Africa Finance Corporation has announced the appointment of Samaila D. Zubairu as the Corporation’s 3rd President & Chief Executive Officer, succeeding Andrew Alli who comes to the end of his tenure, having successfully served in the position since 2008.
The appointment follows a six-month search process that saw over 100 candidates apply for the role. “Mr. Zubairu will formally take the post imminently”, the company says.
The 10 year old AFC is largely an Infrastructure funder and has been significantly involved in enabling E&P and power projects across the continent.
“Zubairu is a distinguished Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and an accomplished Infrastructure development finance specialist with over 29 years of professional experience”, the AFC says of his Cee Vee. “He is the CEO of Africapital Management Limited, in which position he established a joint venture with Old Mutual’s African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM) to develop the Nigerian Infrastructure Investment Fund1(NIIF1) for infrastructure private equity across West Africa. He also recently coordinated the $300Million acquisition of Eko Electricity Distribution Plc.
“He was the pioneer CFO for Dangote Cement Plc, during which he launched Africa’s largest syndicated project finance facility for a local corporate to actualize the Obajana Cement project and managed the watershed unbundling of Dangote Industries Limited to listed subsidiaries on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. He has led finance transactions for over US$3 billion covering: green-field project finance facilities, acquisitions, corporate transformation initiatives, privatization and equity capital market transactions.
Samaila is an Eisenhower Fellow and sits on the Eisenhower Fellowship’s Global Network Council as well as the Advisory Council of the President of Nigeria. He is also an Advisory Board member for KSE Africa a leading Operations and Management provider of captive power plants in the mining sector of Botswana and Nigeria and is the Chairman of MDSA Nigeria Limited, a fintech company providing micro loans across sub-Saharan Africa. Samaila is the Independent Director and Chairman Statutory Audit Committee as well as a member of Finance and General-Purpose and Establishment and Governance Committees of Aiico Insurance Plc. He also serves as an Independent Director and Chairman of the Finance Committee for New Nigeria Commodity Marketing Company.
“I look forward to joining AFC’s highly reputable team, and together, enhancing AFC’s position as an extremely capable project partner, able to deliver sustainable development projects across the Continent”, Zubairu says. ” I am confident of AFC’s market position as being best placed to surmount Africa’s multi-sectoral infrastructure challenges”.
Sir,
Congratulations to you and may God gives you the wisdom that he gave to king Solomon to rule over the people(workers) and to move the company to the hsigest level.