Shikoh Gitau
Technical Advisor

Shikoh is the CEO of Qhala, a Digital Innovation company that catalyzes digital transformation capabilities for organizations across Africa. She has over 10 years of experience in the Research, Design, Implementation, and Management of Digital Technologies. She has established expertise in both African and Emerging Markets specialized in solving problems in Agriculture, Education, Health, Payments, Retail and Renewable energies.

She is responsible for the set-up of Safaricom Alpha, a first of the kind corporate innovation hub in Africa. Where she worked as the Head of Products – Innovation and acted as the Chief Innovation Officer. Shikoh also led Safaricom’s foray into becoming a digital company, by putting together a strategy, and cross-functional teams to execute the strategy. Dr. Shikoh has previously worked with Africa Development Bank (AfDB), where she was leading and advising governments across Africa to adopt ICT for service delivery, she developed the Digital Government Blueprint, a strategic document to guide governments in digital transformation, now adopted by Smart Africa. She has also worked with Google and Microsoft in their emerging markets teams.

She has received numerous awards in recognition of her efforts in influencing Business and Government as well as Technology. Dr. Shikoh seats on various boards in ICT companies and contributes to a number of steering committees and think tanks on Africa and technology. Shikoh holds a PhD and MSc in Computer Science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Dr. Shikoh serves as an advisor to governments on matters of data and digital development.