Shamira is a seasoned quantitative economist and interdisciplinary public policy and research specialist with a public  track record of leading multi-country research projects, producing high-quality knowledge outputs, managing the data value chain, and working in multicultural, multidisciplinary, and dynamic work environments, in Africa and the global South.
She has extensive experience in the policy-knowledge ecosystem providing technical assistance to policymakers and regulators in SSA, including through co-authorship of confidential and non-confidential knowledge products such as the "African Union (AU) Commission's Data Policy Framework", "Mapping Policy and Capacity for AI for Development in Africa", and the "Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum (SADC PF) Discussion Paper on The Digital Economy and Society", to name a few.

Professor Michael Zimba is the Director of the Malawi Institute of Technology (MIT) and Associate Professor of AI and Data Science at the Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST).

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He is an African Union Commission (AUC) contributing expert on AI.  Alongside other experts, Prof. Zimba co-authored the AU AI Technical Report titled “AI for African: Artificial Intelligence for Africa’s Socio-economic Development.

Professor Zimba is also on the AU-AI-Strategy Team, currently developing the African Union Continental Strategy on Artificial Intelligence. He also reviewed the book on 4IR titled “The Disruptive Fourth Industrial Revolution: Technology, Society and Beyond”. He often leads Malawi’s dialogue on AI.

Dr. Bienvenu Agbokponto Soglo is the Director, Government Affairs Africa & IGA CTO Liaison, and Principal Engineer at Intel Corporation. He leads the policy and government affairs work in Africa in areas such as 5G, broadband, artificial intelligence, privacy and security and other digital transformation policies.

He has more than 18 years' experience and a strong track record working in the ICT and telecommunication industry with expertise in mobile telecommunication technologies, international spectrum policy, broadband strategy, corporate social responsibility, digital innovation, digital transformation, as well as governmental ICT policies.

Dr. Agbokponto Soglo has published several technical papers on Network Control Systems in International Journals and Conferences and has over a decade of experience in the ITU-R including roles chairing work at the sub-working group levels. He has excellent proficiency in English, French and Mandarin.

Professor  Rehema Baguma is an Associate Professor of Information Systems at Makerere University, Uganda. She served as the Director Academic Affairs at UTAMU on a part time basis from 2012-September 2016. Recently, Rehema has coordinated two research projects based in Uganda but implemented in partnership with external collaborators. She has also successfully executed several consultancies in Uganda and other East African countries in ICT4D. 

Professor Baguma has served as visiting lecturer at Uganda Christian University, Kigali Institute of Science & Technology (KIST) in Rwanda, and Kigali Independent University. She is an external examiner for PhD and MSc students at Islamic University in Uganda and the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST) in Tanzania.  She has co-supervised and is currently supervising PhD and MSc students. She founded the ICT4D Research group at Makerere University and was its coordinator from 2011-2013.