6th East African Banking & Microfinance Forum

Mr. Tadesse is TDB Group President & Managing Director and Chairman of the TDB Group Executive Management Board. He co-chairs the boards of directors of TDB Group, the Trade and Development Fund (TDF), the TDB Captive Insurance Company (TCI), the TDB Fund Manager (ESATAL) and the ESA Trade Finance Fund (ESATF).

He serves on the governing organs of several global and continental industry bodies, notably the International Development Finance Club, Finance in Common and the Africa Investment Forum. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Financial Sector Deepening Ethiopia, a-not-for-profit financial sector development agency. He is a member of the boards of directors of the Washington D.C.-based Corporate Council on Africa, ZEP-RE (PTA Reinsurance Company) and Gulf African Bank. In the past, he has also served on the boards of various development finance institutions/funds/associations in Paris, London and Geneva, as well as Johannesburg, Gaborone and Abidjan.

From 2012 to 2022, he led PTA Bank, and spearheaded its evolution into TDB Group. During the previous decade, he served as Executive Vice President at the Development Bank of Southern Africa, responsible for international finance and corporate strategy. He has also served with multilateral funding agencies in Johannesburg, Windhoek and New York in various capacities including executive, senior advisor, management consultant and economist, including at the United Nations.

He has been a member of the Institute of Directors of Mauritius/South Africa and the Institute of Bankers of South Africa/Kenya. An economist and banker, Mr. Tadesse qualified at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Wits Business School and Western University of Canada. He also trained in advanced management and banking at Harvard Business School and INSEAD, among others. He is a recipient of multiple industry awards, including African Banker of the Year, African Business Leader of the Year and African Development Banker of the Year.

Thomas Östros serves as Vice President of the European Investment Bank (EIB), the EU Bank. Prior to joining the EIB in January 2020, Mr Östros worked at the International Monetary Fund since 2015, serving as Executive Director of the Nordic-Baltic Constituency as of 2016. Previously, he had been the Managing Director of the Swedish Banker’s Association Minister for Fiscal Affairs and Deputy Minister of Finance, Minister for Education and Science as well as Minister for Industry and Trade, serving in government from 1996 through to 2006.

Bélén Calvo Uyarra serves as Ambassador to Rwanda since September 2022. She is committed to further deepen and expand the already strong partnership between the EU and Rwanda, together with the excellent and dedicated team at the European Union Delegation.

Ambassador Bélén Calvo Uyarra is a European Union public servant since 2001. She served in the European Commission – DG Development, before joining the EU External Action Service in the EU Delegations to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Liberia and South Africa. Between 2020 and 2022 she was detached to the Cabinet of the Spanish Ministers of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, as Senior advisor for Africa. She has worked over twenty years in Africa and with Africa and she is eager to continue learning on this journey.

Having served as the Ministry’s first Accountant General in 2005, Hon. Rwangombwa was appointed Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Treasury in the same year and in 2009 he became the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning. At that time, he oversaw the elaboration and implementation of Rwanda’s first Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS I), under which Rwanda’s economy was able to achieve high growth at an average of 8% and poverty was reduced by 12% in 5 years from 2006-2011. Since his appointment as Central Bank Governor to date, Hon. Rwangombwa has been able to maintain the stability of the Rwandan Economy and its Financial Sector. He was voted Governor of the Year 2015 for the Sub-Saharan Region by Emerging Markets. Hon. Rwangombwa serves as a member of various advisory bodies including the Presidential Advisory Council and World Economic Forum on Global Agenda Council.

Hon. John Rwangombwa was appointed Central Bank Governor on the 25th February 2013. His career started in Rwanda Revenue Authority where he grew through ranks to the Deputy Commissioner of Customs for Operations. He then joined the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning in 2002 as the Director of the National Treasury Department.

Othman joined TCX Fund in 2009. His responsibilities include managing TCX’s derivatives pricing and trading activities, and the Fund’s portfolio and liquidity.

Prior to joining TIM, he worked for four years at the African Development Bank, first as a Senior Risk officer and then as a Senior Investment Officer. He also worked as a Senior Treasury at Citigroup at the beginning of his career.

Othman holds a bachelor’s in Economics & Finance from the Ecole Superieure de Commerce in Algiers, a Master's in banking & Finance from the University of Lyon a Master's in International Securities, Investment & Banking from the University of Reading, and PhD in Finance from the university of Lyon.

Silvest Arumasi is a seasoned banking executive with more than 20 years’ experience in executive management, regulatory supervision, risk management, retail, digital and business banking. He is currently the Managing Director of Akiba Commercial Bank Plc, a 27 years old locally promoted medium-sized bank, serving individuals, MSMEs and local corporates. He is also a director of Umoja Switch Company Limited and UBX Tanzania Limited; two sister companies that connect payment systems of 17 medium-sized banks in Tanzania through technology. Silvest is a marathon distance (42.2km) runner with an aspiration to complete the 6 Abbott World Marathon Majors (Berlin, Chicago, New York, London, Boston, Tokyo).

Ms. Mamba is an investor and executive with over 20 years experience in financial services with specific skills in investment decision-making and management, business development and strategy and operations.

Ms. Mamba also serves at Executive Director for the Trade & Development Fund where she responsibilities for oversight of all day-to-day operations of TDF. In summary, she manages the development of client solutions in capacity building, specialized solutions and technical assistance as well as managing key stakeholder relations.

Prior to joining TDB Group, Ms. Mamba has served as a member of the management teams at Deloitte Consulting, the Global Environment Fund and the Development Bank of Southern Africa, where she led infrastructure advisory and investing across the continent. In addition to her role at TDB Group, she also serves as an Investment Committee member for pan African companies making investments in agribusiness and healthcare.

She has a BA (cum laude) in Economics from Barnard College of Columbia University and a Masters in International Management (with honors) from Thunderbird, the American Graduate School of International Management.

Klaudia works as Senior TA Programme Coordinator for the Financial Inclusion Advisory (FIA) Unit, EIB GLOBAL. Certified as a Purchasing Manager, she has over 20 years in public procurement, contract and mandate management in various sectors of the EIB. Since 2012, Klaudia has specialised in technical assistance to microfinance operations and grants in support of beneficiaries of MSME Fund investments outside the EU. Before joining the EIB, Klaudia worked in the After Service Sales Force BENELUX for a former International IT company and as Export Sales Officer for large production company in Germany. She studied Economics at Karl-Franzens-University Graz and is married with three children.

Darshan Dhakan is an experienced investment professional with a demonstrated history of working in impact investing. Skilled in Due Diligence, Financial Modelling, and Business Valuation, and Credit Analysis.

Mohamed Kalif is senior advisor to Trade and Development Bank Group management on strategic issues. He is also a board member of Eastern and Southern Trade Fund -a mutual fund that focuses on investing short term trade related assets including inter alia, post-shipment and pre-shipment funding.

Fabian Kasi is a Senior Executive in the Banking and Finance Industry with extensive experience in creating the systems that have resulted in significant growth and expansion in some of Uganda’s leading indigenous financial institutions. Currently the Managing Director of Centenary Bank Uganda which is recognised for its profitability, large customer base and an extensive countrywide branch network. Has more than thirty years of career progression in diverse aspects of the financial services sector including finance and administration, commercial banking, banking regulation, microfinance, financial inclusion, ethical banking and corporate governance.

Nicole is a senior finance lawyer with experience in emerging markets.

Prior to her appointment, Ms. Kivisi was Senior Deputy Director, Public Debt Management Office in the National Treasury of Kenya. She also served as Senior Assistant Director of Debt Management and has held senior roles in the Ministry of Finance and the Office of the Prime Minister. She has over 25 years of experience in sovereign debt management, syndications and debt capital markets.

Ms. Kivisi holds Master of Arts in Modern International Studies from University of Leeds, Bachelor of Arts in Government and French from the University of Nairobi and is finalizing doctoral studies.

After graduating in law from the University Catholic of Louvain and obtaining a master degree (LLM) from Georgetown University, Christophe started working for the law firm Linklaters in London and Brussels advising corporates and banks on M&A transactions. He also specialised in capital markets transactions and financial regulation. After 5 years, he was appointed as Managing Associate.

After 7 years at Linklaters, Christophe completed a Masters in Finance at London Business School. He then joined the European Investment Bank in 2005 as a senior investment officer in the special activities division covering equity and quasi-equity investments (both direct and indirect) and microfinance operations in North Africa.

Thomas Lugez was a lawyer in the banking team of our Paris office from 2011 to 2013. He is now Legal Counsel at the European Investment Bank (EIB) in Luxembourg.

Doreen has 12 years’ experience in deals advisory and investments garnered in the United States and across Africa. She has successfully managed investment processes, taken part in deals worth over $1 billion in the United States and oversaw significant portfolio growth in her roles in African markets. Before joining TDB Group, she worked as a Deals Advisory Manager at PwC in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire and Lagos, Nigeria and as a Transaction Advisory Services Manager at Ernst & Young in New York, United States.



Doreen qualified as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in New York and holds an MBA from the Sloan School of Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where she focused on entrepreneurship and innovation. She also holds a Sustainability Certificate from MIT. At TDB Group, she supported the establishment of the Trade and Development Fund (TDF) which provides innovative concessional and growth finance to SMEs and select financial intermediaries. Her current role involves structuring blended finance solutions and promoting impact investing and financial inclusion.

Armando is a senior executive with over 20 years of experience in finance, policy and digital transformation, including more than 10 years in C-Suite positions at financial institutions globally. Combining financial expertise in emerging markets with business development experience in Europe, the Middle East and South Eastern Africa. Multilingual professional: native Italian; fluent English, French, Portuguese; working knowledge Spanish.

Aakif is an Associate Director at Convergence, he is responsible for capacity building among clients from public, private to philanthropic organizations. Aakif brings over 6 years of experience as a management consultant having most recently served as Principal of the NeXus Consulting Group, where he spearheaded business development and project execution across a variety of sectors including international development and retail.
Aakif has also worked at Dasra, India’s leading strategic philanthropy foundation, L.E.K Consulting in New York and as a legislative and economic advisor for the Parliament of India. Aakif holds an M.B.A from the University of Toronto and a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from The George Washington University in Washington D.C.

Mr. Lekinyi Mollel is the Programme Officer – Public Debt Institutional Development and CS-DRMS in the Debt Management Programme at MEFMI. He holds Masters of Commerce in Applied Economics from the University of Cape Town, South Africa (2009) and Masters of Science Degrees in Economics from the University of Zimbabwe (2005). Mr Mollel also holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honours degree in Economics from the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (1997). In addition, he is a MEFMI Graduate Fellow in debt management who graduated with a distinction.

He has over 15 years of experience in debt management and monetary policy attained while working with the Ministry of Finance Tanzania & Bank of Tanzania.

Mr. Mugo leads teams responsible for the review and development of policies to promote safe, efficient, and inclusive financial services. He has held various positions in the Bank Supervision Department at the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) over the last 24 years. He has been involved in the development of legal and regulatory frameworks including for agent banking, digital financial services, credit information sharing, cybersecurity, and climate-related risk management.
Since April 2016, Mr. Mugo has been a member of the Board of Directors of Kenya’s Insurance Regulatory Authority as an alternate to the Governor of CBK. From November 2018 to August 2020, he served as Sherpa (Alternate) to the Governor on the United Nations Secretary General’s Taskforce on Digital Financing of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Before joining CBK, Mr. Mugo worked as an auditor for KPMG, an international audit and consultancy firm. He holds First Class Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting) and MBA (Finance) degrees from the University of Nairobi and is a certified public accountant. Mr Mugo is an Alumni of the Fletcher School at Tufts University, USA, Financial Inclusion Leadership Program and the Strathmore Business School at Strathmore University, Kenya, Senior Management Leadership Program.

Mr. Mugova is a Transaction Advisor at TBD who led the bank’s climate finance policy & taxonomy framework drafting program. He is passionate about climate finance and sustainability and has been a speaker on this subject matter at a few conferences.

As an infrastructure finance specialist, he contributed to over 1,000MW low carbon energy investments in Africa. Mr Mugova is a CFA charter holder and holds a BCom (Actuarial) science degree.

Darius Mukunzi, currently serving as the Head of the SME Department at Bank of Kigali, is a seasoned
professional in the financial industry with over 10 years of experience. His journey in the sector began at GTBank Rwanda, where he honed his skills in corporate banking. Darius later ventured into SME-focused roles, contributing significantly to the growth and development of small and medium-sized enterprises in Rwanda.

Armed with a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, specializing in Management and Marketing from Stratford University in New Delhi, Darius possesses a strong academic foundation that complements his practical expertise.

Darius' dedication to empowering others is evident in his passion for coaching and training people.
His commitment to fostering growth extends beyond the boardroom, reflecting his genuine interest in the development of individuals within the financial sector.

Sylvia Wafula has over 16 years of professional experience working in rural development for international development institutions. This includes, RTI international, Kenya Market Trust, ICRAF, and VI- Agroforestry. She has technical experience in market systems development, value chains development, integration of climate smart initiatives for resilient, sustainable, inclusive market systems in agricultural value chains that integrates women & youth and layering of agri-nutrition interventions for increased food security and dietary diversity.

Sylvia has experience working with various donors funded projects that include USAID Feed the Future program, Gatsby funded Market Assistance Program, Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, FAO Mitigation Against Climate Change in Agriculture (MICCA), CGIAR and Swedish Cooperative Union. Sylvia is a resourceful, innovative, honest dynamic, results driven development worker, fast learner and a team leader who motivates others to achieve project objectives.

Experienced researcher and financial analyst with a demonstrated history of financial and statistical data analysis while offering technically sound economic financial management solutions both at corporate level as well as service delivery at community development level.

Ms. Brenda Mutoni currently serves as the Manager of Green Finance and Advisory Services at the Development Bank of Rwanda (BRD Plc). She is currently in charge of scaling climate finance whilst supporting the private sector to undertake green projects that are in line with the country’s response to climate change.

She has experience in both commercial and development Banking, and this has earned her immense experience with Local and international Financing Best practices. Prior to joining BRD, Brenda held corporate relationship management positions with multi-national financial institutions including NCBA Bank Rwanda and Guaranty Trust Bank Rwanda.


She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Cardiff Metropolitan University and is a Certified Climate Risk Professional awarded by the Chartered Bankers’ Institute (UK)

David Odongo is a career banker with over 30 years of experience. He has worked in retail & corporate commercial banking for over 10 years. He subsequently served for 9 years in the development sector as a Business Development Specialist and Country Field Coordinator supporting donor-funded agriculture-related intervention programs in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and South Sudan.
For the last 11 years he has worked with East African Development Bank, firstly as a Principal Investment Officer and thereafter as Country Manager for Rwanda and his present position as Country Manager for East African Development Bank Kenya.
In his past and present capacity, he has been involved in project funding in various economic sectors including agriculture, renewable energy, education, finance, real estate and manufacturing. Meanwhile, during over ten years to date, he was a key resource person for Kenya School of Monetary Studies Certificate Course in Agricultural Finance, and to date through the GOPA Consulting Group among others, been engaged to provide consultancy on development of Agricultural Value Chain Finance training materials for in-person and online courses, as well as offering capacity-building to financial institutions in Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, DR Congo, and Mozambique.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics (Banking & Public Finance), and a Certificate in Cooperative Business Administration amongst other academic papers.

Jehiel Oliver is a social entrepreneur responsible for the overall management and strategy of Hello Tractor, an agricultural technology company focused on global food and income security. He has been honored with numerous awards for his work in social entrepreneurship and poverty alleviation.

Jonathan Pinifolo is the lead author and editor of the first edition of the book titled “ICT Infrastructural development in the developing world” which was published in January 2017. Jonathan obtained his PhD in Telecommunications Engineering at University of Johannesburg in South Africa. He holds a Master of Science degree in Wireless Communication Systems with distinction from Oxford Brookes University in the United Kingdom as well as a Masters degree in Business Administration.

Apart from being a corporate member of Malawi Institute of Engineers, he is also a registered member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and currently working with COMESA as Chief Operating Officer for the Digital Financial Inclusion Program. He has got twenty years of high level experience in the Telecommunications Industry having started his career as Telecom Engineer at TNM, the first GSM network operator in Malawi and rotated through various on-hands jobs which helped him to gain a detailed telecom technical know-how. In June 1999, he joined Airtel as Base Stations Subsystems Engineer. He was instrumental in the setting up of Airtel network. As a result of his outstanding performance, he therefore became a popular choice for the position of Head of Network Management Centre (NMC) Operations responsible for Mobile Switching Subsystems, Base Station Subsystem, Transmission and Power systems. He has been involved in management of various telecommunications projects, telecommunications project appraisals, preparation of business cases for new products/services and setting up of operations functional departments.

He has worked with MACRA , the ICT communications regulator as Deputy Director of Spectrum Management for eight years and prior to joining COMESA , he was working as Head of Radio Access Network at TNM responsible for Operations and Engineering.

Pathé is an agricultural engineer by training and Climate and Environmental Expert. He has more than 15 years experience working across four regions in the World ( Africa, South America, Central Asia, Europe). In his rich professional career, he has occupied various technical, managerial and leadership role at local, country, regional and global level. He joined the United Nations as JPO ( http://www.jposc.undp.org/content/jposc/en/home/how-to-join/jpo-and-sarc-stories/jpo-stories/amath-pathe-sene.html )in Mauritania in 2007 and acting team leader.

He was Regional Program Advisor ( 2009-2014) with the UNDP/UNEP Poverty and Environment Initiative based in Nairobi, providing technical assistance to 10 African Countries on mainstreaming environment and poverty objectives into national development and investment frameworks. He joined later the UNDP Global Policy Centre on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro as Policy Specialist supporting countries on the Implementation of the SDGs, the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Climate Deal.

Angel Setumo is a Head of Strategy & Innovation at Letshego Holdings based in Gaborone, South-East.

Farooq Siddiqi is currently the CEO of dltledgers. Prior to this, they were with standard chartered bank for almost 16 years in various capacities. Farooq started as a management trainee with ANZ in 1991 and moved to Standard Chartered in 2000 as Head Trade Sales for India. In 2002, they were promoted to Head of Supply Chain Financing for India and then to Director and Global Head of Supply Chain Finance Sales in 2004. From 2007 to 2008, they served as Managing Director and Head of Transaction Banking for UAE. In 2008, they were promoted to Regional TB Head MENA and Pakistan and then to Global Head Product Management for Transaction Banking in 2015. Farooq left Standard Chartered in 2016 to join dltledgers as CEO.

Isabelle Van Grunderbeeck Head of Unit, Financial Inclusion, Advisory, in EIB Global.
Since 2018, Isabelle Van Grunderbeeck is leading a team of financial sector experts managing technical assistance and advisory programmes for EIB Global. Before that, she has been working with the EIB on investments in West Africa and the Maghreb. She headed the regional representation office for West Africa from 2014 to 2018. Previously, she was an Infrastructure Specialist at the African Development Bank where she notably launched the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA).

She is a graduate Engineer from Supélec (France) and holds an MBA from IMD (Switzerland).

James Wambugu has an MBA (Finance) and Bcomm (Accounting) University of Nairobi, a Diploma in Risk Management from the Institute of Risk Management (UK) and a diploma in Advanced Management Program (AMP) from IESE Business School, Barcelona and Strathmore Business School, Nairobi. He is a member of the Institute of Risk Management, (MIRM-UK) and Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK).

James' vision is to transform the insurance and financial services to help improve the lives of Kenyans and Africans. Make insurance simple, relevant and more inclusive. He was the Group Managing Director, General Insurance of UAP-Old Mutual Group until July 2018. He left UAP Old Mutual after a successful 15 year career to work on fulfilling my dreams in the remaining part of my active working life.