JOTIS is an annual event on the Joy Fm Thought Leadership calendar dedicated to promoting a culture of innovation and showcasing youthful achievers whose innovations hold real potentials to solving important social problems of Ghana and the world.

The overriding objective of JOTIS is to put young successful achievers at the centre of BIG national problems, to which they will proffer practical solutions.

This year, the focus of JOTIS is on highlighting innovation excellence in business.

It comes off on Wednesday, October 21, 2015 at the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT, Ridge, Accra.

We will feature 4 distinguished individuals in the IT and business landscape.

These distinguished individuals will deliver presentations on the theme: HIGHLIGHTING INNOVATION EXCELLENCE IN BUSINESS.

A sideline fair will run at the venue throughout the duration of the event.

The essence of the sideline exhibition is to offer an extraordinary opportunity to the many young professionals and innovators to showcase their innovative products to participants and prospective clients.

Herman Chinery-Hesse

Herman Kojo Chinery-Hesse has been listed as one of the top 100 global thinkers by the US based publication, Foreign Policy Magazine. He and his companies have won numerous awards and accolades including the GUBA award in the UK, the Ghana Millennium Excellence Awards for IT, the Ghana Club 100 Award for the most innovative company, the “SMS App of the year” award, the Mobile World Lifetime Achievement Award, Best Entrepreneur in Information and Communication Technology and the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Texas State University, the first and currently only African recipient of the award.

 

In 1991, Herman co-founded theSOFTtribe Ltd, one of the leading software houses in Africa. In 2008, he also co-founded Black Star Line S.A. an e-commerce company behind the novel “Sundiata” payment platform, pioneering e-payments and e-commerce to millions of rural Africans. His newest innovation is the forthcoming e-commerce platform shopafrica53.com web mall. His companies have collaborated to develop a number of award winning products such as Hei Julo!!!a low cost, mobile based, mass market security alert system for Africa.

Herman has been a speaker at many prestigious institutions including Oxford University, Harvard Business School, Wharton Business School, Chatham House, CPH Conference, Tech4Africa etc. 

 He is a TED fellow and has been featured in the international media including CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera.

He has been featured in many magazines including Ghana Business and Finance Times, Forbes and many more.

He was placed 17 on the list of 20 Notable Black Innovators in Technology. Herman has been listed as one of Africa’s Top 20 Tech Influences and also listed as one of 100 most influential Africans of our time.

He is also an assessor for the Commercial Courts of Ghana.

Herman has received numerous awards including the “Outstanding Ghanaian Professional" Award Winner, the GPA awards, UK, "Distinguished Alumnus Award" Winner, the Texas State Alumni Association and Texas  State University-San Marcos, Texas (alma mater).

The first and currently only African recipient of the award. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Industrial Technology from Texas State University and is considered a giant in African technology and innovation.

INC magazine and other international publications have referred to him as “The Bill Gates of Africa.”

 

Patrick G. Awuah Jr.

Patrick Awuah is the founder and president of Ashesi University, a private, not-for-profit institution that has quickly gained a reputation for innovation and quality education in Ghana.

Before founding Ashesi University, Patrick worked as a Program Manager for Microsoft where, among other things, he spearheaded the development of dial-up internet working technologies and gained a reputation for bringing difficult projects to completion.

Patrick was nominated as a Global Leader 2007 by the World Economic Forum in recognition of his service to Ghana.

Estelle Akofio-Sowah

Country Lead of Google Ghana. Previously the MD of Busy Internet.

Highlights of her leadership there include launching an ISP which went on to be awarded ISP of the year 2008, winning a World Bank Incubator SME program grant and successfully raising the finances required to open two additional cafe outlets serving an average of 1000 clients per day. In 2008, Estelle was awarded Top African ICT Business Woman by the ForgeAhead African ICT Achievers Award Program in South Africa.

A 2008 Class Fellow of the West African Leadership initiative (Aspen, Colorado), Estelle has a degree in Economics and Development Studies from the University of Sussex. From her twelve years work experience in Ghana, Estelle has a broad understanding of local conditions, politics, social dynamics and the ICT community

Alfred Rowe

Alfred is the founder of Encodev Labs and Co-Founder of MPower Payments. Coding since his early teens, Alfred has worked on a wide range of projects which include internet banking solutions, search engines, corporate intranets & extranets, Bulk SMS applications and ePayment systems.

Some of the highlights of his career include being the youngest faculty at NIIT at an early age of 19 he was teaching Java and C++, Alfred built Ghana’s first internet banking system which won two awards. MYtxtBOX Pro & MYtxBOX Lite are both products he developed.

Alfred is a strong believer that technology will transform Africa and his 2011 pitch about unified payment platform at Garage48 became MPower Payments a year after.

Format

The speakers will have 15 minutes each to make their presentations directly to a live audience both in the auditorium and across Ghana on radio (Joy FM), Television (Multi TV) and Online (myjoyonline.com).

After their presentations, speakers will take their seats for a moderated caucus lasting a minimum of 30 minutes. After the moderated caucus, speakers with participants; answer questions and respond to comments. This session shall last for about 20 minutes.