He is a determined entrepreneur who stands out for his commitment to finding innovative solutions to financial challenges in Africa, particularly for immigrants and their families.

Egyptian entrepreneur Adham Azzam (photo), co-founder and CEO of Balad, has established a multi-currency, multi-channel cross-border payment infrastructure for Africa. Balad, founded in 2022 by Azzam, Sally Asaad, and Mohamed Assem, provides a comprehensive digital platform to facilitate financial transactions between immigrants and their families back home. The startup’s services include money transfers, mobile banking applications, and prepaid debit cards, offering low fees and instant fund delivery via Balad cards.

Before this venture, Azzam co-founded Lnddo in 2019, serving as COO until 2022. Lnddo is a forward-thinking company that leverages technology and data analytics to provide innovative credit solutions to businesses in the region, including the UAE, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.

Azzam, a civil engineering graduate from the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées in Toulouse, France, furthered his academic credentials with an Executive MBA from INSEAD in 2012. He began his professional career in 1999 with Bouygues Construction as a site engineer.

In 2006, he joined VINCI Concessions, a transport infrastructure firm, as a project manager of the Compagnie Financière et Industrielle des Autoroutes (Cofiroute), a subsidiary of the company. He later joined the International Finance Corporation (IFC) as a Senior Investment Officer in 2016. In 2018, he assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer at EgySolar, a company specializing in solar energy development, before fully committing to entrepreneurship in 2019.

Melchior Koba