A three-day virtual event held this November 9, 10, and 12, Africa Fintech Summit 2020 will open with a keynote address by TDB’s President and CEO Tadesse Admassu.
He has been the recipient of several distinctions, including being recognized as the 2019 African Banker of the Year. Since he joined TDB in 2012, Tadesse has launched new business operations and spearheaded critical reforms that have fueled a USD 5 billion increase in the bank’s assets.
Over the past eight years under Tadesse’s leadership, the Bank’s capital and funding have multiplied five-fold and has seen significant growth in its shareholder base, and its portfolio. In 2020, TDB was recognized by African Banker Awards as the ‘African Bank of the Year’. TDB is the first DFI in Africa to use blockchain technology to carry out a trade finance transaction on dltledgers, enabling a USD 22 million white cane sugar trade from Asia to Africa.
Day two of the Summit will launch with a keynote address by Cina Lawson, Minister of Digital Economy and Digital Transformation for Togo. Minister Lawson is leading Togo through a profound transition to an inclusive digital economy. Her initiatives as Minister have included diversifying private participation in the telecommunications sector, spearheading regulatory reforms for data protection and electronic transactions, setting up an innovation hub, and driving initiatives to deploy high-speed fiber broadband that links key institutions, including all public universities in the country.
In 2012, Forbes magazine ranked her among the 20 most powerful young women in Africa and in 2019, she became the first African woman political figure to receive the Harvard Alumni Public Service Award. She is a fervent advocate of innovative solutions to Africa’s developmental challenges and sits on the advisory board of the Digital Identity, Trade and Economy Initiative of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.
The Summit’s keynotes join an esteemed list of panellists – 60 senior level executives from companies like MFS Africa, Jumia, DPO Group, Y-Combinator, Yoco, AMOLE, DHL Logistics, Citigroup, Flutterwave, EFG Hermes, and Citigroup.
