ERIC ANNAN
Founder
Eric founded ZuAfrique to put African builders, thinkers and creators at the centre of the conversations that shape their future. He is also Founder and CEO of AyaHQ.
Governance
Who runs the foundation, and how
A board of trustees is legally responsible for ZuAfrique Foundation. They set its direction, control its money and make sure every activity serves our charitable purposes.
Legal status
ZuAfrique Foundation is being established as a charity in England & Wales. We'll publish our registration details here as soon as they're confirmed.
How decisions are made
- Trustees meet regularly and keep minutes of every decision.
- Every trustee declares any conflicts of interest, and leaves any discussion where they have one.
- Significant spending needs approval from two trustees.
- We publish our accounts and impact reports every year.
Our trustees
We are appointing our first board of trustees, the people legally responsible for the foundation. Their names and biographies will appear here once they are confirmed.
Founding team
PISHIKENI TUKURA
Operations Lead
Leads operations, reporting and execution
DENNIS UKONU
Technical Lead
Deploys technology and leads technical direction
MICHAEL LAWAL
Lead
Deploying the Human Layer framework to lead humans into a Post AI world
How funds are used
Where the money went
2025: $75,000, with $50,000 from AyaHQ and $25,000 from Lisk.
2026: $100,000, with $64,000 from AyaHQ and $36,000 from other donors.
AyaHQ ran both residencies before the foundation existed, and funded most of the cost. Scholarships grew from 10% to 14% of spending.
Sources: ZuAfrique 2025 General Report p.3; ZuAfrique 2.0 General Report p.8. From now on, the foundation's audited or independently examined accounts will be published below.
| Spending | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Venue | 20% | 20% |
| Operations and logistics | 20% | 20% |
| Meals | 25% | 18% |
| Nature experiences and excursions | 15% | 16% |
| Builder scholarships | 10% | 14% |
| Media and documentation | 5% | 7% |
| Miscellaneous | 5% | 5% |
Safeguarding
Our residencies are 21-day residential programmes, and many participants are young adults. That calls for a higher standard of care than a weekend event, as our 2026 impact assessment made clear. We are committed to keeping everyone who takes part safe from harm, abuse and exploitation.
Our policy covers pre-arrival agreements, photo and video consent, a fair process if someone is asked to leave, and medical cover.
To raise a safeguarding concern, email info@ayahq.com with "Safeguarding" in the subject line.
Policies
- Safeguarding policy
- Complaints policy
- Fundraising promise
- Privacy policy
- Conflicts of interest policy (being drafted)
- Financial controls and reserves policy (being drafted)
- Anti-fraud, bribery and money-laundering policy (being drafted)
Annual reports and accounts
- Annual report and accounts: published after our first financial year
- ZuAfrique 2.0 General Report (2026)
- ZuAfrique 2.0 Impact Assessment (2026)
- ZuAfrique 2025 General Report (2025)
- ZuAfrique 2025 Impact Report (2025)