Olugbenga “GB” Agboola, founder and CEO of Flutterwave, has been named to the Silicon Valley & The World Global Advisory Board, a new initiative from global news company Semafor. The appointment puts one of Africa’s most prominent technology leaders at the center of a high-level conversation about how artificial intelligence and the technology industry will shape the global economy.
The board’s Co-Chairs include some of the most influential figures in technology and investment: Sam Altman of OpenAI, Jensen Huang of Nvidia, Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Lisa Su of AMD, Divesh Makan of ICONIQ, and Ruth Porat of Alphabet. Together, the group represents the companies building AI models, the chips that power them, the cloud platforms that deliver them, and the capital that funds them.
An African voice in a global dialogue
Agboola joins the board to bring an African perspective to a conversation that has mostly been led from the United States, Europe, and Asia. Announcing the appointment, he said he was excited to join and looked forward to “bringing an African perspective to this global dialogue.”
He described his focus as building alignment between three groups: the leaders building AI, the policymakers regulating it, and the businesses deploying it on the ground. That framing reflects a concern shared across emerging markets. Rules and products designed in a handful of tech hubs will shape opportunity for billions of people in regions with very different infrastructure, languages, and economic needs.
A track record of building across borders
Agboola brings direct experience of building technology for African markets at global scale. Under his leadership, Flutterwave, a leading African payments technology company, has been at the forefront of championing African innovation on the global stage. Before Flutterwave, his previous fintech venture focused on easier, non-card payment methods and was acquired by a top bank in Nigeria. The Semafor appointment adds to a growing list of global leadership roles. In 2023, he was selected to join the Wall Street Journal CEO Council. In 2024, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art named him to its national board as one of seven new members. He also serves on the Milken Institute’s Africa Leaders Business Council and on the boards of organizations such as the U.S.-Africa Business Center and the Corporate Council on Africa.
As AI moves from research labs into everyday commerce, the question of who shapes its rules and who benefits from it is becoming urgent. Africa has the world’s youngest population and a record of leapfrogging older technology, from mobile networks to mobile money. That makes the continent central to how AI gets adopted at scale. Agboola’s seat on the board ensures that perspective will be heard alongside the leaders of the world’s largest technology companies. His emphasis on aligning builders, regulators, and deployers points to a practical goal: an AI ecosystem that works for markets where the next billion users will come from, not only those where the technology is made.
Africa Team