AfDB appoints Chinelo Anohu as Director Africa Investment Forum

The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) has appointed former Director General of the National Pension Commission (PenCom) Mrs. Chinelo Anohu, as head and senior Director of Africa Investment Forum.

AfDB President Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, confirmed the appointment which took effect from 1st September, 2019.

Anohu, a member of the London Stock Exchange Africa Advisory Board, served as Director General of the National Pension Commission of Nigeria (PenCom) for five years.

The AfDB described Chinelo Anohu as having an impressive “record in formulating investment strategies. Chinelo brings extensive knowledge of institutional investment practice and experience in attracting new capital, expertise in the development of innovative asset classes spanning pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, private equity and private family wealth fund.”

The AfDB’s inaugural African Investment Forum, which held in 2018 attracted $39billion in investment interests for bankable deals in Africa. The second edition of the forum is scheduled to hold in November this year.

According to the AfDB: “The Africa Investment Forum has become Africa’s premier multi-stakeholder transactional platform for leveraging investments from private sector, African and global financial institutions, global pension funds and sovereign wealth funds and other institutional investors.”

Speaking on the appointment, Dr. Adesina said he was delighted that Anohu “is joining us as the Head, and Senior Director of Africa Investment Forum. Her can-do-attitude, leadership, hands-on experience in working with global pension funds and institutional investors and extensive global networks among institutional investors will significantly position and help tje African Investment Forum to drive its global agenda to attract more investment to Africa.”

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Chinelo began her professional career as an Attorney with the global oil conglomerate, Chevron, Nigeria.

She worked in legal and financial services firms in Nigeria and the United Kingdom before joining the Nigerian Bureau of Public Enterprises, the implementation agency for the reform and privatization of state-owned enterprises.

As a consultant assigned by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), she helped to restructure and privatize the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited, Nicon Hilton Hotel and AfriBank, among several others.

Under her leadership as Director General of the Nigerian Pension Commission, the number of pension contributors rose from 5 million to close to 8 million, while assets under management grew from $19.3 billion to a record $42 billion. She also introduced micro pension structures that created opportunities for informal sector workers to be included in the contributory pension scheme.

She also created the first ever World Pension Summit Africa, which was held in Africa three years in a row, and convened global financial experts across the pension industry.

She graduated in 1996 with a Bachelor of Law from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Master’s degree in Computer and Communications Law from the London School of Economics in 2000.

She has studied at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, USA and the Insead Business School, France.