FSD Africa, the UK government’s flagship financial sector programme in Africa, has announced a chairperson and independent directors to its board. Frannie Leautier will be the Board Chair along with three new independent directors: David Muchoki Kanja, Greta Bull and Kanini Mutooni.
“Their extraordinary wealth of experience and deep understanding of the African context will be a huge asset as we move into a new phase of growth which will see our role as both a provider and an enabler of green finance in Africa grow strongly in prominence,” FSD Africa said on the appointment,
Frannie Léautier, a highly experienced finance and development expert with a PhD in civil engineering joins the Board as Chair having previously held senior leadership roles at the World Bank, the African Development Bank and Trade and Development Bank Group.
She replaces Vincent Rague who stepped down after seven years in the role.
David Kanja is a former Assistant Secretary-General for the Office of Internal Oversight Services at the United Nations and a former chair of UNICEF’s independent Audit Advisory Committee.
Greta Bull, Director of Women’s Economic Empowerment at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the former CEO of CGAP, an independent think tank focusing on financial services for the poor
Kanini Mutooni, Managing Director of the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, a US foundation that invests in entrepreneurs providing private sector solutions to global problems, and a former chair of the Global Innovation Fund, a $250M investment vehicle supported by the UK, US, Canadian, Australian and Swedish Governments.
The appointments come as FSD Africa, which is funded by the UK’s Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), is moving into a new phase of growth which will see its role as both a provider and an enabler of green finance in Africa grow strongly in prominence, anchored on a strategy that emphasises the development of capital markets, risk markets and the digital economy.
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