Infrastructure, Policy and the AI of things in Africa with Oswald Osaretin Guobadia

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

This week on the podcast, I was thrilled to have been able to take advantage of the fact that this week’s guest and I were on the same timezone because he’s literally moving and shaking across Africa and the Middle East full time. Since he last joined us in early 2020, Oswald Osaretin Guobadia has stepped into multiple new rolls on top of being an entrepreneur. This includes more roles on boards, becoming a published author--his book In Pursuit - Journeys in African Entrepreneurship, chronicles the journeys of two friends whose experiences in America shaped their approach to starting their own businesses in Nigeria; and a tireless champion for African innovation. Today, Oswald is a senior policy advisor and digital strategy leader with over 25 years building infrastructure and shaping transformative policy across Africa. He is Managing Partner at DigitA, where, since 2023 he has guided projects and policy innovations that have created impact in countries across Africa, helping to set the pace for inclusive digital development and entrepreneurial growth. Oswald’s advisory reach includes serving presidential offices, leading government agencies, collaborating with multilateral partners, and forging public–private partnerships to help build resilient infrastructure and regulatory frameworks. As Senior Special Assistant on Digital Transformation to the President of Nigeria, he steered Nigeria’s largest startup policy rollout, including the acclaimed Nigeria Startup Act—widely recognized as a benchmark for digital economies.

He has shared his insights at TEDx, the United Nations General Assembly, BBC Africa, CNBC Africa, and the Wharton Africa Business Forum, and has graced numerous influential panels and stages globally. He believes, “the next startup to impact the world will start in an African village,” and in this conversation you’ll start to understand how this belief is daily practice.

Where to find Oswald?
On Glocal Citizens
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Medium

What’s Oswald reading?
Ths Four by Scott Galloway
Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
AI 2041 by Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Qiufan

Other topics of interest:
About the Benin Kingdom
UNDP Timbuktu Policy Approach
Digitization vs Digitalization
What is Zoho?
On Digital Estonia