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FSD Africa, the UK’s flagship financial sector programme in Africa, has announced the appointment of a chairperson and independent directors to its board. Frannie Leautier has been appointed as the Board Chair along with David Muchoki Kanja, Greta Bull and Kanini Mutooni as independent Directors.

Frannie Léautier, is highly experienced in finance and development, with a PhD in civil engineering. She joins the Board as Chair having previously held senior leadership roles at the World Bank, the African Development Bank and Trade and Development Bank Group. She replaces Vincent Rague who stepped down after serving for seven years as the Chairperson of the Board.

David Kanja is a former Assistant Secretary-General for the Office of Internal Oversight Services at the United Nations and a former chair of UNICEF’s independent Audit Advisory Committee. Greta Bull is a Director of Women’s Economic Empowerment at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the former CEO of CGAP.

Kanini Mutooni is the Managing Director of the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, a US foundation that invests in entrepreneurs providing private sector solutions to global problems. She is also a former chair of the Global Innovation Fund, an investment vehicle supported by the UK, US, Canadian, Australian and Swedish Governments.

The appointments come as FSD Africa, which is funded by the UK’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), is moving into a new phase of growth. The new phase aims to strengthen its role as a provider and an enabler of green finance in Africa. This is anchored on a strategy that emphasises the development of capital markets, risk markets and the digital economy.

“Their extraordinary wealth of experience and deep understanding of the African context will be a huge asset as we move into a new phase of growth which will see our role as both a provider and an enabler of green finance in Africa grow strongly in prominence,” FSD Africa stated on the appointments.