The African Development Bank (AfDB) announced on October 10 the appointment of Hassatou Diop N’Sele as Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer of the African Development Bank, effective October 16, 2022. The Senegalese had been acting in this position since November 2021 and had previously served as interim in the same position from May 2017 to July 2018.
As the Acting Vice President for Finance & Chief Financial Officer of the Bank Group and under the guidance of President of AFDB, Adesina Akinwumi, and the Senior Management Team, Hassatou Diop N’Sele successfully spearheaded activities leading to the Board of Governors’ discussions on a seventh General Capital Increase for the African Development Bank. She also oversaw the establishment of the Balance sheet optimization framework and the development of the first synthetic securitization transaction of the Bank. She also ensured the smooth operations of the Finance Complex, including financial reporting and management of the Staff Retirement Plan.
Ms. Hassatou Diop N’Sele, a Senegalese national, is a seasoned professional with over 30 years of banking and finance experience. She joined the Bank in 1999 as Senior Treasury Officer and successively held positions of Principal Treasury Officer, Chief Treasury Officer and Manager of the Capital Markets and Financial Operations Division, prior to her appointment as Treasurer of the Bank Group in 2015.
Hassatou Diop N’Sele holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Finance (1990), and a Bachelor of Business Administration in International Business (1987), both from the George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA.
As Treasurer of the Bank Group, Ms. N’Sele has been providing strategic leadership to enhance the Bank’s fund raising, investments and hedging activities, and led the successful expansion of the African Development Bank’s capital markets activities across the globe. She leads a diverse team of highly seasoned professionals, managing over USD 33 billion under the Bank’s borrowing portfolio, overseeing the Bank Group’s investment of over USD 25 billion liquidity in multicurrency portfolios, and supervising the Bank Group’s hedging activities, banking relationships and back-office operations.
Ms. N’Sele spearheaded the Bank’s foray in the green bonds and social bonds markets. Among her key achievements in capital markets are award winning transactions and recognition, including the USD 3 billion Fight Covid-19 bond launched in 2020, making the Bank the largest MDB issuer of social bonds to date.
As Bank Group Treasurer, Ms. N’Sele led key strategic and technical financial initiatives geared towards optimizing the Bank’s financial capacity. She established the blueprint for the Long-term financial sustainability of the Bank, led and played a key role in the design of the Special Temporary Callable Capital Increase under the oversight of the President and Vice- President Finance.
Ms. 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 led the design of the framework for the long-term financial sustainability of the Bank in 2018 – 2019. She also provided strategic support to discussions with member countries on General capital increases for the African Development Bank, replenishments of the African Development Fund, and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI). Moreover, she is spearheading discussions with rating agencies on key financial matters. Under Ms N’Sele’ s leadership, the Bank successfully transitioned from Libor and introduced hybrid capital in its financing toolkit.
Before joining the AFDB, Hassatou Diop N’Sele cumulated eight years of business and banking experience in the private sector in Senegal, as a finance director of Tiger Denrees Senegal, a startup commodities trading company, and at Citibank Senegal, as a Manager in the financial institutions department.
Commenting on her appointment, Ms. N’Sele said: “I am grateful to President Adesina for appointing me into this position and for his confidence. It is an honor and a privilege to serve the African Development Bank Group’s powerful and formidable development mandate. I am looking forward to working under the leadership of President Adesina, with my dedicated and talented colleagues at the Bank, and with our Board of Directors, to continue to support the mandate and mission of the African Development Bank to transform Africa”.
