Irene Phoebe Kiwia Technology entrepreneur · Institutional strategist · Builder
Irene Phoebe Kiwia is a Pan-African technology entrepreneur and AI governance strategist. As Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer of Adanian Labs and Founding Director of AICE Africa, she helps leaders build the governance, data, and capability their institutions need as more of their decisions are shaped by AI working across governments, financial institutions, enterprises, and innovation ecosystems to help them move from fragmented technology adoption to coherent, intelligence-driven operating models.
Across more than twenty years in technology, media, and development, she has helped incubate 40+ startups and train people in over 10,000 technical skills, building Centres of Excellence that give corporates, financial institutions, and governments real, governed AI capability across Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa, Eswatini, and Rwanda.
She founded Twaa, a networking platform for women, eCOBbA, an AI-driven fintech for savings and investment groups, and the Africa Blockchain Center. Today she writes and speaks on the intelligence economy to a community of more than 600,000 through her #IntelligenceEconomy series.
Her work spans strategy, institutional transformation, executive capability-building, and the practical building of AI-enabled ventures, platforms, and operating systems designed for African realities. She writes from both strategy and execution: from boardrooms and ministries, but also from the work of building technology ecosystems and real institutional tools.
Africa must not only use intelligence systems. It must build the capacity to govern, own, and shape them on its own terms.
Co-Founder & Chief Growth Officer, Adanian Labs
Four roles. One mission.
Co-founder of Adanian Labs, a venture studio shipping AI across health, agriculture, and finance.
Trusted by boards, governments, and DFIs on AI strategy, governance, and data sovereignty.
Architect of Centres of Excellence that build AI Leadership capabilities.
Author of The Intelligent Enterprise and creator of the #IntelligenceEconomy series.
Her ventures
Adanian Labs
Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer, building and scaling AI-driven startups across Africa.
AICE Africa
Founding Director of the AI Centre of Excellence equipping institutions with AI capability.
Twaa
Founder of a networking platform for women to connect, learn, and build digital communities.
eCOBbA
Founder of an AI-driven fintech digitising savings and investment groups.
Africa Blockchain Center
Founder, building blockchain capacity and solutions across the continent.
The Intelligent Enterprise
Her first book on governing AI in institutions, launching 31 Aug 2026.
A career in technology and transformation
Builds a PR and Markering Company
Twaa, eCOBbA, Africa Blockchain Center
Founds a digital community, an inclusive fintech, and a Web3 capacity-building venture.
Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer
Co-builds a Pan-African AI venture studio, helping incubate 40+ startups and train across 10,000+ technical skills.
Founding Director
Establishes the AI Centre of Excellence Africa to equip institutions with real, governed AI capability.
A continental voice
Carries the #IntelligenceEconomy thesis to boards and governments across Africa, and to a 600K+ community.
The Intelligent Enterprise
Publishes the leadership playbook for the Intelligence Economy.
Launching soonEducation
- MBA, Marketing — University of Dar es Salaam
- BA, International Relations — University of Dar es Salaam
Beyond the boardroom
A borderless African with roots in Tanzania, Irene holds an MBA in Marketing and a BA in International Relations from the University of Dar es Salaam, and is a mother of three. Away from work she is drawn to golf and art, and to mentoring the next generation of African builders, the people who will inherit, and govern, the intelligence economy she writes about.