Elizabeth Howard

Elizabeth is an entrepreneur and the founder of Lelapa, an advisory firm specialised in African capital markets development. In 2015 she co-founded LelapaFund, an equity-crowdfunding platform focused on East Africa. LelapaFund’s regulatory challenges led her to establish the African Crowdfunding Association (AfCA) and drive the regulatory agenda. She advises several African regulatory authorities on the design and implementation of regulations for investments-based crowdfunding, a tool to boost investment in African start-ups and small businesses.

She also founded Women in African Investments (WAI Group), an influential network of over 220 female investment professionals. Prior to that, she worked in academia and private sector in risk management and financial economics. Elizabeth holds several Board member and Advisory Board member positions in the industry and is a Council Member of the Advancing Women in Investing (AWI) Foundation.

Elizabeth holds a Masters in Economics from Sciences Po Paris, a B.Comm Honours in Economics from the University of Cape Town and a Certificate of Entrepreneurship jointly delivered by Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and Ecole Polytechnique. Elizabeth is a dual citizen of South Africa and France.