Ahmed Ismael-Smiley
  • Ahmed Ismael-Smiley
  • Founder of Siyafunda Community Technology Centres
  • South Africa

Social Entrepreneur and Digital Divide Transformation Enabler with over 40 years of ICT experience and community activism, Ahmed founded and opened the first Siyafunda Community Technology Centre in Palm Ridge in 2006. There are now 120 Siyafunda CTCs across the country on a mission to give all citizens access to information and communication technologies and empower them with computer competencies. The centres allows people to gather information, create, learn and communicate with others while developing essential digital skills. 

Siyafunda CTCs establish partnerships and relationships with multiple stakeholders - from local governments and municipalities all the way to private businesses, community based organisations, schools and universities. The focus is on the use of digital technologies to support community, economic, educational and social development – reducing isolation, bridging the digital divide, promoting health issues, creating economic opportunities and reaching out to youth. 

In 2011, the community hub project developed into a network of Community Knowledge Centres (CKC) providing essential skills training through affordable, accredited courses. Siyafunda CTC has been honoured with numerous awards for pioneering accessibility to digital information and communication technology. It plays an important role in building intellectual capital, developing entrepreneurs in growing economies and connecting communities globally.


Francis Ahene-Affoh
  • Francis Ahene-Affoh
  • Senior Vice President, DreamOval Foundation
  • Ghana

Francis is passionate about improving the standard of education in Ghana by equipping teachers to deliver ICT education. In 2010, through the DreamOval Foundation, he spearheaded an initiative dubbed iTeach to offer free ICT education to public school teachers across Ghana. This annual training brings teachers from across the country together to learn basic skills in digital literacy to impact the lives of their pupils in the classroom. This free ICT training is organized in collaboration with Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Ministry of Education. He worked with SAP’s 2016 Executive Social Sabbatical team to scale the training to reach a lot more teachers.

Francis the Country Ambassador for Africa Code Week in Ghana. Having trained over 2,351 teachers and 183,000 pupils from public schools across the country with basic skills in computer coding since 2016, he passionately strives to see digital transformation happen in Ghana’s educational system.

He is currently working on a new project with girls in Accra’s biggest slum through a program called Female in Tech Initiative. FeMiTI plans to introduce 200 girls to digital literacy, programming and robotics with a goal to transform the lives of girls from under-privileged communities.


Dorsaf Benna Chelly
  • Dorsaf Benna Chelly
  • ACW Ambassador in
  • Algeria

General Inspector at the Tunisian Ministry of Education, Dorsaf leads the ITA organization and several national projects in Education, computational thinking and entrepreneurship. She is the national focal point for “Evaluation soft skills” and an ambassador of the Africa Energy Generation Prize.

Over the past few years, Dorsaf has been striving to popularize computational thinking and enable young people to acquire coding skills, which have become so important through the Bebras, IOI, IIOT and robotics competitions.


Dorsaf Benna Chelly
  • Dorsaf Benna Chelly
  • ACW Ambassador in
  • Mauritania

General Inspector at the Tunisian Ministry of Education, Dorsaf leads the ITA organization and several national projects in Education, computational thinking and entrepreneurship. She is the national focal point for “Evaluation soft skills” and an ambassador of the Africa Energy Generation Prize.

Over the past few years, Dorsaf has been striving to popularize computational thinking and enable young people to acquire coding skills, which have become so important through the Bebras, IOI, IIOT and robotics competitions.


Dorsaf Benna Chelly
  • Dorsaf Benna Chelly
  • ACW Ambassador in
  • Sudan

General Inspector at the Tunisian Ministry of Education, Dorsaf leads the ITA organization and several national projects in Education, computational thinking and entrepreneurship. She is the national focal point for “Evaluation soft skills” and an ambassador of the Africa Energy Generation Prize.

Over the past few years, Dorsaf has been striving to popularize computational thinking and enable young people to acquire coding skills, which have become so important through the Bebras, IOI, IIOT and robotics competitions.


Dorsaf Benna Chelly
  • Dorsaf Benna Chelly
  • ACW Ambassador in
  • Lybia

General Inspector at the Tunisian Ministry of Education, Dorsaf leads the ITA organization and several national projects in Education, computational thinking and entrepreneurship. She is the national focal point for “Evaluation soft skills” and an ambassador of the Africa Energy Generation Prize.

Over the past few years, Dorsaf has been striving to popularize computational thinking and enable young people to acquire coding skills, which have become so important through the Bebras, IOI, IIOT and robotics competitions.


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