Greetings Glocal Citizens! Let me introduce myself, I'm your host Florence Amerley Adu. I'm CEO and co-founder of LEAP Transmedia. Our vision is to seeds and sows a fertile ground for improving education and economic outcomes for Ghanaians and Africans across the diaspora.

Do you dream about “doing something” abroad? Then consider Glocal Citizens required listening in the due diligence, trusted advisor and inspiration department. In each episode, I visit with dynamic diasporans making local and global impact designing and applying their craft. We explore how their passions have rooted them throughout their lives, while at the same time feeding the branches compelling them to keep reaching “beyond.” We also discuss the personal and professional dimensions of glocal citizenship. Then we round out the discussion with a deep dive into to the business of their business, covering the technical and operational components of the work of “doing something.”

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

For those listeners in North America, February is Black History Month. On the podcast, we’re all about how our Black present syncs with our history for all things forward for people of the Black diaspora worldwide. This week’s conversation zooms in on a healthcare infrastrucutre solution that has the potential to transform how emergency response services are designed and implemented with the realities of African communities in mind. Folake Owodunni is the co-founder and CEO of Emergency Response Africa (ERA), a health tech company revolutionizing access to emergency care in Africa, beginning with Nigeria. With over 15 years of experience across healthcare, marketing, and consulting in Nigeria, the U.S., and Canada, she brings a dynamic and cross-sectoral approach to solving complex health challenges.

Under her leadership, ERA has managed over 4,500 medical emergencies, reducing response times by up to 80%, and forging partnerships with forward-thinking state governments including Edo, Ogun, and Rivers.
Also a certified First Responder with the Canadian Red Cross, she is passionate about Africa’s rising tech ecosystem and making fast, reliable emergency medical care accessible to all Africans using technology. Recognized for her innovation and impact, she has received multiple awards and development grants, including the Google Black Founders Fund, JICA’s Next Innovation with Japan Award, The Professor Grace Alele-Williams Alumni Impact Award, and most recently, the global Aurora Tech Award.

As you’ll hear in the conversation, ERA is appealing to the the Black/African Diaspora to get involved. Health is wealth so #listenandlearn how you can forward ERA’s mission to deliver fast, reliable emergency care across Africa.

Where to find Folake?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram

What’s Folake reading?
Tessa Afshar’s Jewel of the Nile
Finding Flow: The Psychology Of Engagement With Everyday Life by Mihaly Csikszentmihalhi

What’s Folake listening to?
Diary of a CEO Podcast

Other topics of interest:
Ogun State, Nigeria
Kitchner - Waterloo, Canada
Meet Dr. Ola Brown of Flying Doctors Nigeria
About The Prosperity Paradox
African Journal for Emergency Medicine
About Biblical Fiction

Special Guest: Folake Owodunni.

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

This week on the podcast, I was thrilled to have been able to take advantage of the fact that this week’s guest and I were on the same timezone because he’s literally moving and shaking across Africa and the Middle East full time. Since he last joined us in early 2020, Oswald Osaretin Guobadia has stepped into multiple new roles on top of being an entrepreneur. This includes more roles on boards, becoming a published author--his book In Pursuit - Journeys in African Entrepreneurship, chronicles the journeys of two friends whose experiences in America shaped their approach to starting their own businesses in Nigeria; and a tireless champion for African innovation. Today, Oswald is a senior policy advisor and digital strategy leader with over 25 years building infrastructure and shaping transformative policy across Africa. He is Managing Partner at DigitA, where, since 2023 he has guided projects and policy innovations that have created impact in countries across Africa, helping to set the pace for inclusive digital development and entrepreneurial growth. Oswald’s advisory reach includes serving presidential offices, leading government agencies, collaborating with multilateral partners, and forging public–private partnerships to help build resilient infrastructure and regulatory frameworks. As Senior Special Assistant on Digital Transformation to the President of Nigeria, he steered Nigeria’s largest startup policy rollout, including the acclaimed Nigeria Startup Act—widely recognized as a benchmark for digital economies.

He has shared his insights at TEDx, the United Nations General Assembly, BBC Africa, CNBC Africa, and the Wharton Africa Business Forum, and has graced numerous influential panels and stages globally. He believes, “the next startup to impact the world will start in an African village,” and in this conversation you’ll start to understand how this belief is daily practice.

Where to find Oswald?
On Glocal Citizens
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Medium

What’s Oswald reading?
Ths Four by Scott Galloway
Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
AI 2041 by Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Qiufan

Other topics of interest:
About the Benin Kingdom
UNDP Timbuktu Policy Approach
Digitization vs Digitalization
What is Zoho?
On Digital Estonia

Special Guest: Oswald Oseratin Guobadia.

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

This week’s conversation is a milestone coming to you in two parts. We're 300+1! And my guest is a return voice with serious currency in the public service media and reparatory justice movements. Born in Sierra Leone, Makmid Kamara is a human rights leader, reparatory justice advocate, and development communications practitioner, with almost 20 years’ experience working with national and international development, human rights, and grantmaking organisations in Africa and the United Kingdom. He is the Regional Director for Africa and the Middle East at the International Fund for Public Interest Media (IFPIM), where he is leading the organization’s grantmaking efforts to support independent media. He is also the Founder of Reform Initiatives (LBG), an organization working with policymakers, political leaders and affected communities to advance the cause of reparatory justice for historical crimes against Africans and people of African descent. When he last joined us, he was the founding Director of the Africa Transitional Justice Legacy Fund (ATJLF), based in Accra, Ghana. Prior to ATJLF, Makmid worked at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International in London as (Ag.) Deputy Director of Global Issues and Head of the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR) Team; he served as interim Country Director for Amnesty International Nigeria and as a West Africa Researcher.

As a Rotarian, a Global Atlantic Fellow and an Obama Foundation Leader - Africa, Makmid seamlessly connects his service mindset with a level of technical expertise and professionalism that inspires and is consistently moving the dial on #PanAfricanProgress.

Where to find Makmid?
On Glocal Citizens
On LinkedIn

What’s Makmid watching?
Manchester United

Other topics of interest:
Freetown, Sierra Leone and Reparatory Justice
East Legon, Accra
About James Deane, co-founder IFPM

About Khadija Patel
Maria Ressa, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
About the Nama People and The Landless Peoples Movement in Namibia
The [Wakati Weti Festival](link https://www.wakatiwetufestival.org/WWF2025#/aboutwakatiwetu?lang=en)
African Futures Lab
Deep South Solidarity Fund
Baraza Media Lab

Special Guest: Makmid Kamara.

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

This week’s conversation is a milestone coming to you in two parts. We're 300+1! And my guest is a return voice with serious currency in the public service media and reparatory justice movements. Born in Sierra Leone, Makmid Kamara is a human rights leader, reparatory justice advocate, and development communications practitioner, with almost 20 years’ experience working with national and international development, human rights, and grantmaking organisations in Africa and the United Kingdom. He is the Regional Director for Africa and the Middle East at the International Fund for Public Interest Media (IFPIM), where he is leading the organization’s grantmaking efforts to support independent media. He is also the Founder of Reform Initiatives (LBG), an organization working with policymakers, political leaders and affected communities to advance the cause of reparatory justice for historical crimes against Africans and people of African descent. When he last joined us, he was the founding Director of the Africa Transitional Justice Legacy Fund (ATJLF), based in Accra, Ghana. Prior to ATJLF, Makmid worked at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International in London as (Ag.) Deputy Director of Global Issues and Head of the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR) Team; he served as interim Country Director for Amnesty International Nigeria and as a West Africa Researcher.

As a Rotarian, a Global Atlantic Fellow and an Obama Foundation Leader - Africa, Makmid seamlessly connects his service mindset with a level of technical expertise and professionalism that inspires and is consistently moving the dial on #PanAfricanProgress.

Where to find Makmid?
On Glocal Citizens
On LinkedIn

What’s Makmid watching?
Manchester United

Other topics of interest:
Freetown, Sierra Leone and Reparatory Justice
East Legon, Accra
About James Deane, co-founder IFPM

About Khadija Patel
Maria Ressa, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
About the Nama People and The Landless Peoples Movement in Namibia
The [Wakati Weti Festival](link https://www.wakatiwetufestival.org/WWF2025#/aboutwakatiwetu?lang=en)
African Futures Lab
Deep South Solidarity Fund
Baraza Media Lab

Special Guest: Makmid Kamara.

Season’s Greetings Glocal Citizens!

I met this week’s guest, Derrick N. Ashong, earlier this year in Nairobi at the Charter Cities Institute, 2025 New Cities Summit. At the summit, we connected as storytellers that share Ghanaian heritage and formative years spent in Brooklyn, New York. In a glocal citizenship twist, we later came to find that we met virtually years prior through mutual connections in the media and arts spaces. Derrick’s work leverages his international upbringing which informs his company’s vision for Turning Culture into Currency for creators and fans worldwide. He does this as founder and CEO of TBTM, a media fintech that uses content to onboard global audiences to inclusive financial solutions, with partners like Mastercard. While still a student at Harvard, he played a supporting role in Steven Spielberg’s Amistad, and went on to top charts with his band, winning a Billboard Songwriting Award. As a host and producer, he pioneered multi-platform interactive content with Oprah Winfrey, and major media platforms including ABC-Disney and Univision, earning three Emmy nods and a Royal Television Society Award. His original Take Back the Mic television series has won seven major international awards and achieved 1.1 Billion media impressions worldwide. He has delivered electrifying speeches on issues of Youth Culture and Tech for UK Parliament, the United Nations, and the world’s most elite business schools, including Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Wharton, Cambridge and London School of Economics. He has interviewed celebrities and global luminaries ranging from Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Kofi Annan, to Zoe Saldaña, Kevin Hart and Steven Wozniak, among others. Most recently, he has delivered keynote speeches for Mastercard, Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and Kigali, as well as SuperReturn Africa--the continent’s top investment forum. In this conversation we get to know even more about the next phase of Derrick’s vision for flipping the script on creative industry infrastructure in Africa. #Listenandlearn more!

Where to find Derrick?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On YouTube

What’s Derrick reading?
Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Series
Lord of the Rings by J.J.R Tolkien

Other topics of interest:
About Larteh in Ghana
Where are Dansoman and Adabraka in Accra?
What was music streaming like in the early 2000’s?
Soulfege performs Sweet Remix
About Uechi-Ryū Martial Arts

Special Guest: Derrick N. Ashong.