Eleanor Sarpong

Deputy Director & Policy Lead

Eleanor is A4AI’s Deputy Director & Policy lead. She directs policy and has oversight on A4AI’s country engagements in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. She leads public policy engagements with governments and companies and has provided guidance on universal access, digital taxation, Infrastructure sharing, arbitrary regulations on the ICT sector and digital inclusion . She led the development of Liberia’s national broadband policy 2019-2024 and A4AI’s recommendations into Nigeria’s Broadband plan 2020-2025. She also oversaw the updating of the supplementary act for Universal Service for ECOWAS and currently directs A4AI’s work with a2i on a Digital Strategy for Bangladesh. 

Eleanor has a rich diverse industry experience in the ICT and public policy space working in private, public and not-for-profit sectors across  Europe, Africa, and the Middle East (EMEA).

Prior to joining A4AI, she consulted for the European Investment Bank (EIB), providing guidance for its policy on ICT lending to developing countries . She also consulted for the  Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization (CTO), where she advised on ICT, corporate social responsibility, financial inclusion and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Before moving to the CTO, she built and led MTN Ghana’s Government and Regulatory Affairs for 5years. She also served on two public boards for 3 years. 

Eleanor is passionate about connectivity, gender and development, and currently  advocates for meaningful connectivity, universal access and affordability . She has  championed and written on topics such as complementary connectivity solutions,   5G, universal access, consumer facing taxation, Infrastructure sharing and digital inclusion aimed particularly at advancing women in developing regions.

She is an alum of the Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education Program, has a certificate in Public Policy Analysis  from London School of Economics  and holds an MBA from the Warwick Business School as well as  a Bachelor in Science from the University of Ghana . She speaks 4 languages.