The 2025 edition of the Africa Technology & Excellence (ATAEx) Awards lit up the continent as innovators, entrepreneurs, and industry leaders were celebrated for their groundbreaking contributions.

The Africa Tech Alliance Excellence (ATAEx) is a prestigious recognition platform that celebrates innovation, leadership, and digital excellence across Africa’s technology, fintech, telecommunications, amongst other ecosystems.

Held as part of the Africa Tech Alliance Forum (AfriTECH 5.0), the ATAEx Awards honour individuals, organisations, and initiatives that are redefining Africa’s digital future through creativity, resilience, and impact.

Each award recipient is celebrated not only for their achievements but also for their vision, ethical leadership, and commitment to leveraging technology for Africa’s sustainable development.

The ATAEx Awards continue to amplify Africa’s boldest innovators, the thinkers, builders, and change-makers shaping the continent’s digital independence in the AI era.

ATAEx Man of the Year 2025 – Prof. Obadare Peter Adewale

Celebrated for his unmatched contributions to Africa’s digital trust and cybersecurity landscape, Prof. Obadare Peter Adewale emerged as the ATAEx Man of the Year 2025; a recognition of his leadership, innovation, and lifelong commitment to advancing the continent’s digital transformation agenda.

As the Founder and Chief Visionary Officer of Digital Encode Limited, Prof. Obadare has consistently demonstrated excellence in digital security, governance, and risk compliance.

His pioneering achievements include being the first PECB Certified Data Protection Officer in Nigeria, first EC-Council Licensed Penetration Tester in Africa, and first Global PECB Certified Digital Transformation Officer.

ATAEx Technology Personality of the Year Award 2025 – Mr. George Agu

George Agu stands as a distinguished technology leader and entrepreneur whose impact on Africa’s digital transformation spans over two decades and five countries.

His visionary leadership, deep technical expertise, and passion for innovation have positioned him among the continent’s most respected voices in the IT and business landscape.

ATAEx Digital Transformation Leadership Award 2025 – Muhammed Rudman

Muhammed Rudman is a visionary technology leader and the pioneer Chief Executive Officer of the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), Nigeria’s first and only neutral Internet Exchange Point.

Before leading IXPN, Rudman worked with Galaxy IT & T Limited, where he oversaw major projects including rural telephony deployments, broadband wireless networks, and VSAT-based Wide Area Networks across Nigeria and parts of West Africa.

Under his leadership, IXPN has evolved into a vital Internet infrastructure hub, improving connectivity, reducing bandwidth costs, and strengthening local Internet traffic exchange

ATAEx Fintech Leadership Personality of the Year 2025 – Dr. (Mrs.) Ebehijie Momoh

Dr. Momoh is a seasoned business executive and fintech leader currently serving as the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of AfriGOPay Financial Services Ltd. (AFSL), a pioneering Nigerian company driving indigenous digital payment solutions.

Under her leadership, AfriGOPay has emerged as a key player in Africa’s payment landscape, providing secure, efficient, and locally relevant financial technology infrastructure that promotes inclusion and innovation.

ATAEx Lifetime Achievement Award in Data Centre Management (2025)

Engineer Ikechukwu Nnamani, CEO of Digital Realty (Nigeria), is a groundbreaker in Africa’s digital infrastructure landscape and a driving force behind Nigeria’s data centre evolution.

Through visionary leadership, he has built one of West Africa’s most interconnected facilities, a critical hub for Internet exchange and submarine cable interconnection.

ATAEx Cybersecurity Personality of the Year 2025 – Happiness Obioha

Happiness Obioha is a highly respected cybersecurity professional and technology entrepreneur, serving as the Chief Executive Officer of Tizel Cybersecurity, a fast-rising firm dedicated to protecting digital assets and strengthening cyber resilience across Africa.

With years of hands-on experience in information security, risk management, and digital forensics, she has distinguished herself as a thought leader and advocate for data protection, cyber awareness, and enterprise security transformation.

Google on Tuesday announced the launch of Gemini 3, its most intelligent and capable AI model yet, designed to bring state-of-the-art reasoning and powerful new agentic capabilities to the Google products people use every day. This launch marks a significant step forward in Google’s mission to make AI truly helpful for everyone.

“In this new chapter, we’ll continue to push the frontiers of intelligence, agents, and personalization,” said Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet. This next chapter in AI arrives as new data reveals people are increasingly looking for powerful tools to help them learn and grow. In Nigeria, for example, Google Search interest in “AI and studying” has surged by over 200%, with queries for “how to learn AI” jumping by 160% in the past year.

A new era of intelligence begins with the Gemini 3 model itself, which is built to grasp depth and nuance like never before. Gemini 3 Pro, the first model in the new family, demonstrates PhD-level reasoning and sets new performance records on major AI benchmarks, from complex problem-solving (91.9% on GPQA Diamond) to understanding video, images, and even handwritten text. This leap in core intelligence is the foundation for the new experiences rolling out today.

Beyond benchmarks, Gemini 3 Pro brings a new quality to every interaction. Its responses are designed to be smart and direct, trading cliché for genuine insight to act as a true thought partner. It excels at “vibe coding,” allowing developers to bring an idea to life with natural language, and its powerful agentic capabilities mean it can better understand intent, plan multi-step tasks, and get things done with less prompting from the user.

This leap in intelligence enables smarter, more interactive experiences in Google Search, transforming the product from an information tool into an interactive learning companion. For the first time, a new Gemini model is available in Search from day one. In AI Mode, Gemini 3 dynamically creates the ideal visual layout for a query, generating interactive tools and simulations on the fly. Instead of just reading about physics, a user can now interact with a simulation of the three-body problem. Someone researching a mortgage can receive a custom-built loan calculator to compare options in real-time.

The evolution continues with a powerful new agent in the Gemini app, which becomes a personal assistant that can take action on your behalf. For Google AI Ultra subscribers, the new experimental Gemini Agent can orchestrate and complete complex, multi-step tasks across connected Google apps. A user can ask it to “organize my inbox,” and it will prioritize to-dos and draft replies. A request like, “Help me book a mid-size SUV for my trip,” allows the agent to find flight details from an email, compare rental options, and prepare the booking—all while keeping the user in control.

To empower creators to build these kinds of advanced experiences, Google is also launching Google Antigravity, a new agentic development platform. This platform transforms AI from a simple coding assistant into an active partner that can autonomously plan and execute complex software tasks, from building features to fixing bugs, giving developers a powerful new way to bring their own ideas to life.

Google Antigravity is built on core tenets of trust, autonomy, and feedback. It is designed as a “mission control” for orchestrating multiple agents, providing developers with task-level context and verifiable artifacts to ensure they can trust the work being done. This new agent-first approach represents a fundamental shift in how software will be built, allowing developers to operate at a higher, more strategic level.

Gemini 3 has undergone Google’s most comprehensive safety evaluations to date. Gemini 3 Pro is available to everyone starting today in the Gemini app and can be accessed by Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers in AI Mode in Search.

Spire Solutions, a leading value-added distributor of cybersecurity and digital transformation solutions in the Middle East and Africa (MEA), today announced a strategic distribution partnership with ADAMnetworks, a pioneering cybersecurity innovator specializing in Zero Trust Connectivity (ZTc).

This collaboration will bring ADAMnetworks’ groundbreaking adam:ONE® platform to enterprises, governments, and critical sectors across the region, revolutionizing cybersecurity by shifting from reactive defenses to proactive, AI-driven protection.

As cyber threats escalate in the MEA— with the number of overall ransomware groups active in the UAE increasing by 58 percent in 2024 and state-sponsored espionage targeting key industries like oil & gas, finance, and telecommunications—this partnership arrives at a pivotal moment.

ADAMnetworks’ ZTc technology, built on a “deny-by-default” philosophy, eliminates vulnerabilities at the network edge by using AI driven dynamic allowlisting to only verified connections.

This reduces the attack surface by more than 7,000:1, blocks command-and-control channels before they activate, and neutralizes phishing, data exfiltration, and shadow IT risks without requiring endpoint agents.

Integrated with DNSharmony® DNS intelligence aggregation, it combines multiple threat feeds for comprehensive, real-time protection against malware, trackers, and harmful content.

For the MEA region, where digital transformation is accelerating but legacy security models falter against sophisticated adversaries, this means unprecedented cyber resilience.

Organizations can now deploy device-agnostic, encryption-friendly solutions that support IoT, OT, and cloud environments seamlessly, ensuring compliance with evolving data privacy regulations like the UAE’s Federal Data Protection Law and Saudi Arabia’s PDPL.

By empowering over 800 channel partners through Spire’s extensive network, the partnership will accelerate secure adoption, protecting over 1,000 organizations and fostering a safer digital ecosystem.

Spire Solutions, renowned for its forward-thinking approach in scouting and integrating cutting-edge global technologies, discovered ADAMnetworks as a rising star in the Zero Trust space—unearthing a solution that perfectly aligns with the region’s unique cybersecurity challenges.

This visionary move not only underscores Spire’s commitment to innovation but also delivers immense value to the MEA market by introducing a scalable, proactive defense mechanism that transforms how organizations mitigate risks, enabling faster, more secure digital growth without compromising on performance or privacy.

“In an era where cyber threats don’t respect borders, the Middle East and Africa need solutions that anticipate and neutralize risks before they materialize,” says Sanjeev Walia, Founder and President of Spire Solutions.

“The consequences of the successful implementation of Zero Trust Connectivity has a huge effect on hardening the security posture of organizations that adopt it. ADAMnetworks and their adam:ONE® platform exemplifies our dedication to bringing niche, regionally relevant technologies to the forefront.

“This partnership isn’t just about distribution—it’s about empowering our clients with a game-changing tool that builds true cyber-resilience, safeguarding everything from smart cities to financial hubs as they embrace the future of connected everything.”

David Redekop, Founder and CEO of ADAMnetworks, added: “Zero Trust Connectivity is about more than security; it’s about stewarding technology that protects human potential in a digital world.

“We’re thrilled to join forces with Spire Solutions, whose deep MEA expertise, innovative scouting prowess, and robust partner ecosystem will amplify adam:ONE®’s impact.

“Together, we’ll deliver proactive defenses to neutralize attacks before it is even possible to detect them.”

The partnership launches immediately, with Spire Solutions handling distribution, sales enablement, and facilitating managed services for adam:ONE® across its 10+ country footprint.

Early adopters in sectors like banking, utilities, and telcos can expect tailored deployments of their enterprise suites with Zero Trust Connectivity enabled by AdaptiveAI™, ReflexAI™ and high-availability options.