Two Days of Deals and Dialogue: Inside the 2025 Enkopa Summit

Last week, the halls of the Hyatt Regency in Addis Ababa pulsed with energy as Ethiopia’s innovation, business, and technology leaders gathered for the Enkopa Summit. Over two packed days, the event became a marketplace of ideas, a convergence of founders, investors, policymakers, and dreamers all intent on charting the course for an inclusive and connected African economy.

Hundreds of attendees mingled in the corridors and conference halls, striking up conversations that might soon become joint ventures. For Bernard Laurendeau, founder of Laurendeau & Associates, the firm behind the Summit, that was precisely the point. Opening the event, Bernard urged participants to seize the rare access and opportunity the Summit provided.

“Go out and make deals,” he told the crowd. “Use your time effectively.”

From that moment on, the air was charged with possibility. Conversations spilled from sessions into coffee breaks, where founders pitched, financiers advised, and young innovators took notes on the subtle art of turning ideas into enterprise. The Summit was entirely sponsored by the private sector, atypical in a landscape dominated by donor funding, allowing the free flow of ideas and the liberty to discuss all matters relevant to the business community.

The first day opened with sessions that mirrored Ethiopia’s evolving economic ambitions,  from the birth of its capital market to the rise of digital platforms reshaping trade, finance, and entertainment.

In one early session, Abel Beyene, Vice President of Brokerage Operations at CBE Capital, offered an insider’s view of Ethiopia’s nascent securities market. A veteran of the U.S. stock market who had returned home after two decades abroad, Abel reflected on how the country’s reform efforts had aligned almost poetically with his return.

“I never thought I would ever have a job in Ethiopia,” he said, recalling how he had planned to stay only six months before the launch of the Ethiopian capital market pulled him in.

For Abel, Ethiopia’s financial awakening is “a startup within a startup”, a market so young that even its service providers are still forming. Currently, only two bank stocks are trading, but optimism filled the room. Awash Capital CEO Andualem Hailu (PhD) and Assefa Sumoro, a senior advisor at the Capital Markets Authority, joined Abel to emphasize the need for investor education and professional participation.

“Open a trading account at one of these investment banks,” Andualem urged, calling on attendees to become active players rather than passive observers in the country’s economic transformation.

The call for an expanded, more inclusive financial system echoed through multiple sessions that day. Yilebes Addis, CEO of EtSwitch, Ethiopia’s national payment switch, underscored how interoperability and collaboration can accelerate financial inclusion. Citing the World Bank’s 2025 Findex data, he reminded the audience that half of Ethiopia’s adults still remain outside the formal banking system.

“Partnership is at the center of what we aspire to, just like the Summit,” Yilebes said,  a line that seemed to resonate as a kind of informal slogan for the gathering.

Beyond finance, the Summit cast its spotlight on sectors shaping Africa’s digital transformation, from fintech to online gaming. In a session moderated by Hirko Alemu, Chief Legal Officer at Arifpay, panelists explored the evolving landscape of Africa’s betting and gaming industries, and how digital payments are quietly powering their expansion.

Lucy Vivi, Head of International and Government Relations–Africa at SiGMA World, offered a cross-continental perspective, recalling how COVID-19 accelerated the shift from physical betting outlets to online platforms.

“Many African countries did not have regulations for online sportsbook and casinos,” she noted, explaining how policymakers have scrambled to adapt as digital gaming becomes a mainstream form of entertainment and economic activity.

Eldana Abdulkadir, Business Development and Operations Lead at Arifpay, brought the discussion home to Ethiopia. She described how reliable payment gateways are enabling smoother customer experiences and encouraging innovation in a once cash-heavy sector.

For Norman Ondego, Chief Operating Officer at Convex Technologies, the story of Ethiopia’s betting sector is, in fact, a story about infrastructure. “Internet and payment systems have transformed the trajectory of the betting industry,” he said, with over half of licensed operators in Ethiopia now running on Convex’s platforms.

The takeaway was clear: the same digital rails that power fintech are also energizing adjacent industries,  from gaming to logistics to creative economies, setting off a chain reaction of opportunity.

Salvador Pérez-Galindo, President of Out Loud Advisory Services, widened the lens, calling for closer collaboration between banks and fintechs. Drawing from his experience advising global payment ecosystems, he described Africa’s financial future as “the next Eldorado”,  if innovation is paired with trust, collaboration, and shared value.

The first day closed on a more soulful note as Ethio-jazz legend Mulatu Astatke took the stage. Reflecting on five decades of creative and professional evolution, he reminded the audience that innovation isn’t only technological, it’s cultural. His message bridged art and economics, reminding attendees that progress thrives at the intersection of disciplines.

If Day One celebrated emerging opportunities, Day Two asked harder questions: What does prosperity look like? And who gets to shape it?

The morning opened with an illuminating keynote by Ken Shibusawa, CEO of Shibusawa and Company (Japan), titled “Building the Foundations of Prosperity: A Perspective from Japan.”

Challenging the conventional focus on population growth, Shibusawa began with a provocation: “If we only focus on increasing population, what are we really achieving? We’re just creating more issues that society has to manage.”

Recalling a 2019 pitch event in Addis Ababa where a young entrepreneur presented an AI startup, Shibusawa marveled at how even small engagements with frontier technology could mobilize change in a country of over 100 million.

Drawing lessons from Japan’s post-war recovery, he emphasized that prosperity must rest on a tripod of education, health, and skills. “It’s not just numbers that make a nation strong,” he said, “it’s how we invest in people.”

Shibusawa later joined a high-profile panel on the future of African capital markets, alongside Tilahun Esmael Kassahun (PhD), CEO of the Ethiopian Securities Exchange (ESX); Fekadu Petros Gebremeskel, Managing Partner at Fekadu Petros & Partners LLP; and Yohannes Assefa, Managing Director at Stalwart Management Consultancy, who moderated the discussion.

The conversation revolved around liquidity, transparency, and inclusion. Tilahun described the ESX’s strategy for building credibility and trust in Ethiopia’s first securities exchange.

“Darkness thrives in the absence of light, and transparency is that light,” he said, stressing governance as the foundation of sustainable growth.

He revealed that several major banks have already received approval to list, with nine listings expected within the year and as many as 35 in two to three years. The Exchange is also developing a second-tier market for startups and growth companies, to be traded via mobile platforms and brokers, a model designed for inclusivity.

Tax incentives, risk management frameworks, and public awareness, he added, will all play a role in nurturing confidence among investors and issuers alike.

Shibusawa, reflecting on Japan’s own journey, added that the balance between openness and domestic participation is critical. “Otherwise,” he warned, “it becomes extraction, not inclusion.”

As afternoon light filtered through the Hyatt’s glass atrium, another session drew a full house: “Building Unicorns in Africa.”

Moderated by Adam Abate of Renew Capital, the panel brought together Amadou Daffe of Gebeya, Yonaiel Tadiwos of Kuriftu Resorts, Anna Getaneh of African Mosaique, and Louis-Antoine Souchet of the Agence Française de Développement.

Amadou defined unicorns not by myth or valuation, but by ingredients: “market size, team resilience, and smart capital.” Africa’s problem, he said, isn’t a lack of ambition, but a shortage of patient, intelligent investment.

“We’re not short of ideas,” he said. “But without liquidity, resilience is tested to its limits.”

Yonaiel reimagined the unicorn as an impact-driven concept, describing Kuriftu’s Pan-African hospitality ventures as efforts to “transcend tourism” and build community across borders.

Anna, a former supermodel turned fashion entrepreneur, spoke candidly about survival in Africa’s creative industries. “Every day we survive is a victory,” she said. “The question is how we move from surviving to scaling.”

Louis-Antoine brought the policy lens back into view, warning that Africa risks exporting its talent instead of cultivating it. “The risk,” he said, “is that our brightest minds build in Europe or Asia instead of here.”

The panel’s collective insight was sobering yet hopeful: Africa’s unicorns will not merely be billion-dollar valuations, but enterprises that endure, empower, and remain rooted in community.

As the Summit drew to a close, Bernard Laurendeau returned to the stage to deliver a final reflection, one part vision, one part call to action. He urged participants to look beyond traditional, goods-based trade and to imagine a 21st-century African economy built on technology, creativity, and interdependence.

“We need commerce between us Africans,” he said, emphasizing authenticity, self-awareness, and unity as the keys to shaping the continent’s economic destiny.

His closing words lingered as attendees gathered for final photos and exchanged business cards: a reminder that Enkopa was more than a conference, it was a signal of intent.

Across two days, the Summit offered a glimpse of what an integrated, innovative African economy could look like, one that values partnership over isolation, transparency over secrecy, and purpose over profit.

Beyond the main stage, energy spilled into the two smaller platforms,  Espresso and EnkopaX,  where intimate side sessions unpacked niche but rapidly emerging frontiers. Kal Kassa, founder of BitcoinBirr, led a lively discussion on the role of Bitcoin in Africa’s evolving financial landscape, while Lindiana Solomon joined a panel on the Influencer Economy, dissecting how digital marketing is reshaping consumer engagement.

The health innovation track saw Markos Haile (PhD), founder of ABH Partners, outline untapped opportunities within Ethiopia’s growing healthcare ecosystem, followed by Kidus Yared, founder of Hasab AI, who examined the accelerating impact of artificial intelligence on local industries. Meanwhile, a spirited conversation on the evolution of Ethiopia’s media landscape spotlighted podcasters Tigabu Haile (Meri) and Addisu Deresse (Rise Addis), who shared insights on storytelling, audience building, and the growing power of independent voices.

Throughout the day, attendees drifted between sessions and private meeting rooms, where some pitched ideas and others brokered quiet deals, a reminder that at Enkopa, conversation and opportunity often ran in parallel.

As the Summit’s Knowledge Partner, Shega played a central role in shaping the event’s communications, marketing, and data insights. Both CEO Anteneh Tesfaye and COO Melka Girma took the stage in key sessions.

The Summit ended with an exclusive dinner reserved for special guests, speakers, and partners, where deal-making continued through the night against the backdrop of Addis Ababa’s glowing skyline and the illuminated towers of the financial district. 

In the buzz of conversation that followed, the message was unmistakable: the future is being negotiated, deal by deal, idea by idea, across a continent, finally speaking to itself and the rest of the world.