Équipe FIRM

Désiré has been with the African Development Bank since August 2005. He is Director of the Resource Mobilization and External Finance Department which oversees the African Development Fund, partnerships, trust funds, and co-financing. Désiré also served as Director of the Operational Policies Department, and Director of the Research Department of the African Development Bank. Prior to joining the Bank, Désiré was Professor of Economics at HEC Montréal, Université de Montréal, Canada. Désiré holds a Ph.D. in Economics (Queen’s University, Canada) and a Magistère Ingénieur-Économiste (Université d’Aix-Marseille II, France). He is a resource person for the African Economic Research Consortium. Desire is a citizen of Mauritius.

Extension: 2076

Rhoda Bangurah currently Team Assistant in the front office of FIRM, has more than twenty years of office management in both corporate and international organizations. Before joining the Bank, she worked as a Receptionist/Telex Operator at the African Caribbean and Pacific House in Brussels Belgium. She also worked with Arthur Young & Co., the MCI Telecommunications Corporation, and the Latin American and Caribbean region of the World Bank all in Washington, DC. She holds several administrative and office management diplomas from Pitman’s of London and the London School of Data Processing. She created the design and templates of two of the flagship publications of the Bank, namely the African Development Report and the African Development Review.

Extension: 2876

Ms. Dabady is an experienced development professional with a focus on Africa. A transactional and policy lawyer by training, she has worked on award winning deals in Africa in the power, equity funds and transportation sectors. Throughout her career, she has also negotiated financing to sovereign African countries including Ethiopia, Tanzania, Egypt, Rwanda and Burkina Faso. From 2009-2012, she was Advisor to the Vice-President in charge of country programs and policy and worked closely on the re-engagement strategy with Zimbabwe and setting up the Bank’s first country specific trust fund for that country, focusing on emergency operations in the power and water sectors. Ms. Dabady also served as Advisor to the Vice-President responsible for the return of the African Development Bank to its Headquarters in Abidjan in 2013, a major change management exercise involving the move of 5000 staff and their families from Tunis to Abidjan. She is currently the Manager in charge of resource mobilization and partnerships (sovereign and traditional donors) for the concessional financing window serving 37 low income African countries and immediately before that, she was responsible for the management of the relationship with non-traditional donors and philanthropic organizations, including the Gates Foundation and the European Union. Prior to joining the African Development Bank, she worked at the law firms of Baker & McKenzie and O’Melveny & Myers in New York and received her JD from Harvard Law School (’92) and her bachelor of arts from Brown University (’89).

SEFI Malek works as a senior resource mobilization officer since April 2019. Before that, he worked as a senior data analyst consultant for over eight years at several departments of the African Development Bank. Malek manages the resource allocation framework for the African Development Funds, including its Performance-Based Allocation system (PBA), the regional Operations Envelope and country allocations for transition States. Malek has considerable knowledge of the Bank Group operational policies and financing instruments for low-income countries. Malek is a Tunisian Citizen, he holds a master’s degree in information management systems, and Network Security.

O’Neil brings over 16 years of solid experience in areas ranging from development finance, project finance, resource mobilization, co-financing PPPs, international economic policy work, institutional relationships, business development, journalism, event management & communication. Prior to joining the Bank in 2018, O’Neil worked with the India Exim Bank as Assistant General Manager and over a 13 years period served in various departments including ODA, Research & Analysis, Export Services and Project Finance. O’Neil comes with considerable Africa experience having worked as the Regional Head of India Exim Bank’s West Africa Office in Dakar, Senegal covering 23 countries during 2007-2012 period. From 2015 to 2017 O’Neil was seconded by India Exim Bank to the AfDB as a Co-financing and PPP Expert. Currently, O’Neil coordinates and manages the Secretariat of the ADF Project Preparation Facility (PPF), manages bank’s relationship with the US, Germany and Spain. O’Neil holds an Advanced Degree in International Economic Policy from the Institute for World Economy (IFW Kiel, Germany) and a Master’s Degree in Economics (University of Hyderabad, India). O’Neil also holds various certificates, including, project & investment appraisal, humanitarian & social assistance, digital financial services & payment systems, journalism & mass communication and computer applications.

Hervé has a vast experience in asset-liability management as well as assessing liquidity risks, developing work programs and budgets, mobilizing resources, and managing partnerships. He is now managing the institutional relationship between the African Development Bank Group and some key donors of the Bank Group. He was involved in negotiations with donors on key initiatives such as the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) and the Canada Africa Climate Change Facility. He filled various roles in Risk Management, Budget, and Resources Mobilizations departments. Prior to joining the African Development Bank Group in 2010, he worked in risk management consulting in Paris. Of French nationality, Hervé holds two Master’s Degree: one in Hydraulics from ENGREF (Paris) and the other in Finance from ESSEC Business School (Paris). He is passionate about the analysis on indigenous investment in Africa its impact on the transformation and the sustainable and inclusive development of the continent.

Laurent Achi joined the Bank in 2015 in the Treasury department where he was in charge of processing Bank’s investment and borrowing activities in the capital markets. He has acquired a strong experience of the functioning of Multilateral Development Banks and their financial challenges. Committed to development, he joined the Sovereign Division of the Resource Mobilization and Partnerships Department in 2019 where he contributes to the shaping, replenishment, and follow-up of the AfDB’s concessional window: the African Development Fund (ADF). He also coordinates AfDB’s resource mobilization and partnerships efforts with France, Norway and Finland. Laurent has a corporate and market finance background. Before joining the Bank, he has had professional experiences in asset management and syndicated financings in developing countries.

Rosa joined the Bank in July 2019, bringing 15 years of resource mobilization, strategic planning and advising, and program development experience. Before coming to Cote d’Ivoire, she worked principally at United Nations agencies, based at headquarters and in country offices in seven countries. Rosa has been part of teams that achieved a record replenishment for IFAD, assessed progress against Tajikistan’s PRSP objectives, delivered WFP’s response to slow-onset food insecurity in Senegal, and developed UNICEF’s post-crisis multi-sectoral country strategy in Haiti, among others. She holds an MPA from New York University and an MA from Tufts University.

Mrs. Ada Esther Adi-Tity is currently a Team Assistant with the sovereign division in the African Development Bank’s Resource Mobilization and External Finance Department (FIRM). Prior to joining the Bank, she worked with British Council, Nigeria. She has over 15 years working experience within international development and private sector both in the United Kingdom and Africa. Ada holds a MA in Education, Health Promotion, and International Development from University College London (UCL) and a BA in International Relations and International Development from London Metropolitan University with a Post Graduate Diploma in HIV/AIDs & Social Development from Concepts College London, United Kingdom.