As Country Manager at ITC, I lead efforts across 21 countries in COMESA and West Africa to position trade, exports and SMEs/private sector as engines of sustainable development. My portfolio combines policy dialogue, SME competitiveness, regional integration, and country-focused technical assistance, ensuring that global trade translates into local impact.
Alongside overall strategic support to governments, I have delivered tangible results, including but not limited to:
Kenya
Supported national export priorities while also advancing refugee inclusion; pioneered sector development and livelihoods for refugees and host communities.
Togo
Pioneered trade facilitation measures, including the launch of Trade Facilitation Portal, boosting transparency, public–private dialogue, and women’s access to export markets.
Benin
Developed and guided projects geared towards exports development, strengthened business support organizations, and facilitated digital trade for SMEs.
Côte d’Ivoire
Led the UKTP project, strengthening the business ecosystem and enabling cashew and tropical fruit exporters to achieve multi-million-dollar export gains.
Rwanda
Facilitated trade promotion oriented partnerships, brokered a new innovative project aiming to enable digital trade as an engine of growth and propel cross-border trade for women and youth.
COMESA
Brokered regional initiatives aligned with AfCFTA, fostering competitiveness and scaling regional trade.
My approach consistently links policy, institutions, and markets: from enabling reforms and strengthening support ecosystems, to empowering businesses and ensuring vulnerable groups participate in trade. The result is not only higher exports, but inclusive, sustainable growth that delivers jobs, resilience, and real socio-economic impact.
I believe progress is only real when it is inclusive. I have consistently worked to bring vulnerable and marginalized groups into the center of development efforts:
I have supported governments in implementing UNSCR 1325, helped craft inclusive national policies, and helped build and managed platforms that allow women and youth to move from the margins to the drivers of growth.
This realization first led me to AMDA, where I championed renewable energy and climate advocacy, and now continues through my newsletter AI & Africa 5.0, a platform I created to provide space for reflection and decision-making and where I explore how artificial intelligence can accelerate SDG progress while safeguarding the planet.
For me, digital and green, technology and sustainability are not parallel tracks: they are the engines of the next development frontier.
If I were to make a next career move, it would be in this space: where AI governance, partnerships, and projects meet sustainability and the SDGs. I am convinced this is where inclusive and sustainable development can be most powerfully propelled forward.
I have brokered and successfully led multi-million-dollar programmes and mobilized resources in some of the most challenging contexts, including during COVID-19 when donor funding was at its tightest.
For me, resource mobilization is not just about financing — it is about building confidence, partnerships, and momentum that enable transformation at scale.
From steering ICRC’s transformation communication during a major institutional crisis, to leading AMDA’s COVID-19 response and climate advocacy, I have seen the power of communication to build trust, shift narratives, and mobilize stakeholders. I specialize in designing communication strategies that mobilize both people and resources.
For me, strategic communication is not a support function, it is a core lever of leadership and impact, that shapes perception, unlocks resources, and accelerates change.
Throughout my career, I have ensured that strategic communication is always at the service of impact: translating institutional priorities into smart, engaging, and strategic narratives that drive results, strengthen credibility, and amplify the achievements of the organizations I serve.
My resilience and adaptability were forged in the Great Lakes Region, where political volatility and fragility demanded both courage and diplomacy.
• Co-organized the first-ever Private Sector Investment Conference for the Great Lakes Region, bringing governments, investors, and businesses together to put trade, investment, and economic opportunities at the service of peace.
• Brokered cross-border partnerships that transformed economic cooperation into a tool for stability.
• Strengthened women’s political participation in conflict-affected areas, linking UNSCR 1325 commitments with grassroots realities.
• Advocated with ministers for youth inclusion in fragile states, ensuring young people’s voices shaped national priorities.
These experiences taught me that even in fragile environments, building trust through concrete economic solutions and inclusive participation is the fastest route to stability and progress.