Uyoyo Zino Edosio is passionate about driving digital transformation and economic development in Africa. She spearheads AfDB’s digital transformation action plan, guiding investment strategies across the continent to harness the digital economy for social inclusion and economic growth.
With over 12 years in development finance and policy, she specialises in crafting policies, strategies, and projects that drive digital economies, innovation, startup investment, and youth empowerment.
She is currently managing a pan-African portfolio exceeding $600m, and her work includes: Technology infrastructure, with total portfolio of $127m. For example, leading the bank’s $47m technology park project in Cabo Verde, and diversifying the economy from tourism to an international tech center.
Another is startup and entrepreneurship, where she is leading projects with the governments of Rwanda and Nigeria totaling over $300m, setting up sovereign-backed venture funds to invest in startups, driving policies such as startup acts, and empowering over 1 million youths with digital skills.
On policy support for STI & Digital trade, she is partnering with the African Union and Smart Africa Secretariat to reimagine innovation in higher education and harmonise digital trade policies across 10 countries.
Uyoyo is ensuring proper strategic partnerships, where she is driving partnerships between the African Development Bank and the US Government, facilitating collaborations with industry leaders like Google, Intel, Microsoft, and Mastercard.
She has designed and is ardently leading the execution of a comprehensive five-year digital transformation strategy detailing investments and interventions in digital infrastructure, skills advancement, and policy-driven innovation.
As former Senior Innovation Expert in Human Capital Development at AfDB Group, Cote D’Ivoire, the investment project she handled included: Managing and designing sovereign and non-sovereign loans and grant projects across eight countries with a combined portfolio of $68 million, she supervised over 30 project staff and consultants, oversaw various projects and initiatives, including: projects with the African Union Commission to establish innovation centers of excellence at African Universities ($45 million) in Cameroon, Kenya, and Nigeria.
Furthermore, she also supervised grant projects with ECOWAS to support the Nelson Mandela Institute for Science and Technology ($20 million) in Nigeria, Tanzania, and Burkina Faso, and also managed non-sovereign projects with Ghana Education Fund and El Sewedy Education Group in Ghana and Egypt.
Through her Master’s degree in International Social and Public Policy (Development) at The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), Uyoyo will be sharpening her hands-on experience (at the African Development Bank) with theoretical frameworks, practices and approaches to address challenges in public policy and social development.
