Unlocking Africa

Episodi

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  Why The Good Roll Is Betting on Ghanaian Bamboo to Disrupt the $350 Billion Paper Industry with Sander de Klerk 14.09.2026 32min

  Episode 238 with Sander de Klerk, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Good Roll, a sustainable paper company building an integrated bamboo value chain between Ghana and global paper markets. The Good Roll began as a European consumer brand selling sustainable toilet paper and using part of its revenue to improve access to sanitation. It has since evolved into a much broader industrial business, processing Ghanaian bamboo into pulp for the global paper industry, tissue products for its...
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  Why Do So Many African Businesses Die With Their Founders? Succession, Stewardship and Legacy with Lydie Murorunkwere 07.09.2026 52min

  Episode 237 with Lydie Murorunkwere, Founder and Managing Director of ML Corporate Services Ltd, Rwanda’s first locally owned licensed Trust and Company Service Provider, and Chairperson of the Rwanda Trust Companies Association. Over the past two decades, Lydie has worked with entrepreneurs, investors, family businesses and institutions across Africa, helping them establish governance, ownership and succession structures designed not only to support growth, but to endure. Her work challenge...
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  What Happens When Rural African Women Gain Access to Mentorship, Education and Economic Opportunity? with Linda Latsko Lockhart 31.08.2026 41min

  Episode 236 with Linda Latsko Lockhart, Founder and CEO of Global Give Back Circle, an organisation focused on expanding education, financial inclusion and pathways to dignified work for women and girls across Africa. Since 2006, Global Give Back Circle has supported more than 6,000 girls through tertiary education, engaged more than 4,000 mentors and built programmes across Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Ghana. At the centre of its economic empowerment work is HER Lab, a model designed...
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  Why Isn't Africa Turning Its Science Into Billion Dollar Companies? with Houda Ghozzi 24.08.2026 48min

  Episode 235 with Houda Ghozzi, Founder and CEO of Open Startup, a pan African organisation focused on connecting African innovation with global opportunity through investment readiness, deep tech commercialisation, cross border partnerships and ecosystem development. Over the past decade, Open Startup has supported thousands of founders and startups across more than 20 African countries. Its latest focus is The Science Road, an initiative designed to help deep tech and research led ventures ...
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  Can Africa Build a Sustainable Fashion Value Chain From Raw Material to Retail? with Madelaine Fourie 10.08.2026 32min

  Episode 234 with Madelaine Fourie, General Brand Manager at Sappi Verve, a business operating at the intersection of forestry, sustainable materials and global fashion value chains. Sappi Verve produces dissolving wood pulp from woodfibre, an essential raw material used to manufacture fibres such as viscose and lyocell that ultimately become the fabrics found in everyday clothing. From its forestry and manufacturing base in South Africa, Sappi forms part of a global textile supply chain that ...
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  How Cascador Is Helping Africa's Growth Stage Businesses Navigate the "Messy Middle" with Amanda Etuk 27.07.2026 39min

  Episode 231 with Amanda Etuk, Program Director at Cascador, an Africa focused platform supporting growth stage entrepreneurs with the leadership, networks, strategic partnerships and catalytic capital needed to build resilient, high impact businesses. Amanda works at the intersection of strategy and execution, helping founders navigate one of the most overlooked stages of African entrepreneurship. With experience spanning scaling startups, managing complex multimillion pound operations and b...
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  Why Africa's Music Industry Isn't Getting Paid What It's Owed with Shain Shapiro 13.07.2026 40min

  Episode 232 with Shain Shapiro, Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Music Ecosystems and one of the world's leading experts on music, public policy, and economic development. Through his work advising more than 130 cities and governments worldwide, Shain has helped reposition music from being viewed simply as entertainment to being recognised as a driver of investment, job creation, and long term economic growth. He is also one of the architects behind the Music Economy Developme...
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  Investing $100 Million to Create Africa's Next Million Jobs: Why Manufacturing Beats Tech with Daniel Yu 06.07.2026 40min

  Episode 231 with Daniel Yu, Founder of Africa Jobs Fund, a philanthropic venture builder focused on creating high productivity jobs across Sub Saharan Africa through export manufacturing and international labour mobility. Daniel is best known as the founder and former CEO of Wasoko, one of Africa's leading commerce and supply chain technology companies. After spending more than a decade building logistics infrastructure across multiple African markets, he has shifted his focus towards what h...
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  Are Businesses in Africa Leaving Money on the Table by Ignoring Working Parents? with Soledad Sanchez Canamares 22.06.2026 36min

  Episode 230 with Soledad Sanchez Canamares, Family Friendly Workplace Policy Specialist at UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa, where she works with businesses, governments, and development partners to advance workplace policies that improve employee wellbeing, talent retention, workforce productivity, and long term business performance. As organisations across Africa and around the world face growing talent shortages, rising employee turnover, and changing workforce expectations, family frie...
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  The Grandmothers Helping Solve Africa's Mental Health Crisis with Esther Tumbare 15.06.2026 47min

  Episode 229 with Esther Tumbare, Chief Executive Officer of Friendship Bench, a pioneering Zimbabwean organisation transforming access to mental healthcare through community based solutions that have reached hundreds of thousands of people and expanded across multiple countries. Esther leads Friendship Bench's efforts to scale one of Africa's most recognised healthcare innovations while working closely with governments, public health systems, and community health workers to make mental healt...
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  Can Financing Unlock Africa's EV Revolution Faster Than Technology? with Nena Sanderson 08.06.2026 44min

  Episode 228 with Nena Sanderson, Chief Product Officer and Managing Director of Mobility at M-KOPA, a leading African fintech and asset financing company helping millions of people access productive assets, digital financial services, and clean mobility solutions through innovative pay as you go financing. Nena leads product strategy across M-KOPA's business while also overseeing its rapidly growing mobility division, placing her at the centre of one of Africa's most significant transport an...
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  The Battle for Africa's Financial Rails: Stablecoins, Regulators, Cross Border Payments and Trade with Mimi Kufuor 01.06.2026 52min

  Episode 227 with Mimi Kufuor, Global COO of KoinKoin, a digital assets exchange and financial infrastructure company focused on solving cross border liquidity and payment challenges across Africa and other emerging markets. Mimi oversees the company's global operations across multiple jurisdictions and works closely with regulators as digital asset frameworks continue to evolve. She also serves as a Strategic Advisor to the Chamber of Digital Assets and Blockchain Innovation in Ghana, contrib...
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  The Untapped Trillion Dollar Opportunity in Africa’s Diaspora Economy with Nicholas Bassey 25.05.2026 45min

  Episode 226 with Nicholas Bassey, Chief Operations and Program Officer at the African Diaspora Network (ADN), an organisation mobilising diaspora investment, entrepreneurship, innovation, and strategic partnerships to accelerate economic growth across Africa. Nicholas joins us to discuss the future of diaspora investment in Africa, how African entrepreneurs can access global capital, and why Africa’s biggest challenge may not be a lack of money, but a lack of investment infrastructure, trust,...
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  Why Hiring and Paying Employees in Africa Is Harder Than Most Companies Expect with Ernestine Van Rappard 18.05.2026 36min

  Episode 225 with Ernestine Van Rappard, CCO at Workpay, a Kenyan founded, Y Combinator backed payroll, HR, and Employer of Record platform helping companies hire, pay, and manage employees across Africa without setting up local entities. Ernestine joins us to unpack one of the biggest hidden barriers to doing business in Africa: compliant hiring, payroll, and workforce management across multiple African countries. In this episode, we explore how global companies are expanding into Afri...
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  The Future of Ecommerce in Africa and Why Speed and Reliability Is Everything with Dima Rasnovsky 11.05.2026 39min

  Episode 224 with Dima Rasnovsky, General Manager for Africa at Glovo, one of the world’s leading quick commerce and on demand delivery platforms transforming how consumers access food, groceries, retail products, and everyday essentials across cities. Dima leads Glovo’s growth and operations across African markets, helping drive the expansion of digital commerce, last mile delivery, and retail technology across some of the continent’s fastest growing economies. In this episode, we explore th...
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  The Nigerian Entrepreneur Building Africa’s Sports Economy Through Boxing, Events and Entertainment with Ezekiel Adamu 04.05.2026 27min

  Episode 223 with Ezekiel Adamu, entrepreneur, change agent, and Group CEO of Balmoral Group, one of West Africa’s leading event and experiential companies. In this conversation, we explore how Africa can build globally competitive sports and entertainment industries that drive economic growth, create jobs, and position cities like Lagos as international event destinations. Ezekiel shares how his journey from the United Kingdom back to Nigeria shaped his ambition to bring structure, scale, an...
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  Building Kenya’s Luxury Hospitality Industry, Nairobi’s Creative Economy, and the Future of Tourism with Shamim Ehsani 27.04.2026 30min

  Episode 222 with Shamim Ehsani, Co Founder of Tribe Hotels Group, a hospitality and lifestyle company redefining modern African luxury through the integration of culture, art, and experience led design. Shamim has built a portfolio that includes Tribe Hotel in Nairobi, Hero Bar, named The Best Bar in Africa, and the upcoming Tribe Beach House in Kilifi, while continuing a family legacy that has helped shape Kenya’s real estate, tourism, and food and beverage industry for over three decades. ...
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  Building High Performance Teams, Drone Delivery Systems, and Healthcare Logistics with Juliet Oshagbemi 20.04.2026 27min

  Episode 221 with Juliet Oshagbemi, Chief People and Culture Officer Africa at Zipline, a global leader in drone delivery, healthcare logistics and supply chain innovation. Zipline has been operating in Africa since 2016 and is now fully integrated into public health systems across Ghana, Rwanda, Nigeria, Kenya and Côte d’Ivoire, delivering blood, vaccines and essential medical supplies on demand at scale. Juliet brings more than 20 years of experience in human capital strategy and organisati...
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  Africa’s Payments Problem Is Not What You Think – Inside Mobile Money Infrastructure with Nikolai Barnwell 13.04.2026 39min

  Episode 220 with Nikolai Barnwell, CEO of pawaPay, a leading pan African payments company building the financial rails that connect mobile money wallets across the continent and to the rest of the world. Nikolai brings over a decade of experience across mobile operating systems, business management, and digital infrastructure to this conversation about how money actually moves across Africa. In addition to leading pawaPay, he serves as a board member at 88mph.ac, an early stage investme...
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  How School Meals Can Transform Africa’s Economy: Agriculture, Jobs and Growth with Mehrdad Ehsani 06.04.2026 39min

  Episode 219 with Mehrdad Ehsani, Vice President for Africa at The Rockefeller Foundation, a global institution working at the intersection of food systems, economic development, and climate resilience to improve livelihoods around the world. Mehrdad leads the Foundation’s work across Africa, focusing on building scalable systems that drive long term economic growth, agricultural transformation, and human capital development. In this episode, we explore the launch of the US$80 million School ...