African Development Bank Appoints Ousmane Fall as Director of Non-Sovereign Operations and Private Sector | African Development Bank Group

The African Development Bank Group has appointed Ousmane Fall, a Senegalese national, as director of non-sovereign operations and private sector, effective 1^st from August 2023.

Fall takes on this new role with 17 years of experience. He spent the past four years at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), where he provided strategic leadership on land planning and ministerial dialogue on African infrastructure.

At the IFC, Fall covered several sectors, namely water, waste and sanitation; transport and energy; logistics; and telecommunications. He also oversees the establishment of the Sub-Saharan Africa Municipal Financing Platform.

Fall developed and executed the first asset-backed securities investment for energy access in Africa, as well as the first private investments in hydropower and solar energy in Gabon and Benin. Other firsts included a gas-to-power strategy for the Senegalese government and the first municipal financing strategy for the cities of Dakar, Cotonou, Abidjan and Douala.

He also led business development efforts across Africa and built strong relationships with clients from the private sector, central and local governments, cities and selected sovereign entities on the ground.

Fall previously spent 10 years at the African Development Bank Group. He held several positions, including acting manager for the Strategy and Transaction Support Division, and responsible for the Non-Sovereign Infrastructure Division, providing key advisory services and transaction support to the original Non-Sovereign Operations divisions. He overlooks project officers in areas such as the design of debt and guarantee transactions, assessment of project financeability, capital structuring, project credit enhancement, financial leverage, and financial modeling.

He also led knowledge management and training on non-sovereign operations. He established non-sovereign operations modules on project finance, corporate lending, financial modeling, technical assistance, customer relationship management, and equity investments. Fall was a successful investment officer and made pioneering private sector transactions at the bank.

He has extensive knowledge of African debt and equity markets, underwriting products, derivatives and credit enhancement tools. Fall led the execution of the African Development Bank Group’s first non-sovereign transactions in agriculture, healthcare and education, and its first harbor dredging and gas-to-power projects. He also worked in the Bank’s Public Sector Department, working on solar energy projects in Morocco, hydropower projects in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Guinea, and other transmission projects in Nigeria and Zambia. He also worked in the Risk department, where he contributed to the definition and implementation of the bank’s Capital Adequacy Framework and Exposure Management Policy.

Prior to joining the African Development Bank, Fall was an investment banker with the Structured Finance Division of Societe Generale in Paris.

Fall holds a Master of Science in Finance from the INSEEC Business and Management School in France (2005).

Commenting on his nomination, Fall said, “I am honored and grateful that President Adesina has appointed me to this position. I look forward to working under his leadership to serve the continent’s leading financial institution in its ambitious vision to transform the African continent through the private sector.”

Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina, President of the African Development Bank, said: “Ousmane has a proven track record of delivering results in private sector transactions. He will ensure the overall effectiveness of the bank’s private sector operations through non-sovereign operations project and business portfolio management, as well as transaction support for non-sovereign operations origination departments.