Known for our critically acclaimed, top-tier speakers, our conference this year boasts an exceptionally powerful roster. It features CEOs from leading African stock exchanges, complemented by distinguished pension professors from top U.S. institutions, and a diverse range of investment managers and corporate CEOs from across the African continent.
Mr Thato Norman was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Debswana Pension Fund (DPF) by the DPF Board of Trustees from 1st January 2025.
Debswana Pension Fund (DPF) is one of Botswana’s oldest and largest pension funds. DPF is a private defined contribution pension fund, which was established in October 1984, and is a joint initiative of the Debswana Group of Companies; the Fund currently has approximately 12,450 members
Thato joined Debswana Pension Fund on March 8th, 2017, as the Investment Manager ultimately serving as the Chief Investment Officer. With a strong focus on investment screening and selection, evaluating commercially viable enterprises, integrating ESG considerations into project appraisals, and leveraging a global network of investment contacts. Thato has significantly contributed to the growth of the Fund’s Assets Under Management (AUM). Under his leadership, DPF’s AUM has increased from BWP 6 billion when he joined the Fund to BWP 12 billion at the end of 2024.
Prior to Joining DPF, Thato worked in progressively senior roles within the financial services industry. His career began in 2003 at the Ministry of Finance and subsequently joined Bank of Botswana in 2004, where he eventually held the position of Senior Dealer, Financial Markets Department.
Thato Norman holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Actuarial Sciences from Butler University (USA), a Master’s Degree in Finance from University of Manchester (UK), and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Finance from University of Wolverhampton (UK). Additionally, he completed the Leadership Acceleration Programme at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS), University of Pretoria.
Furthermore, Thato serves on numerous board positions in the financial and business service sectors.
With over 25 years of delivering occupational international and domestic occupational pension & savings solutions to clients, Jo has experienced the evolution of the sector. She has helped employers face the challenges of globalisation and employee expectations and seen how technology has increased transparency and engagement.
Jo was part of the team that successfully delivered autoenrollment to the Guernsey population on behalf of the government and lived the journey of conception to delivery.
Jo is based in Guernsey and worked for the Generali Group for 19 years and is now Solution Lead, with the Sovereign Group, delivering international and domestic occupational solutions through their global footprint in over 20 countries.
Joseph Boakye-Danquah Ampofo is a seasoned pensions and financial services executive with over 27 years of distinguished industry experience. He is the Managing Director of Enterprise Trustees Limited, Ghana’s leading private pensions administration firm, where he provides strategic leadership in delivering innovative, client-focused retirement solutions.
Beyond his executive role, Joseph contributes actively to industry development and thought leadership. He serves as President of the Chamber of Corporate Trustees Ghana and is a Fellow of the Africa Leadership Initiative (West Africa), part of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. He also serves as a Vice President of the University of Ghana Alumni Council and sits on several boards and professional bodies in non-executive and leadership capacities.
Outside of work, he enjoys the outdoors and is an avid golfer.
Mr Veenay Rambarassah is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA). He is currently the Director of Investment of the National Pensions Fund & the National Savings Fund. He has wide experience in Accounting and Fund management.
Geraldine Fowler is the current President and Executive Committee Member of the Institute of Retirement Funds Africa. She is also the founding director and CEO of GQM Fund Administrators, a niche and specialist retirement fund administration provider. She has over 30 years’ experience in the retirement fund industry in the areas of consulting, administration and trusteeship. Geraldine holds qualifications in insurance, business studies, financial planning, trusteeship and writing.
Timothy Mukoba (Tim) is a Fellow of the American Academy of Financial Management (FAAFM), a Chartered Pensions Analyst Manager (CPA-M), Certified Business Analyst, PRINCE2 Practitioner - Certified Project Manager, Certified Database Administrator, and a seasoned enterprise software developer.
Tim is the Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Systech Limited (www.systechafrica.com), a Pan-African enterprise software development firm specializing in Retirement Benefits and Investment Technology Solutions. His work is exemplified by FundMaster, an enterprise-grade Pensions ERP system that he designed and developed from the ground up. FundMaster is widely deployed across Africa and stands as a testament to Tim’s deep technical expertise and domain leadership.
With over 25 years of experience in leadership, international business development, business process engineering, and pension systems implementation, Tim has worked extensively across Africa with a broad spectrum of institutions. These include governments, social security organizations, banks, insurance companies, diversified financial services groups, fund managers, actuarial firms, parastatals, and third-party pension administrators. His expertise is widely recognized and highly regarded across the African pension and financial services industry.
Tim is the author of the book The Practitioner’s Guide to Pension Administration and the originator of the Member Outcomes Compliance Audit (MOCA) - a governance framework focused on measuring and strengthening real member outcomes in Social Security and Pension Funds.
A strong advocate for locally built, world-class African solutions, Tim champions technology designed by Africans to solve Africa’s unique institutional and developmental challenges.
He is an alumnus of Egerton University (BSc. Statistics & Computer Science) and the University of Nairobi (Postgraduate studies in Computer Science).
MaameYaa has over 17 years of experience advising sovereign wealth funds, central banks, family offices, insurance companies, pension funds and development finance institutions around the world on their investment arrangements. On a daily basis, MaameYaa advises investors on asset management issues and strategic global and national issues.
Her work includes public investments and private fund investments (both cornerstone and smaller amounts), single investor mandates and co-investment arrangements covering all asset classes including infrastructure and energy, as well as a wide variety of other agreements and financial services regulatory issues. MaameYaa spent time on secondment to a government entity in Riyadh in 2017 and an Emirati government entity in 2021.
MaameYaa is listed as Band 1 by Chambers & Partners in the category, Investor Representation.
“MaameYaa is a great person to work with. She is very knowledgeable, extremely responsive, passionate about the work and above all, very professional. She has great work ethics and loyalty to her firm and her clients.” Chambers UK,: Investment Funds, Investor Representation.
Guy Opperman is the United Kingdom’s longest serving Pensions Minister from 2017-2022.
He was formerly a steeplechase jockey, a barrister, businessman and then the Member of Parliament for Hexham 2010-2024. Guy also held roles in the Home Office, Treasury, and Transport departments. He was responsible for the rollout of Defined Contribution Workplace Pensions to 8% earnings in the United Kingdom and the reform of Defined Benefit. Since leaving politics in 2024 Guy is on a mission to change retirement savings around the world.
Guy served in the government of 4 Prime Ministers.
Guy set up and chaired from scratch the Northumberland Community Bank, a fully regulated savings and loan bank in the North East in 2015.
As a lawyer Guy was the UK 2007 Pro Bono lawyer of the Year winner, and named by the Times newspaper as one of their lawyers of the year. He rode his last winner as a jockey in 2019 at Sedgefield.
After University Guy worked on a farm in Tanzania and also ran horse riding game safaris north and around Arusha. Guy is presently a senior adviser to Smart Pensions, a platform and pension provider with clients in the UK, Hong Kong Kong, UAE, Ireland and elsewhere with billions of pounds under management.
Mr. Muyangwa is a seasoned senior executive with 30 years of combined experience
across the financial and fiscal sectors. His career is distinguished by a strong track record in institutional reform, strategic planning, and organizational transformation aimed at enhancing service delivery and achieving long-term institutional goals. He is particularly adept at fostering outcome-based management cultures, leading phased institutional development strategies, and building high-performance teams to support sustainable growth and operational excellence. Mr. Muyangwa holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration and a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Bath in the United Kingdom and Copperbelt University in Zambia, respectively.
Prior to joining NAPSA, he served as a Senior Economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Headquarters in Washington, D.C., and held other key positions within the IMF, including Technical Assistance Advisor and Revenue Administration Advisor in East and West Africa. Prior to his international assignments, Mr. Muyangwa held senior roles at the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA), where he rose from a graduate entry position to Commissioner – VAT, and later Commissioner – Customs Services. He also gained early experience in the financial services sector through his work at Meridian BIAO Bank Limited (liquidated).
Vukosi Maluleke is the Head of Treasury within the Treasury and Balance Sheet Management Division at the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA). He has over 15 years of experience across banking, asset management, development finance, and insurance. His expertise spans liquidity management, bilateral debt funding, and capital markets issuances in both domestic and international currencies, including USD and EUR.
At the DBSA, Vukosi oversees the Bank’s R80 billion Debt Medium Term Note (DMTN) Programme and leads a team of senior capital markets specialists responsible for mobilising long-term funding through conventional, sustainable, and green bond instruments. His team manages investment and portfolio activities, funds transfer pricing, liquidity risk, ALM execution, yield optimisation of the money market portfolio, and back-office and settlement functions.
Vukosi plays a central role in driving the DBSA’s mandate to mobilise capital for infrastructure development across the African continent, supporting projects in energy, transport, digital infrastructure, and water that contribute to sustainable and inclusive economic growth.
Saqib Nazir is a technology entrepreneur committed to building businesses that harness the power of technology to solve everyday challenges in emerging markets.
He currently serves as the CEO of People’s Pensions Holding, focused on expanding access to pensions and essential financial services—including savings, insurance, and credit—for informal workers. His mission is to allow people to live in dignity, foster resilient livelihoods, reduce old-age poverty, and contribute to a more inclusive financial future.
Saqib supports impact-driven technology start-ups across Africa, with a focus on innovation that drives meaningful, scalable change, driven by a deep belief in using technology and finance to make the world a better place for all.
He holds a BSc (Hons) in Computer Science and Physics from the University of Ghana, Legon, and an MSc in Information Systems Engineering from the University of Manchester, UK
Other than her senior leadership role at the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), Lindiwe is a real estate specialist, business rescue, turnaround and advisory practitioner and a strategist. She is a Certified Director (Cert.Dir.(SA)) committed to sound corporate governance, and ethical board leadership. Lindiwe holds several non-executive directorships (NEDs) in several companies. Lindiwe currently serves as a Chairperson of the IDC Pension fund as well as an NED role at the Karsten Group of companies (one of South Africa’s largest farming operations that owns fruit farms and packing facilities located in South Africa, the rest of the African continent, the UK and elsewhere in Europe). Lindiwe is also the IDC enterprise risk management champion.
Her wealth of experience has helped to broaden her horizon in managing business strategies, with a special focus on legal services, corporate restructurings and support.
She has led transactions in the corporate commercial finance structuring/restructuring space, including negotiation, drafting, vetting and settlement of transactions documentation, for domestic and international entities. Noteworthy among her personal attributes, Lindiwe prides herself as being thorough, analytical and a pragmatic, transformational leader, who always strives to bring the best out of her team.
Lindiwe holds a BProc degree, and an LLM (with specialization in Commercial and Banking Law) from UJ, a Management Advancement Programme (MAP) from WBS, an MBA from UJ, and an MPHIL in Business Management Corporate Strategy – UP (GIBS).
She is affiliated to the following corporate professional bodies:
Lindiwe is part of the Law Ninja Black global community of senior in-house legal executives and leaders.
Mpho is an Institutional Client Director within Old Mutual Investment Group’s Client Management team, responsible for growing assets under management from institutional investors across various listed investment strategies.
Mpho has over a decade’s experience in financial services, ranging from actuarial valuations to financial risk management consulting for insurers, asset managers, banks, and corporates. She has worked at MMI and Deloitte and consulted on gender inclusion and development of SMEs.
Nalandri (Nancy) Andrews is a highly respected leader in South Africa’s financial services sector, with over 25 years of experience shaping legal, regulatory, and governance frameworks. She currently serves as the Vice President of the Institute of Retirement Funds Africa (IRFA) and chairs its Legal and Technical Committee, where she plays a pivotal role in advancing industry standards and policy development.
Nancy is the General Legal Counsel and Head of Legal for Discovery Corporate & Employee Benefits and Discovery Invest, overseeing all legal, compliance, insurance, and tax matters within her division. Her expertise spans retirement funds, life insurance, investments, and tax, making her a trusted advisor in navigating complex regulatory environments.
Academically, Nancy holds a B. Proc degree and several postgraduate diplomas in Tax, Compliance, and Pensions Law, reflecting her commitment to continuous learning and professional excellence.
Throughout her career, Nancy has been deeply involved in industry bodies and collaborative initiatives. She actively contributes to ASISA workgroups and previously served as President of the Pension Lawyers Association of South Africa. Her governance experience includes roles as trustee and Principal Officer for Discovery’s retirement funds.
Nancy is a recognized thought leader and advocate for regulatory reform. She engages extensively with key stakeholders, including SARS, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), National Treasury, and Parliament, representing both Discovery, the IRFA and the broader retirement fund industry. Her contributions have been instrumental in shaping major legislative changes, including the two-pot retirement system, positioning her as a leading voice in South Africa’s evolving financial landscape.
Passionate about advancing the industry, Nancy continues to champion initiatives that promote member education, governance excellence, and sustainable retirement solutions. Her insights and experience make her a sought-after speaker at conferences and forums focused on legal, regulatory, and policy developments in financial services.
Years of experience: eight
Years at OMIG: five
Thomo is a Quantitative Analyst, responsible for generating and researching investment ideas, developing quantitative techniques and tools to enhance the risk/return outcomes for clients and to support the risk management and portfolio optimisation processes. Thomo comes with a background in global equity research, doing country and sector analysis, analysing risk and improving systems and tools that assisted in the research and decision-making process. He also forms part of the Asset Allocation team.
Prior to joining Old Mutual Investment Group, Thomo was a fixed income analyst at Sanlam Investments where he was responsible for economic research, trade idea generation and general fixed income analysis, modelling and research covering the South African bond and credit markets. He also has experience in credit analysis.
Thomo holds a BSc Honours (Adv Maths in Finance) and is a CFA® Charterholder.
Ms. Arimi is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of marketing and Associate of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Makerere University and Master of Business Administration from the Eastern and Southern Africa Management Institution.
She boosts diverse experience, spanning across private and public several sectors including Retirement, Financial Services and Academia.
She has proven competencies in Strategic Planning, Marketing Management, Sales Force Management, Product development, Research, Public Relations, Crisis management, Brand management and Marketing Communications.
She is Currently serving as Chief Marketing and Corporate Affairs at NSSF. She also serves as a Non-Executive Director on DFCU Group Board and the CEO apprenticeship Board a not-for-profit association that grooms executives for the C-suite.
Chimwemwe Kanyenda is the Chief Operating Officer of NICO Life Insurance Company Ltd, where he provides strategic leadership across operations while shaping initiatives that drive long-term growth and organizational excellence. With extensive experience spanning both short-term and long-term insurance, he brings a rare blend of operational acumen and industry insight to the executive team.
A thought leader in the insurance sector, Chimwemwe is the author of Random Thoughts on Insurance Practice: A Practitioner’s Exposé (2016), a widely regarded contribution to advancing professional practice. He holds the Chartered Insurer designation from the Chartered Insurance Institute (UK), is a certified Digital Finance Practitioner from The Fletcher School at Tufts University and is a graduate of the University of Malawi. He has further sharpened his leadership skills through executive programs at Stellenbosch Business School, the University of Cape Town, and the Gordon Institute of Business Science.
His interests extend to the transformative role of artificial intelligence and emerging technologies in reshaping the future of financial services. Alongside his professional commitments, he is passionate about travel, writing, and following both local and international football, balancing professional rigour with a curiosity for global trends and personal pursuits.
Meta Mhlarhi is a seasoned infrastructure investor and transformation strategist with over two decades of experience across energy, infrastructure finance, and fund management. As Co-Founder and Executive Director of Mahlako Financial Services, a 100% South African women-owned investment firm; she has played a pivotal role in advancing catalytic investments that support South Africa’s just energy transition.
Under her leadership, Mahlako launched South Africa’s largest women-owned private equity energy fund, fully committing R2 billion within three years to projects that power households, industries, and communities. The firm’s portfolio spans renewable energy, dispatchable power, industrial energy solutions, and market-enabling reforms, including transactions that unlock private-sector access to the national grid.
Following this success, Mahlako has launched the Mahlako Infrastructure and Growth Fund II, a strategic investment platform targeting energy, ICT, water, transport, and logistics. The fund builds on Mahlako’s proven ability to mobilize institutional capital, structure bankable projects, and deliver inclusive growth across priority sectors.
Mahlako’s recent investment in a leading energy platform has helped establish South Africa’s largest renewable energy company, with over 2.7 GW secured and 11 GW in development. The platform represents approximately 2.5% of the country’s total generation capacity, operates 23 generating facilities, and by market capitalisation would rank among the top 100 companies on the JSE, ahead of several long-established firms.
As Chairperson of BEPA, Meta advocates for transformation and inclusive participation in South Africa’s energy sector. Her work reflects a commitment to unlocking Africa’s infrastructure potential through sustainable finance, institutional partnerships, and impact-driven investment.
Philip Delali Zumanu is a seasoned Knowledge Management professional and an independent consultant with over 15 years of hands-on expertise spanning Pensions and Retirement Planning, Corporate Governance, Risk Management, Capital Markets, Mortgage and Housing Finance, Education and Human Capital Development. His career reflects a rare combination of academic rigour, regulatory insight, and executive leadership across Ghana’s public and private sectors.
In the pensions space, Dela currently serves as a faculty member at the National Pensions College of the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA), Ghana, where he facilitates training in Pensions Risk Management, Pensions Governance, Pensions Administration, and Operations. He also serves as an adjunct lecturer in Pensions Governance and Regulation at the University of Ghana School of Law. These roles reflect his deep command of Ghana’s pensions regulatory landscape and his commitment to building institutional capacity across the sector.
Dela’s earlier career in the pensions industry includes a distinguished service at Pensions Alliance Trust Co. Ltd., where he served successively as a Consultant (Operations lead for setting up the company), Director of Business Development, and its Chief Executive Officer. In that capacity, he managed the company to become one of the best and leading pension company’s in Ghana, developed operational frameworks, and led nationwide retirement preparation training programmes for major public institutions including the Ghana Revenue Authority, the National Health Insurance Authority, and the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company. He also provided technical support to the Ghana Educational Sector Occupational Pension Scheme (the largest pension fund in Ghana) during their formation stage. He was also a television commentator on pension-related issues on TV3 Network in Ghana. As an expert in the pensions sector, Dela has provided consulting services to many pension schemes including Frontline Pension Trust, GNAT Provident Scheme and many others.
Beyond pensions, Philip has held the position of General Manager of the National Homeownership Fund (NHF), where he led the delivery of close to 500 affordable housing units in Tema Community 22 under the National Mortgage Scheme. Under his leadership, the NHF became an internationally recognised institution in affordable housing finance, earning an IFC EDGE certification for sustainable construction. He has also served as a consultant to the World Bank, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), and the Ministry of Finance, Ghana.
Philip holds a Master of Commerce in Taxation from Pentecost University College, a Master of Education in Administration from the University of Cape Coast, and a Bachelor of Education (Mathematics) also from the University of Cape Coast.
As a sought-after speaker and facilitator, Dela has participated in conferences and knowledge-sharing forums across Ghana and internationally, including engagements in Singapore, France, Kenya, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. He has served on several boards including GCB REIT Plc and SEM Funds, and is currently the Chairman of the Achimota School Parent-Teacher Association.
Sandrine Henton is the Founder and Managing Director of EG Capital, a private credit investment platform focused on climate adaptation in Africa. She leads investments across food security, health resilience, emergency response and human capital, targeting scalable SMEs in underserved markets. Sandrine has over a decade of experience structuring cross-border investments and blended finance solutions, working with DFIs, family offices, and institutional investors. Her work focuses on mobilising private capital into high-impact sectors through innovative risk-sharing mechanisms. She is recognised as an emerging leader in climate finance, with EG Capital featured in global platforms including Convergence Blended Finance, and ImpactAssets 50.
John A. Turner is Director of the Pension Policy Center. He has published more than 100 articles on pensions and retirement, which have received more than 3,700 citations. He received an award for the best article of the year in the Journal of Risk and Insurance. He received an award from the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel for the best proposal for simplifying employee benefits law. He authored, coauthored or edited 14 books--two have been translated into Japanese and three have been required reading for examinations of the Society of Actuaries. His articles have been translated into eight languages. In 2016, he was selected by the Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance, an umbrella organization with more than 100,000 volunteers, as volunteer of the year for his work training pension regulators in East Africa. He has a PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago
We hope this list helps answer your most pressing questions. If you don’t find what you’re looking for, please don’t hesitate to contact us directly for more information.
Speaker Slots are officially sold out.
The theme is “Building resilient, inclusive, and sustainable pension systems in Africa”. The summit is designed to craft strategies for overcoming challenges in the pension sector and ensuring long-term growth and security.
The summit will be held at the InterContinental Hotel & Resort in Balaclava Fort, Mauritius. The venue offers over 35,000 square feet of meeting space, including a grand ballroom that can host up to 600 people.
Key topics will include overcoming threats to pension portfolio stability, navigating an evolving legal landscape, strategies for effective pension trusteeship, seizing opportunities in ESG investing, and extending pension coverage to the informal sector.
By becoming a sponsor, your company can gain unparalleled exposure, engage with key decision-makers, and showcase its leadership and solutions in the industry. To confirm a partnership or sponsorship package, you can get in touch with the Africa Pensions team.
To purchase a speaker slot or discuss a tailored partnership, you should email partnerships@africapensions.com
