By Ngozi Onyeakusi — The President, African Development Bank Group, Akinwumi Adesina has announced the appointment of Chinelo Anohu-Amazu a highly accomplished international corporate lawyer, as head and senior director of the Africa Investment Forum.

The appointment of Chinelo, a member of the London Stock Exchange Africa Advisory Board, took effect from September 1. She also served as director-general of the National Pension Commission of Nigeria for five years.

With a formidable track record in formulating investment strategies, Anohu-Amazu brings extensive knowledge of institutional investment practice and experience in attracting new capital. She also has expertise in the development of innovative asset classes, spanning pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, private equity and private family wealth funds.

The bank is set to hold the 2019 edition of the Africa Investment Forum on November 11 – 13, in Johannesburg, South Africa, after a successful inaugural edition last year attracted $39 billion in investment interests for bankable deals in Africa.

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

It also provides an unparalleled platform for engagements with African Heads of State and Governments to discuss, in the Forum’s unique “Investment Board Rooms”, policy, business and investment incentives to close transactions in real time.

Adesina said: “I am delighted that Chinelo Anohu is joining us as the Head and Senior Director of the 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 the Africa Investment Forum to drive its global agenda to attract more investments to Africa.”

Anohu 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, Anohu helped to restructure and privatize the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited, Nicon Hilton Hotel and AfriBank, among several others. An adept and sound negotiator, she successfully worked with acquiring entities, liaising and managing complex relationships, including with the Nigerian National Assembly and labor organizations.

Under her leadership as director general of the Nigerian Pension Commission, the number of 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 innovative micro pension structures that created opportunities for informal sector workers to be included in the contributory pension scheme.

Chinelo 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.