Senegalese and Ugandan Clinch Top Positions in the African Development Bank

Yacine Fal

The African Development Bank Group [AfDB] has announced the appointment of Ms. Yacine Fal as the new Director General, Cabinet Office of the President, with effect from November 1, 2020.

The Senegalese national will oversee the administrative operations of the Cabinet Office. This includes oversight functions on all departments accountable to the President, coordination of effective execution of presidential initiatives and supervision of all senior staff members.

“I am greatly honored by the confidence reposed in me by President [Akinwumi] Adesina to support him in ensuring the successful implementation of his bold vision for the Bank and the continent,” Ms. Fal said, commenting on her appointment.

“I look forward to leading teams in the President’s Cabinet Office to provide managerial, administrative and operational bandwidth and to assure the success of the President’s vision and mandate following his historic re-election with 100% vote of the Bank’s shareholders.”

Ms. Fal has had a long career with the AfDB. She joined as a principal legal counsel in the procurement unit in 1998. She was put in charge of the reform implementation team in 2007 and became the Officer in Charge of the Procurement and Fiduciary Services Department in 2010.

She held many other positions within the organization afterwards and was later appointed Deputy Director General of the North Africa Business Development and Service Delivery Office, a position she has held since January 2017.

Yacine Fal

The report released by AfDB describes her as “a seasoned and results-oriented business development and service delivery professional” with over two decades’ worth of experience in banking and procurement fields.

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She holds a Master’s degree in Law from the University of Dakar and a post-graduate degree in International Law from the University of Paris X. In 2012, she completed the Senior Managers in Government Executive program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

Commenting on the appointment, the President, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, was full of praise for Ms. Fal, stating that “Yacine is a highly capable manager. She brings vast knowledge and experience of the Bank’s legal, procurement, human resources, processes, systems and operations to her new position. I am delighted to have Yacine lead a restructured Cabinet Office of the President that will comprehensively support the delivery of my vision and mandate to strengthen the Bank and accelerate Africa’s development.”

Also Read: AfDB Recruits Chief Economist from the World Bank

The AfDB also announced the appointment of Alex Mubiru as Director, Strategy and Delivery. He holds a Bachelor of Arts (cum laude) in Philosophy, Political Science and Economics from Macalester College, USA (1992) and a Masters in Public Administration (1996) and a Ph.D in Public Affairs (2000) both from Princeton University, USA. He joined the AfDB in 2009 as Principal Country Economist, Tanzania field office. He held various positions including Manager, Resource Mobilization Department (2014-2018) before being appointed as Country Manager, Tanzania Country Office, where he manages a portfolio of more than $2.3 billion, the African Development Bank President Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina in June, 2018.

Yacine Fal

Before joining the AfDB, Alex worked as a Research Associate, International Economics Program, at the Thailand Development Research Institute (1994-1995) and later on as Project Economist for the World Bank, Thailand Office (1999-2001). He was Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Singapore (2001-2008) and Assistant Professor of Social Science, Singapore Management University (2008-2009).

Commenting on his appointment, Alex said: “I am delighted to work directly with President Adesina to support his vision and strategy for the Bank and to ensure strategic alignments and delivery accountability across board.”

The AfDB President, Nigeria’s Dr. Adewunmi Adesina, was reelected after surviving whistleblowers’ allegations of biased recruitment of Nigerians. The appointment of non-Nigerians, especially an official from a Francophone member state, to very important positions may calm nerves; some insiders feared Dr. Adesina would act vengefully and not act in an inclusive manner in filling top positions if he got a second term. Some have speculated that a promise to be more inclusive is part of the deal hammered out with the Americans in letting him have a second term.

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