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Who We Are
Established in 2012 and supported by UK aid, FSD Africa is a specialist development agency working to make finance work for Africa’s future.
FSD Africa is incorporated as a non-profit company limited by guarantee in Kenya. It is funded by UK aid from the UK government.
At FSD Africa, our programming is designed to address systemic challenges within Africa’s financial markets, with the aim of sparking large-scale and long-term change. Our interventions are designed from the ground up, to ensure that Africa’s financial markets better serve those most in need – today, and long after our programmes end.
From our headquarters in Nairobi, our team of over 35 financial sector experts lead ambitious programmes spanning 31 countries across the continent.
FSD Africa is part of a family of 10 financial sector deepening, or FSD programmes, operating across sub-Saharan Africa, known as the FSD Network. Together, the network provides over £50m a year in financial support to high-potential financial market development programmes, and employs over 150 financial sector experts, based in local offices across Africa.
If you have a generic inquiry,
please email info@fsdafrica.org
or call our office on +254 20 402 4000 or +254 729 729 111
For media and press inquiries please email Kaara Wainaina at kaara@fsdafrica.org

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
FSD Africa seeks to build its credibility as a pan-African organisation reflected in its talent pool (that also brings in different perspectives and contributes to the solutions provided by FSD Africa across markets)
Psychological safety for leaders and employees is critical to create an environment where open feedback can be shared with ease across employees
Internal Assessment identified the presence of persistent outgroups especially for
non-managerial staff

Our Mission & Vision
At FSD Africa, our programming is designed to address systemic challenges within Africa’s financial markets, with the aim of sparking large-scale and long-term change

Our Values
To mould sustainable financial systems, enabling them to work more inclusively across Africa.

Our Purpose
Our purpose is to make finance work for Africa’s future by providing tools and resources to drive large-scale change in financial markets and support sustainable economic development.
Our Strategy
As countries begin to recover from the Coronavirus pandemic, we must take the historic opportunity to tackle climate change at the same time – to build back better, and greener.
Alok Sharma, UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) President.
Africa, one of the most climate-vulnerable regions of the world, currently captures just three per cent of sustainable investment flows, showing the challenge for low-income developing countries to capitalise on the green finance boom.
Without the foundational skills, data, regulatory frameworks and policies to support green finance, developing nations will struggle to offer adequate scale, quality and returns for private investors. At the same time, the greening of the global financial system must account for the unique challenges and opportunities in regions outside of Europe and North America or risk entrenching existing barriers to funding.
Our vision & objective
FSD Africa’s vision is that Africa can unlock new pathways to prosperity and resilience while helping the world realise the promise of the Paris Agreement and tackle the dual crises of climate change and biodiversity loss.
We believe that Africa can leapfrog the environmentally damaging development models of the past, by instead establishing a resilient low-carbon economy and enabling its rich natural capital to thrive.
Effective markets empower every dollar of green finance invested in Africa to generate more economic growth, greater community impact and maximum returns for our planet. These markets will attract private green finance to amplify public funds while ensuring capital is directed to the areas where it can generate the greatest outcomes.
This outcome would be a win-win: providing jobs in fast-growing sectors and creating new investment opportunities, while also shielding communities from the worst impacts of the climate crisis and expanding access to life-enhancing goods and services.
Making it happen
As our new report, Financing Africa’s Urban Opportunity shows, dealing with the challenge of climate change and abandoning the old paradigm of development in Africa will require strong leadership and collaboration between government, civil society and the private sector. But the payback will be a more sustainable and liveable future for its citizens. By using our role as a convener and by supporting vital research into this area we can help develop innovative financial solutions that are appropriate to the African context whilst also drawing on international best practices.
At FSD Africa we don’t just provide green finance—we strengthen, diversify and expand the pathways for sustainable investment in Africa, creating the conditions for green finance to flow in greater quantities and with more impact – not just in the short term, but for decades to come in order to instil lasting sustainable change in Africa’s financial markets.
Through the provision of training and technical assistance, we are creating an enabling environment for the issuance of sovereign and corporate green bonds. We also provide early-stage capital to support innovative transactions in sectors of the green economy that have so far failed to attract private capital.
Our Team
From our headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, FSD Africa’s team of over 35 financial sector experts lead ambitious programmes spanning over 31 countries across the continent.
Find out more about what drives our team; their experience, specialisms and interests below.
CEO

Chief Executive Officer
Capital Markets

Director, Capital Markets

Head of Programmes, Capital Markets

Principal Specialist, Capital Markets

Senior Specialist, Capital Markets

Senior Specialist, Capital Markets

Senior Specialist, Capital Markets

Technical Specialist, Capital Markets

Technical Specialist, Green, Capital Markets

Technical Specialist, Capital Markets

Technical Specialist, Capital Markets

Technical Specialist, Green, Capital Markets

Associate, Capital Markets

Assistant, Programmes

Assistant, Capital Markets
Risk and Resilience

Director, Risk & Resilience

Principal, Innovation for Resilience

Senior Manager, Climate Finance

Manager, Nature Programmes

Manager, Engagement

Lead ,Nature Finance & TNFD

Programme Manager, Risk and Resilience

Programme Assistant, Risk and Resilience

Assistant, Risk and Resilience
FSD Africa Investments

Chief Investment Officer, FSD Africa Investments

Head, Investments

Senior Manager, Investments

Principal, Investments

Investment Head - Venture & Early-Stage Financing Vehicles

Manager, Portfolio Risk

Investment Manager, FSD Africa Investments

Associate, Investments

Associate, Investments

Associate, ESG Investments

Analyst, Portfolio Risk

Analyst, Investments

Analyst, Investments

Analyst, Investments

Assistant, Programmes

Assistant, ESG/GLI and Strategic Risk

Associate, Investments
Early-Stage Finance

Director, Early-Stage Finance

Lead, Carbon Markets

Manager, Early-Stage Finance

Assistant Manager, Early-Stage Finance

Manager, Gender-FSD Network

Lead, Gender- FSD Network

Manager, Fragile Communities and States

Assistant, Programmes

Assistant, Programmes
Strategic Communications and Engagement

Ag. Director Strategic Communications

Assistant Manager, Communications

Officer, Communications

Assistant, Programmes
Development Impact

Director, Development Impact

Senior Manager, Development Impact

Senior Specialist, Gender

Manager, Development Impact

Manager, Development Impact

Senior Manager, Research Evidence & Insights

Assistant Manager, Development Impact

Analyst, Development Impact

Programme Assistant, Developmental Impact

Assistant, Development Impact
Corporate Services

Director, Corporate Services

Senior Manager, Operations

Senior Manager, Procurement

Manager, Information Technology (IT)

Assistant Manager, Procurement

Assistant Manager, ERP

Assistant Manager, Information Technology

Officer, Procurement

Office Administrator
Human Resources & Talent Management

Director HR & Talent Management, Human Resource and Talent Management

Senior Manager, Talent

Manager, Learning and Development

Assistant Manager, Human Resources

Assistant, Human Resources
Finance

Lead, Finance

Manager, Financial Accounting

Manager, Financial Analysis

Manager, Investment Accounting

Assistant Director, Risk and Compliance

Manager, Risk and Compliance

Assistant, Risk Manager, Risk & Compliance

Officer, Accounting

Officer, Financial Planning & Analysis

Assistant Accountant, Finance Pillar
Our Board

Chairperson

Non-Executive Director

Non-Executive Director

Non-Executive Director

Non-Executive Director

Non-Executive Director
Our Focus Countries

Our team works alongside governments, business leaders, regulators and policymakers to build ambitious financial sector development programmes.
Alongside our partners, we design and deliver programmes that span more than 28 countries across sub-Saharan Africa. As a regional development agency, we manage a combination of ambitious multi-country programmes and focused, local interventions.
Ethiopia
Overview
Ethiopia’s location gives it a strategic position as a jumping off point in the Horn of Africa, close to the Middle East and its markets. Ethiopia is landlocked, bordering Eritrea, Somalia, Kenya, South Sudan, and Sudan, and has been using neighboring Djibouti’s main port for the last two decades for its international trade. However, with the recent peace agreement with Eritrea, Ethiopia is set to resume accessing the Eritrean ports of Assab and Massawa, as well.
Ghana
Overview
Ghana’s rapid growth (7% in 2017-19) was halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the March 2020 lockdown, and a sharp decline in commodity exports with an overall GDP as low as 0.4%. The economic slowdown had a considerable impact on households. The poverty rate is estimated to have slightly increased from 25% in 2019 to 25.5% in 2020. Ghana’s economy has effectively rebounded from the COVID-19 induced slowdown. Growth is estimated to have reached 4.1% in 2021, is expected to be broad-based in 2022 and projected to reach 5.5% in 2022.
Kenya
Overview
Kenya has a broadly stable and resilient financial sector comprising a number of stakeholder groups – from commercial banks, brokers and insurance companies to pension funds, savings credit cooperatives and fintechs, among other players. The country’s financial system stands out in a global emerging market context for several reasons. For example, since the launch of mobile money in 2007, Kenya’s payments ecosystem has matured into a global success story, supported by innovation-friendly policies, strong connectivity infrastructure and a dynamic cohort of homegrown technology entrepreneurs.
Morocco
Overview
Capital markets in Morocco have gone through a series of reforms over the past decades. The banking sector in Morocco is highly diversified and extensive in its intermediation functions. Eight commercial banks (Attijariwafa Bank (AWB), Banque Populaire du Maroc (BPM), Banque Marocaine du Commerce Exterieur (BMCE), Banque Marocaine du Commerce et de l’Industrie (BMCI), Societe Generale Maroc (SGM), Credit Agricole du Maroc (CAM), Credit Du Maroc (CDM) and Credit Immobilier et Hotelier (CIH) dominate the banking sector in Morocco.
Nigeria
Overview
In 2020, Nigeria experienced its deepest recession in two decades, but growth resumed in 2021 as pandemic restrictions were eased, oil prices recovered, and the authorities implemented policies to counter the economic shock. Nigeria was highly vulnerable to the global economic disruption caused by COVID-19, particularly due to the decline in oil prices. Oil accounts for over 80 percent of exports, a third of banking sector credit, and half of government revenues.
Sudan
Overview
Sudan is the third largest country in Africa with a total area of 1,882,000km2 and 43.85 million inhabitants. The country is sparsely populated. Sudan is geographically located at the crossroads of Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East and stretches across the Red Sea. Sudan shares borders with seven countries including Libya and Egypt to the North, Chad to the West, the Central African Republic to the South-West, South Sudan to the South, Ethiopia to the South-East and Eritrea to the East.