Kanwulia Okafor is Director of Industry Services for Africa at the GSMA, where she leads strategic initiatives aimed at accelerating digital transformation, innovation and ecosystem collaboration across African markets. Her portfolio spans mobile-enabled services, digital public infrastructure, GSMA Open Gateway, digital health, artificial intelligence and the adoption of emerging technologies across priority sectors.

In her role, Okafor works with mobile network operators, policymakers, technology companies, development partners and innovators to translate industry priorities into practical market engagement, partnerships and scalable use cases. Her work increasingly focuses on how mobile connectivity and platform-based models can support sectors such as manufacturing, healthcare, financial services and public infrastructure.

With a background spanning strategy, programme leadership and business transformation, Okafor brings a cross-sector perspective to Africa’s digital economy. She has contributed to GSMA work on smart manufacturing and industrial digitalisation and continues to advocate stronger collaboration between telecom operators, enterprises and governments to turn connectivity into broader economic productivity and inclusive growth.