Professor Kelly Mua Kingsly
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Substantive Director Representing Group A
Constituency 4 (Angola, Cameroon, Malawi & Zambia)
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Substantive Director Representing Group A
Constituency 4 (Angola, Cameroon, Malawi & Zambia)
Vice Chair of the Board of Directors
Representing C Group Constituency
(Chubb Insurance Bermuda Ltd & Atradius Participations Holding)
Substantive Director Representing A Group
Constituency 1 (Burundi, DRC & Senegal)
Substantive Director, Representing Group A
Constituency 2 (Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda & South Sudan)
Substantive Director Representing Group A
Constituency 3 (Ethiopia, Madagascar, Niger & Zimbabwe)
Alternate Director, Group B
(Republic of India represented by ECGC Ltd)
Substantive Director Representing D1 Group
Constituency 1 (COMESA, TDB, ZEP Re, Africa Re & Kenya Re)
Professor Kelly Mua Kingsly is a distinguished executive with expertise in international financial management, public policy advisory, and financial investigations. With an impressive track record in resource mobilisation, project development, and operations management, he has played a pivotal role in enhancing organisational processes and driving project profitability across various sectors.
Ms. Christina Westholm-Schröder is Sovereign’s Chief Underwriter and Senior Vice President, with more than 35 years of experience in the political risk insurance industry. She is responsible for all aspects of Sovereign’s transactional underwriting and also leads Sovereign’s successful cooperation with multilaterals and ECAs.
Mr. Hugues Toto is a Commercial Engineer from the University of Mons Hainaut in Belgium. He began his career in 1998 at the “Banque de Commerce et Développement ‘’ in Kinshasa. A year later, he joined the Forrest International Group to lead the Cement plant of Lukala (CILU), and as a Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer of the cement segment in which the Forrest Group holds interests in a partnership with Heidelberg Cement Group.
Herbert serves as the Head of the Financial Sector Development Department at Rwanda’s Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning. He has led key financial sector policy reforms and innovations, including the EjoHeza informal sector digital pension scheme, which has become a model for developing countries with over $ 60 million in assets under management and over 3 million subscribers.
Ms. Sekai Chirume is the Managing Director of Zimbabwe’s Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECGC). She has worked at ECGC for over 21 years, where she started as the head of insurance division.
Khadija is a seasoned insurance professional with over three decades of experience in the industry. She has been the Deputy Commissioner of the Tanzania Insurance Regulatory Authority (TIRA) since 2018. In this role, she oversees the registration and conduct of insurers, brokers, and agents, formulates and enforces insurance standards, and recommends regulations to support government policies related to insurance. Her expertise also includes standardising compulsory insurance contracts and ensuring clarity and fairness in insurance terms and conditions.
Maryse LOKOSSOU is an accomplished financial leader with two decades of experience across the private and public sectors. Since July 2023, she serves as the Managing Director of the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC) of Benin, the sovereign public fund, where she leads strategic operations and oversees the management of public interest investments. Known for her strong leadership and vision, Maryse plays a pivotal role in ensuring the financial stability and growth of this key institution.
Before taking up her current role, Maryse was Chief of Staff to the President of the West African Development Bank (BOAD), where she managed during 3 years, the President’s office and spearheaded significant projects, including international rating reviews and key accreditation initiatives. Her ability to lead complex, multi-stakeholder projects was further honed during her 3 years tenure as Technical Advisor to the Minister of Economy and Finance in Benin, where she managed the sovereign rating process and coordinated billion-dollar funding deals.
Maryse’s career began in the private sector, where she held various leadership roles at Société Générale and Fortis Banque France (BNP Paribas), managing financial risk, leading multi-site teams, and overseeing project budgets. Her breadth of experience extends to IT project management and financial analysis, ensuring she brings a well-rounded, technical perspective to her work in development finance.
A graduate of HEC Paris with an Executive MBA, and holding a Master’s in International Banking and Finance, Maryse is recognized not only for her professional achievements but also for her commitment to gender equality and education. She is actively involved in mentoring young girls, supporting charitable projects, and connecting high-potential Beninese professionals through her Benin Talent Pool initiative.
Outside of her professional life, Maryse has been honoured with several prestigious awards, including Best Gender-Sensitive Leader by the African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program and the title of Officer of the National Order of Merit in Benin.
Mr. Ambastha is the Executive Director and Chairman-cum-Managing Director (Additional Charge) of ECGC Ltd., a premier state export credit agency in India. He began his career at ECGC in 1995 and has served in various capacities across different offices nationwide.
Over his 28 years with the company, he has overseen significant aspects of the business, particularly in the short-term export credit insurance sector. This includes providing insurance for exporters and export working capital lending by banks, covering both fundbased and non-fund-based facilities extended to exporters. He has also been involved in audit and compliance, serving as the head of the Internal Audit Division and Vigilance Department, among other roles.
Under his leadership, ECGC services more than 13,000 export accounts across 4,000 bank branches of 21 banks through its working capital insurance program. Additionally, the organization supports over 7,000 exporters with around 11,500 covers for export receivables. He holds a postgraduate degree in political science, an MBA in Marketing, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Human Resource Management.
Dr. Dev Haman brings over three decades of professional experience spanning the private sector, public sector, and regional intergovernmental organisations at senior management levels within Africa. His extensive career includes diverse senior management roles in Mauritius, where he served as a Senior Auditor in a public accounting firm, Chief Internal Auditor in a parastatal body, and Head of Finance and Administration at Mauritius Telecoms.
Dr. Haman eventually transitioned to the COMESA Secretariat, where he currently serves as Assistant Secretary- General (Administration and Finance) since July 2018. Prior to this, he spent 8 years as the Director of Budget and Finance, overseeing financial services and strategic planning, and another decade as the Chief Internal Auditor, playing a crucial role in promoting good corporate governance and risk management practices. Since 2018, he also sits on the Board of the Zambia Institute of Leadership. He also sits on the Board of Directors of ZEPRE as an alternate Director from 24th June 2022. He also sits on the Board of Directors of the Africa Leather products and Leather Institute, and the Committee of the Central Banks Governors.
He is an FCCA (Fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants of UK) and post graduate member of the Institute of Internal Auditors, USA. His educational background also includes a Doctor of Management, a Doctor of Financial Management, and a Doctor of Business Administration, among other advanced degrees and certifications.
He contributes greatly to the realisation of vision, mission, and purpose of COMESA and its institutions, to create an Africa we want. He believes in economic and social integration as a developmental tool for Africa.
He is married to Sabita Devi Haman and they have three children.
Mr. Ahmed Rashad Attout, an Egyptian citizen, is a seasoned and results oriented banker, with a special emphasis on capital markets, sovereign, and corporate finance. He has over 24 years of banking experience in Africa and the Middle East and is currently the Director of the Financial Sector Development Department of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB).
In this role he has been instrumental in establishing client-facing financial markets operations and executing key financial markets-funded and unfunded operations worth over $8.5 billion across more than 40 African countries. He has also been pivotal in crafting strategies to develop and broaden Africa’s financial sector using various bank products and instruments.
Mr. Ahmed Rashad Attout has spearheaded several initiatives to develop Africa’s capital markets, including the Capital Markets Development Trust Fund, which supports countries in developing their capital markets, and the Africa Exchange Linkage Project, which aims to integrate Africa’s Stock Exchanges. His work also includes leading sovereign and non-sovereign financial market transactions, broadening funding sources for various African financial entities, and structuring liquidity schemes to address funding challenges.
Before joining the African Development Bank Group, he worked at Banque Audi as Corporate Relationship Manager, at the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa as Financial Officer in the Loans and Disbursement Department, and at Société Générale Bank as an Investment Officer in the Corporate Finance Department. He holds an MSc in Management of International Development from the University of Turin, Italy, and a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Sadat Academy for Management Sciences, Cairo, Egypt.
Mr. Mignano is a highly qualified executive with over 25 years of progressive experience in the field of Export Credit. Mr. Mignano is currently the Head of the International Network of SACE and is responsible for the coordination of 14 overseas offices in emerging markets, including three offices in Africa (Cairo, Johannesburg and Rabat).
Mr. Mignano has worked at different positions including holding senior management levels in SACE. He started his career as a Risk Analyst at SACE then rose to senior positions as head of various departments covering different sectors within and outside Italy and eventually becoming the current Head of International Network at SACE.
Mr. Mignano holds a Bachelor Degree in Economics from University of Rome “La Sapienza” (cum laude). He also worked as a research and teaching assistant at the Department of Public Finance at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and carried out research work on business cycle dynamics by applying econometric models.
Mr. Omari Issa is a Tanzanian national with extensive professional experience in the public and private sectors, having held leadership positions in the U.S., Europe and further covered markets in Asia and Latin America.
In May 2024, he was sworn in as Commissioner, President’s Office Planning Commission of Tanzania. Mr. Issa is the Chancellor of the Nelson Mandela African Institute of Science and Technology (NM-AIST) in Tanzania.
Mr. Issa served as CEO of the Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete Foundation. He was the CEO of the President’s Delivery Bureau – an institution established to oversee implementation of Tanzania’s Public Delivery Transformation Programme termed Big Results Now (BRB). Previously he held the role of CEO of the Investment Climate Facility for Africa (ICF). In this position, Mr. Issa was responsible for managing the ICF’s seven-year programme to improve Africa’s investment climate and remove barriers to growth.
He has first-hand experience of doing business in Africa, having previously worked as Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of Celtel International, where he covered 13 African countries and Belgium and played an instrumental role in managing Celtel’s growth and expansion across the continent.
Mr. Issa started his career in 1972, as an engineer with East Africa Posts and Telecommunications Corporation based in Tanzania and Kenya where he lastly held the position of Deputy Chief Engineer and Chief of Long and Short-Term Planning. Upon completing his MBA at Columbia University in 1980, he moved to the World Bank in Washington where he spent six years working as a financial analyst. Subsequently, Omari joined the IFC in Washington where he held various positions over a fourteen-year period, lastly as Chief Investment Officer.
Mr. Issa is a member of the International Advisory Council of China Investment Corporation. He chaired the Board of the Tanzania Electric Supply Company. Mr. Issa chaired the Amref Health Africa International Board and served on the CTBC Board in Brazil, the Rwanda Development Board and as an Independent Non-Executive Director at Millicom International Cellular SA. He chaired the Tanzania Telecommunications Company Board as well as Celtel Boards in Tanzania, Gabon and the DRC.
Mr. Issa holds an MBA from Columbia University, New York and a Bachelor of Science (Hons) from the Polytechnic of Central London. He is fluent in English, Swahili and French.