Championing ethical leadership and governance excellence in Africa’s finance sector

 Spotlight Summary

Dr. Amira Kaddour stands at the crossroads of academia, innovation, and financial inclusion, a leading voice advancing fintech, sustainable finance, and inclusive development across Africa and the Middle East.

As University Professor at the National School of Sciences and Advanced Technologies, Carthage University, Tunisia, and Principal Researcher for Inclusive and Sustainable Ecosystems, Dr. Kaddour’s career reflects her unwavering belief that finance, innovation, and sustainability are not separate goals, but interconnected pillars of Africa’s transformation.

With over a decade of leadership in research and ecosystem development, she has contributed extensively to global and regional dialogues on fintech, green transition, and inclusive finance. Her academic and advisory work; including collaborations with the EU’s MED MSMEs program and  Includovate AFD, bridges the gap between policy and practice, ensuring that innovation directly translates into social and economic progress.

As an editor and author, she has shaped the intellectual discourse around fintech and sustainability, notably co-editing The Palgrave Handbook of Fintech in Africa and the Middle East: Connecting the Dots of a Rapidly Emerging Ecosystem. Her recognition as a Transformational Leadership Award recipient (A4A Organisation, 2024) and Excellence in Innovation & Entrepreneurship honoree (World Bank Renew MENA Initiative, 2024) underscores her continental and international impact.

Among her proudest achievements is spearheading the collaboration between (World Intellectual Property Organization) WIPO–UN and Carthage University to establish the region’s first Master’s in Innovation Engineering and Technology Transfer, a groundbreaking program that empowers African universities to become engines of socio-economic progress. She also served as the Scientific Coordinator of Elite Innovation College, Cambridge, where she helped shape global conversations on digital innovation and education.

Dr. Kaddour currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Africa Fintech Network (AFN) and the International Society for Knowledge Organization (ISKO Maghreb), where she continues to influence fintech governance and policy frameworks across the continent.

Her vision for the future is clear and compelling: to help build an African fintech stack that is inclusive, interoperable, and trusted. She believes fintech’s true potential lies in advancing the “no person left behind” principle, unlocking access for women, youth, and underrepresented innovators while fueling entrepreneurship through affordable, accessible financial tools.

Her policy message is equally powerful: African nations must accelerate interoperability, harmonize regulations, and enable cross-border scalability for fintech talent and products. By doing so, Africa can convert its innovation energy into systemic economic growth and inclusion.

For women in fintech, her advice is anchored in empowerment and collaboration:

Women face a real risk of exclusion in fintech; both finance and STEM are still male dominated, which can limit access to roles, funding, and influence. Women should sustain and expand their leadership claim roles in product, data, and policy. 

Dr. Kaddour’s work reminds us that fintech is more than technology,  it’s about bridging code and capital, connecting purpose to policy, and making inclusion non-negotiable.

 In her words: “Build bridges between code and capital, and make inclusion non-negotiable.”