AfDB Group Appoints Hassatou Diop N’Sele As Vice-President For Finance & Chief Financial Officer

African Development Bank Group has announced the appointment of Hassatou Diop N’Sele, as Vice-President for Finance and Chief Financial Officer. Mrs. Diop, a Senegalese national, has been acting in the role since November 2021.

N’Sele, an accomplished professional with over 30 years of banking and finance experience, joined the African Development Bank in 1999 as Senior Treasury Officer. She successively held positions of Principal Treasury Officer, Chief Treasury Officer and Manager of the Capital Markets and Financial Operations Division, before being appointed Treasurer of the African Development Bank Group in 2015.

As treasurer, she has provided strategic leadership to enhance the bank’s fund raising, investments and hedging activities. She led the successful global expansion of the African Development Bank’s capital markets activities. She leads a diverse team of highly seasoned professionals, managing over $33 billion under the bank’s borrowing portfolio, overseeing the group’s investment of over $25 billion liquidity in multicurrency portfolios, and supervising its hedging activities, banking relationships and back-office operations.

N’Sele spearheaded the African Development Bank Group’s entry into the green bonds and social bonds markets. Among her key achievements in capital markets are award winning transactions and recognition, including the $3 billion Fight Covid-19 bond launched in 2020. This made the African Development Bank the largest multilateral development bank issuer of social bonds to date.

N’Sele has led key strategic and technical financial initiatives geared towards optimizing the institution’s financial capacity. She established the blueprint for its long-term financial sustainability. She also played a key role in the design of the Special Temporary Callable Capital Increase under the oversight of the president and vice-president for Finance.

As treasurer, N’Sele is providing strategic and technical leadership in discussions on the bank’s financial and risk bearing capacity, and the development of new financial products. She drove the design of the framework for the long-term financial sustainability of the bank group from 2018 to 2019.

N’Sele also provided strategic support to discussions with member countries on general capital increases for the African Development Bank Group, replenishments of the African Development Fund, and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative. She is spearheading discussions with rating agencies on key financial matters. Under her leadership, the African Development Bank successfully transitioned from Libor[1] and introduced hybrid capital in its financing toolkit.

Upon being notified of her appointment, N’Sele said: “It is an honor and a privilege to serve the African Development Bank Group’s powerful and formidable development mandate. I welcome the opportunity to continue working with my dedicated and talented colleagues at the African Development Bank as we to keep making a difference.”

Commenting on the appointment, the president of the African Development Bank Group, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina said: “I am pleased to appoint Mrs. Hassatou Diop N’Sele as Vice-President for Finance and Chief Financial Officer. Hassatou is a seasoned finance professional with extensive experience and outstanding contributions at the African Development Bank. She will provide leadership for the top-rate finance team at the bank, in the formulation and implementation of its financial strategies and transformation agenda, and in support and furtherance of its development mandate.”