankers and capital market operators
• Academics, researchers, policy experts, science and technology experts
• Business angels, high net worth individuals, innovators, thinkers, and entrepreneurs

2018 Speakers

Cristina Duarte
Visiting Research Fellow, WITS University South Africa

Eric Kacou
Co-Founder & CEO, ESPartners

Anna Ekeledo
Executive Director, AfriLabs

Prof. Darelle van Greunen
Director, Centre for Community Technologies

Christian Benimana
Rwanda Programs Director, MASS Design Group

Prof. Vusi Gumede
Director, Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute

Emanuele Santi
Founder and President, Afrilanthropy

Baz Dreisinger, PhD
Founder, Prison-to-College Pipeline

Alexander McLean
Founder & Director General, African Prisons Project

Prof. Mario Scerri
Senior Research Fellow, IERI

Ms. Susan Kigula
Ambassador, African Prisons Project

Dr. Abdoulaye Baniré Diallo
Co-Founder & CEO, My Intelligent Machines

Ada Osakwe
Founder and CEO, Agrolay Ventures

Ann Kingiri, PhD
Senior Research Fellow, African Center for Technology Studies

Bayo Akomolafe, PhD
Chief Curator, Emergence Network

Daniel Irurah, PhD
Associate Professor, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits)

Prof. Erika Kraemer-Mbula
Associate Professor, University of Johannesburg

George Gachara
Managing Partner, Heva Fund

Ify Malo
Co-Founder & CEO, Clean Tech Hub

Janah Ncube
Global Campaigns Director for Crisis Action

Jean-Philippe Kayobotsi
Founder & CEO, Brioche Limited

Juma Assiago
Urban Safety Expert, UN Safer Cities

Marc Wegerif, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Pretoria

Prof. Udaya Sekhar Nagothu
InnovAfrica Project Coordinator, Horizon 2020

Bosun Tijani
CEO, Co-Creation Hub

Mercy Masoo
Country Director, Water Aid Malawi

Prof. K J Joseph
Ministry of Commerce Chair Professor, Centre for Development Studies

Prof. Bitange Ndemo
Professor, University of Nairobi's Business School

Dr. Julius Gatune
Senior Researcher & Policy Advisor, ACET

Prof. Edward Lorenz
Professor of Economics, University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis

Mbaye Mbéguéré, PhD
Senior WASH Manager, WaterAid

Rudolf J. Gedeon
President and CEO, Gedeon GRC Consulting

2018 Partners

• The Government
• Nepad
• Apo group
• Republica De Cabo Verde
• Republic of Rwanda
• DBSA Development bankof Southern Africa
• PATH
• Afreximbank
• NEPAD