Keynote Speakers
Ralph Mupita
Ralph Mupita is the President and CEO of MTN Group, a position he has held since the 1st September 2020, having recently served as the MTN Group’s Chief Financial Officer since April 2017. Prior to joining MTN, Ralph served as the Chief Executive Officer for Old Mutual Emerging Markets, providing financial service solutions to individuals and corporates across 19 countries in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Under his leadership, the Insurance Group’s Emerging Market business serviced over 19 million customers and had R1 trillion of assets under management.
Ralph is a seasoned business leader with experience in engineering, construction, financial services, and telecommunications. Since joining MTN, Ralph has played a pivotal role in the strengthening the Group’s financial position, strategy pivot, and successful listing on the Nigerian and Ghanaian Stock Exchanges.
Ralph serves as a Non-Executive Director on several MTN subsidiary Boards, is serves as an executive Board member of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and a member of the Harvard Business School Africa Advisory Board. Ralph is a Commissioner on the United Nations Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, and a Champion of the World Economic Forum EDISON Alliance.
Ralph holds an MBA and BSc Engineering Hons degree from University of Cape Town and is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School General Management Programme.
Ralph is passionate about the African continent and the role that mobile operators can play in driving sustainable digital and financial inclusion through fit-for-purpose solutions.
Edward Effah
Edward established the Fidelity group of financial services companies in October 1998 after a successful career as a senior finance executive. Fidelity Bank was launched in October 2006 and has grown to become the largest privately-owned Ghanaian bank with total assets in excess of 12 Billion Cedis (US$2 billion), over 2 million customers, and 75 branches in every region of the country.
Edward served as the Chief Executive Officer of Fidelity Bank from its inception in 2006 to 2016 and he is currently the Board Chairman of Fidelity Bank. Under Edward’s leadership, Fidelity has been able to establish itself as a leader in its markets in Ghana in terms of reputation, profitability and assets under management, and Fidelity Bank has won more than 100 awards for customer service, its technology, and excellence.
Edward has extensive experience in business strategy formulation, calculated risk-taking, strategy execution, team building, mentoring, business innovation, finance, technology strategy, capital raising, investor relations, managing boards, and effective communication with key stakeholders. Edward brought to Fidelity over fifteen years of experience in senior executive positions in finance and treasury management. Previous positions held prior to establishing Fidelity include: Country Director of Global Emerging Markets (GEM) Ghana Limited (1995-1998), Chief Finance Officer of Inter-Afrique Group (1995 – 1997), Risk Manager (1990 – 1995) of Rudolf Wolff, the City of London based derivatives and foreign exchange trader and an auditor and management consultant with Coopers and Lybrand, London (1987 – 1990).
In November 2014, Edward won the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana (CIMG) Marketing Man of the Year Award. In May 2019, Edward won the awards of CEO of the Decade, CEO of the Year, and was also inducted into the Hall of Fame by the CEO Network for his immense contribution towards the banking industry in Ghana. In October 2020, Edward again won the ultimate award of CEO of the Decade at the Ghana Business Awards for his outstanding leadership over the decade.
Edward is currently the Board Chairman of Unilever Ghana Limited and he is also a board member of Fidelity Securities Limited, Fidelity Asia Bank Limited, and Africa Capital LLC.
Jeffrey D. Sachs
He is widely recognized for bold and effective strategies to address complex challenges including the escape from extreme poverty, the global battle against human-induced climate change, international debt and financial crises, national economic reforms, and the control of pandemic and epidemic diseases.
Sachs serves as the Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, where he holds the rank of University Professor, the university’s highest academic rank. Sachs held the position of Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University from 2002 to 2016. He is President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Chair of the Lancet COVID-19 Commission, Co-Chair of the UN Council of Engineers for the Energy Transition, Commissioner of the UN Broadband Commission for Development, Tan Sri Jeffrey Cheah Honorary Distinguished Professor of Sustainable Development at Sunway University, academician of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences at the Vatican, and an SDG Advocate for UN Secretary General António Guterres. From 2001-18, Sachs served as Special Advisor to UN Secretaries-General Kofi Annan (2001-7), Ban Ki-moon (2008-16), and António Guterres (2017-18).
Sachs has authored and edited numerous books, including three New York Times bestsellers: The End of Poverty (2005), Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet (2008), and The Price of Civilization (2011). Other books include To Move the World: JFK’s Quest for Peace (2013), The Age of Sustainable Development (2015), Building the New American Economy: Smart, Fair & Sustainable (2017), A New Foreign Policy: Beyond American Exceptionalism (2018), and most recently, The Ages of Globalization: Geography, Technology, and Institutions (2020).
Sachs was the co-recipient of the 2015 Blue Planet Prize, the leading global prize for environmental leadership. He was twice named among Time magazine’s 100 most influential world leaders. Sachs has received 38 honorary doctorates. In 2021, Sachs received the TÜBA Academy Prize from the Turkish Academy of Sciences, the Legion of Honor by decree of the President of the Republic of France, and the Order of the Cross from Estonia, and honorary doctorates from Amrita University, Kerala, India, Macau University of Science and Technology, and the University of Siena, Italy.
Prior to joining Columbia, Sachs spent over twenty years as a professor at Harvard University, most recently as the Galen L. Stone Professor of International Trade. A native of Detroit, Michigan, Sachs received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees at Harvard.