A cross-sector leadership symposium convening emerging and established leaders across business, technology, governance, and education to address Africa’s most pressing development challenges.
The Forward Africa Leaders Symposium is a high-impact convening that brings together visionary leaders from across government, business, civil society, and academia to shape Africa’s digital and economic future. Held at the Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice in New York, the symposium has featured contributions from heads of state including H.E. Nana Akufo-Addo, President of Ghana.
The symposium addresses the full spectrum of Africa’s digital transformation — from remittances connecting diaspora communities to digital infrastructure powering economies, to the education systems preparing the next generation of continental leaders.
Tonisha is a co-founder of the Forward Africa Leaders Symposium, having helped conceive and develop the forum from its inception. She plays a central role in strategic direction, programme design, speaker curation, and stakeholder coordination. The symposium reflects her deep commitment to practical, sovereign approaches to continental development — ensuring Africa’s leaders have platforms to shape policy frameworks rather than merely respond to externally imposed agendas.
The symposium’s outputs have been documented in the publication Forward Africa: Advancing the Digital Economy, capturing the insights and strategic recommendations that emerged from the convenings.
Publications & Research
Seven books spanning AI governance, digital sovereignty, trade strategy, and leadership — including the flagship 100,000-word investigation SOVEREIGN: Who Owns the Future?