MODERATOR

Mrs. Astou Dia: IH Abidjan Co-Founder and Founder at A to A Partners 

Astou is the founder of A to A Partners, a business and relationship coaching firm that helps individuals and groups transform their teams and their businesses. She is also one of the co-founders of Impact Hub Abidjan an incubator and accelerator based in Abidjan. Before starting her own ventures, Astou was Associate Partner and Office Director at Dalberg, a strategy consulting firm focusing on international development.

She has worked with private corporations, governments and donors in areas such as agriculture and food security, health, governance, youth employment, access to finance, and women economic empowerment. In the agricultural sector, Astou has led various engagements, in West, Central, and East Africa, spanning sectoral studies (institutional framework, value chain analysis, etc.), program design (financial services for SHF, women participation, etc.), identification of investment opportunities (investment cycles analysis, identification of bankable operations, etc.), and impact evaluation (midline and endline program evaluations).

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Mr. Husameldin Elnasri – IH Khartoum Co-Founder and Managing Director at Dabara Consulting Company Ltd.

Experienced Strategy and Business Development professional with more than 18 years in Africa and Middle East. An award winning MBA and Tutu African Leadership Fellow. Worked in camps at the tropics and conflict affected states as well as board rooms in big cities and enjoyed it all. Helped conglomerates, consortiums, startups, MDBs, NGOs, Social Enterprises and Fortune 100 companies to refocus their strategies and fix their game. Enjoys learning new things, tells great stories, takes long hikes and takes great photographs. And yes Very Optimistic.

Specialties: Agribusiness Strategy, Program Management, Agriculture Value Chain Analysis, Dealership Development, CSR, Fragile and Conflict-affected States, Blue Ocean Strategic Thinking and Planning.

ENTREPRENEUR

Andrew Lala – Head of Supply Chain Development at Ignitia AB

Andrew Lala is the Head of Supply Chain Development for Ignitia AB, a Swedish technology company that provides climate and weather information services where he helps smallholder farmers and supply chain actors adapt to climate change and improve productivity. He was previously Senior Advisor at TechnoServe, an international organization that develops business solutions to poverty alleviation, where he led the High Margin Agriculture practice designing programs to create value for farmers and multinational companies through green growth strategies. He was also the Deputy Country Director for Haiti where he helped implement large, public private partnership programs around sustainable sourcing. For this work, he has been featured as the case protagonist in the Harvard Business School Case Study entitled “Haiti Hope: Innovating the Mango Value Chain.” Prior to TechnoServe, he launched a last-mile distribution social enterprise in Burkina Faso, where he was previously a Peace Corps Volunteer, to bring solar technology to rural, unelectrified areas of West Africa. He holds a Masters degree in international business and development economics from The Fletcher School at Tufts University, where he was a Charles Francis Adams Scholar.  

His key interests include: Climate Smart Agriculture, Agtech, Agribusiness, Supply Chain Management, Business Development, and Impact Investing.

ENTREPRENEUR

Francis Obirikorang  – CEO @ Agrocenta

Francis Obirikorang is the CEO / Co-founder of AgroCenta; an agricultural value chain technology platform that focuses on using innovative technologies to empower smallholder farmers. He began his career working with Esoko, an agricultural technology platform in sub-Saharan Africa that focuses on market information for small farmers via mobile technologies. Francis currently heads the AgroCenta management and is responsible for business strategy, company growth and innovation. 

Impact-driven and passionate about AgTech development in Africa, Francis has led AgroCenta’s strategy working with over 75,000 smallholder farmers to provide direct market linkages to processing companies such as FMCGs, Breweries, Exporters and Feed Producers.