Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, has announced the appointment of Mrs. Chinelo Anohu, a highly accomplished international corporate lawyer, as head and senior director of the Africa Investment Forum (AIF).
The appointment of Mrs. Anohu, a member of the London Stock Exchange Africa Advisory Board, took effect from September 1, 2019, according to the Bank’s release copied to the Ghana News Agency.
She served as Director-General of the National Pension Commission of Nigeria for five years.
The appointee brings extensive knowledge of institutional investment practice and experience in attracting new capital, expertise in the development of innovative asset classes, spanning pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, private equity and private family wealth funds with a formidable track record in formulating investment.
The Bank is set to hold the 2019 edition of the Africa Investment Forum on 11-13 November 2019 in Johannesburg, South Africa, after a successful inaugural edition last year, which attracted $39 billion in investment interests for bankable deals in Africa.
The AIF has become Africa’s premier multi-stakeholder transactional platform for leveraging investments from the private sector, African and global financial institutions, global pension funds and sovereign wealth funds and other institutional investors.
It also provides an unparalleled platform for engagements with African Heads of State and Governments to discuss, in the Forum’s unique “Investment Board Rooms”, policy, business and investment incentives to close transactions in real-time.
Dr. Adesina said: “I am delighted that Chinelo Anohu is joining us as the Head and Senior Director of the Africa Investment Forum. Her can-do-attitude, leadership, hands-on experience in working with global pension funds and institutional investors, and extensive global networks among institutional investors, will significantly position and help the Africa Investment Forum to drive its global agenda to attract more investments to Africa”.
Mrs Anohu began her professional career as an Attorney with the global oil conglomerate, Chevron, Nigeria. She worked in legal and financial services firms in Nigeria and the United Kingdom before joining the Nigerian Bureau of Public Enterprises, the implementation agency for the reform and privatisation of state-owned enterprises.
As a consultant assigned by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Mrs Anohu helped to restructure and privatise the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited, Nicon Hilton Hotel and AfriBank, among several others. An adept and sound negotiator, she successfully worked with acquiring entities, liaising and managing complex relationships including the Nigerian National Assembly and labour organisations.
Under her leadership as Director-General of the Nigerian Pension Commission, the number of contributors rose from five million to close to eight million, while assets under management grew from $19.3 billion to a record $42 billion. She also introduced innovative micro pension structures that created opportunities for informal sector workers to be included in the contributory pension scheme.
Mrs. Anohu created the first-ever World Pension Summit Africa, which was held in Africa three years in a row, and convened global financial experts across the pension industry.
She graduated in 1996 with a Bachelor of Law from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and a Master’s degree in Computer and Communications Law from the London School of Economics in 2000.
She has studied at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, USA and the Insead Business School, France.
GNA