Nanko Madu

Nanko is an African innovation ecosystem builder with a Professional track record in the deployment of economic development strategies and capacity building programmes that supports and enhances the growth of the African technology and innovation ecosystem. She is the Director of Programmes at AfriLabs; a network organization of over 290 technology innovation hubs across 49 African countries where she leads the design and implementation of it’s portfolio of work aimed at strengthening the African innovation ecosystem.

In the past, she worked as a consultant for the World Bank on one of its programmes; Youth Enterprise With Innovation In Nigeria (YouWiN!), where she led the design of a large-scale training program for over 40,000 SMEs and was part of the team that designed and implemented the programme’s 12-billion naira (~75 Million USD) grant targeted at 1,500 innovative ideas conceptualized by youths in Nigeria. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Architecture from the prestigious University of Jos, Nigeria.