International Women's Day Conference 2025:

Founder & Convener, Elevate Africa

Olori Atuwatse III is a visionary leader, entrepreneur, and philanthropist dedicated to community empowerment, education, and economic transformation. As Queen Consort of the Warri Kingdom, she leads The Royal Iwere Foundation (RIF), driving initiatives in education, healthcare, and economic empowerment.

She collaborates with the Nigerian government on women’s economic empowerment and speaks at global forums like the United Nations General Assembly and Oxford Saïd Business School. Her humanitarian efforts have earned her prestigious recognitions, including the US President’s Lifetime Achievement Award and the African Achievers Award (House of Lords, UK).

A passionate changemaker, she is committed to leaving a legacy of education and empowerment. She is married to Ogiame Atuwatse III CFR, the Olu of Warri, and they have three children.

Emezino “Zino” Daniel Afiegbe is an experienced financial inclusion, gender specialist, and business development executive with over 23 years within the digital financial services ecosystem. Zino has led focused teams within the digital value exchange and gender focused sectors at key regional financial institutions, the global technology firm – Visa and more recently at Women’s World Banking, where he led business development in Africa during the period of 2019 to 2024. 

Zino currently leads the Gender Centre of Excellence at EFInA with a focus on driving ecosystem collaboration towards advancing sustainable financial inclusion and economic empowerment for women across Nigeria.

Executive Director, Policy Innovation Centre.

Osasuyi Dirisu is the Executive Director of the Policy Innovation Centre and Senior Fellow, Nigerian Economic Summit Group where she oversees behavioural and policy interventions in health, governance, gender and social inclusion in Nigeria. 

She holds an MB; BS degree from the University of Ibadan; an MPH from the University of Lagos, an MBA from the Pan-Atlantic University and a PhD from the University of Leeds. She is also an alumnus of the Harvard Kennedy School and the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. Osasuyi is a widely sought after speaker, and is listed as one of the top 100 career women in Africa.

Country Director, Nigeria, at the Mastercard Foundation

Rosy Fynn is the Country Director, Nigeria, at the Mastercard Foundation, where she is overseeing the delivery of the Foundation's Young Africa Works strategy to enable upwards of ten million young Nigerian women and men to access dignified and fulfilling work by 2030. In 2024, as a recognition for the role she is playing in enabling work opportunities for young Africans, Rosy was named a Top 50 Women of Impact Honoree. 

Prior to joining the Mastercard Foundation, she spent over a decade working in various leadership roles across numerous Telecommunications companies in Africa, including Airtel and Tigo (Millicom International).

Rosy is passionate about unlocking the potential of African youth and women and devotes time to mentoring young people. She is an advocate for women in STEM and was recognized as one of the 30 most eminent STEM CEOs by the STEM Woman Project in 2020. 

She is a member of the prestigious Archbishop Tutu Fellowship, a highly selective program focused on identifying, nurturing and equipping Africa's elite future leaders with the tools to address the continent's challenges. She is also a fellow of the African Leadership Initiative-West Africa (ALIWA), under the Aspen Leadership Institute. 

Rosy is an avid sports fan and is a former rugby, basketball, and squash player. In her spare time, she runs half-marathons and has completed 4 competitive half-marathons.

She holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BA (honors) in Computer Science and Mathematics from Smith College, Massachusetts, USA.

Dahlia Khalifa is IFC’s Regional Director for Central Africa and Anglophone West Africa based in Lagos, Nigeria. In this role, Dahlia is in charge of implementing IFC’s strategy in the region including overseeing its investment and advisory operations working closely with colleagues across the World Bank Group and with government and private sector partners. 

Dahlia brings her expertise in finance, investment, and private sector development to her position, which she assumed in November 2022. She joined the World Bank Group in 2004, and has held various managerial roles across different regions, following a career in investment banking and management consulting. 

Before joining the World Bank Group, Dahlia established and managed financial services companies providing brokerage, corporate finance, private equity investment, and management consulting services primarily within the Middle East and Africa. She was also a lecturer of undergraduate economics focused on macroeconomics, microeconomics, comparative economics, and economic development. 

Dahlia holds a Doctorate in Government and a Master of Arts in International Law from Georgetown University in Washington DC, United States. She also holds both a Master of Arts and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the American University in Cairo, Egypt.