2025 Speakers

Fulvio is a Development Finance specialist with more than 20 years of experience. During his career, Fulvio has worked with international organizations, finance institutions and private businesses on a wide range of programmes and initiatives around the world, primarily focusing on risk mitigation instruments to mobilise private finance at scale and deliver sustainable impact. He currently leads the EU Commission work on the European Fund for Sustainable Development Plus – guarantees for private investments. Before re-joining the EC in 2020, Fulvio worked as Team Leader for the UK Department for International Cooperation (DFID, now FCDO) coordinating and managing the organisation’s effort to catalyse impactful private investments towards Emerging and Frontier Markets. Fulvio is a political science graduated (University of Naples, Italy) with MA in Economic Development and specialisation in credit risk analysis

Samira Mensah is Managing Director Research & Analytics Africa and Country Head – South Africa. She is responsible for S&P Global Ratings’ thought leadership and market outreach strategy across the continent.

She has been with S&P Global for 17 years and is based in Johannesburg. Most recently, she was a director and lead analyst in the Financial Services Ratings team and covered financial institutions, multilateral lending institutions, sovereign ratings and Islamic Finance in Africa. 

Samira’s risk management experience started at the Montreal Exchange (TMX Group) where she was a market and credit risk analyst for several years. She then joined S&P Global Ratings in London in 2008. There, she covered asset managers, stock exchanges and clearing houses across Europe, after which she focused on financial services, including insurance credit ratings in the Middle East and Africa. 

As a specialist of emerging credit markets and Islamic Finance, she has published credit research and speaks regularly at conferences on related topics.

Mr. Paul Abiagam, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Coronation Merchant Bank, brings over 27 years of distinguished experience in the financial services industry. With a strong foundation in finance and accounting, he began his career at the former Diamond Bank Plc, where he advanced through various roles, gaining extensive expertise in commercial and corporate banking.

In 2005, he joined Guaranty Trust Bank, where he held several key leadership positions, including General Manager, Divisional Head of Commercial Banking, and Corporate Banking respectively. He also served as a Non-Executive Director at Guaranty Trust Bank, Côte d’Ivoire, further demonstrating his strategic acumen and business market expertise. In 2022, he was appointed Managing Director and CEO of Guaranty Trust Pension Managers.

He is a Fellow of both the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA – UK), and an Honorary Senior member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (HCIBN). As an alumnus of the Lagos Business School and the Nanyang Business School, Singapore respectively, he combines critical insights with local expertise in the financial services market.

His career spans banking, pensions and fund management, strategy, investment banking, and risk management. Paul’s deep understanding of the Nigerian and West African financial markets positions him as a transformative leader driving innovation and sustainable growth in the financial services sector.

Karim M. KONE is a banking and investment executive with an international experience across North America, Europe and Africa. He currently acts as Deputy CEO of Atlantic Financial Group (AFG Holding), in charge of the banking business.

For the past 3 years, Salma has been in charge of coordinating the Strategy Task Force, a group of directors who carry out strategic thinking. Salma, Deputy Managing Director – Group Strategy at the Bank of Africa, is passionate about the banking business, which she sees as a key driver of economic development and the social health of individuals.

At the same time, Salma is a director of subsidiaries of the BANK OF AFRICA Group and a member of their risk and audit committees: SALAFIN, Maroc Factoring. She also sits on the Board of BOA Group, the holding company for African banking subsidiaries.

A graduate of the Institut Supérieur du Commerce in Paris and holder of the Certificate of Independent Directors, Salma has 30 years’ experience in the banking sector: Banque Commerciale du Maroc, now Attijariwafa bank, Société Générale in Morocco, then BMCE, now BANK OF AFRICA. Salma’s career spans 4 years, which has given her a wealth of experience: trade finance in Paris, then Casablanca, large corporates and SMEs. Her experience as Chairman of Maroc Factoring rounded out her knowledge of the SME market through factoring and credit insurance instruments.

He specialises in financing companies and understanding their ecosystems, a fundamental area of work for healthy, long-term relations between companies and banks.

Egyptian citizen, brings over 24 years of experience in financial sector development, sovereign and corporate finance in Africa and the Middle East. He has served as Acting Director of the Department since November 2022.

Since joining the Bank in January 2010, Attout has held several key positions, including Senior Financial Analyst, Principal Capital Markets Officer, Chief Capital Markets Officer, and Division Manager of Capital Markets Development.

In these roles, 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.

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.

Attout represents the Bank on the Sustainability-linked Sovereign Debt Hub, as a substantive Board Member of the African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI), and an Alternate Board Member at ZEP-RE (PTA Reinsurance Company).

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 Analyst and Specialist in the Loans and Disbursement Department, and at Société Générale Bank as a Financial Analyst in the Corporate Finance Department.

Andrew Uaboi serves as Vice President for Visa West Africa. In his role, he spearheads portfolio management across the region and fosters relationships with clients, partners, and governments in line with Visa’s global strategies. A highly experienced corporate leader, Andrew possesses over 20 years of professional work experience spanning the telecoms, banking & payments industries, specializing in sales, customer relationship management, project management, and product management. Prior to his current position, Andrew had spent seven years at Visa, holding several roles and most recently led the firm’s operations in Nigeria as the Country Manager where he drove the rapid expansion of the business and the growth of the company’s presence in the market. Andrew holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Ibadan and certifications in a broad range of areas including retail banking and business negotiations, among others.

Mr. Hilali started his career as a Fixed Income portfolio manager in Crédit du Maroc Gestion before joining OCP, The Moroccan Phosphate Company, in the finance department. In 2007, he joined the investment team of Wafa Gestion, an investment management company subsidiary of both Attijariwafa Bank and Amundi Asset Management, before being appointed Chief Investment Officer in 2012 then Chief Executive Officer in 2016. In 2021, Mr. Hilali was elected president of ASFIM, The association of management companies and investment funds.
Mr. Hilali holds an engineering degree in computer science from Ecole Nationale de l’Industrie Minérale in Rabat (ENIM) as well as the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation. 
Mr. Hilali is 43 years old, married and father of two children.

Serge-Philippe BAILLY, Chairman of MANSA BANK, is a seasoned economist and banker. He has more than 30 years’ experience in the banking and financial sector, mainly in the following areas:

• Client Manager and Deputy Director of BIAO Côte d’Ivoire from 1984 to 1996.
  Vice-President of CITIBANK N.A. ABIDJAN from 1997 to 2000.
• Deputy Business Manager, Director, Head of Originations and Customer Coverage and then CEO of STANDARD CHARTERED BANK (SCB) Côte d’Ivoire from 2004 to 2014.
• Serge was also a member of the Board of SCB Cameroon, a member of the European Chamber of Commerce and a founding member of the British Chamber of Commerce in Côte d’Ivoire.

He holds a Master’s degree in Economics from the UNIVERSITY OF ABIDJAN and a professional diploma in Banking Economics.

Kwamina Duker, known as “K”, is currently the CEO of the Development Bank of Ghana.

K Duker brings a wealth of experience in finance and investments, particularly Treasury and FX trading. With over 30 years of experience in leadership roles across different geographies including Ghana, the UK, and Asia.

K has particular experience in leading major FX technology platforms and treasury in Europe, the Americas, and the Asia Pacific.

K was formerly the Managing Director of Dwennimmen Group Company Limited, an advisory firm that is passionate about connecting world-class expertise to Africa. Prior to this, he was the Managing Director for the Asia Pacific at OANDA where he had full oversight responsibilities of the company’s operations in the region. Prior to OANDA , K was an executive director at Deutsche Bank and HSBC

He has previously served on various Boards including Consolidated Bank Ghana, Executive Committee member of OANDA, and Fidelity Bank Ghana.

K holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of California and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Barking University, Essex, U.K.

Before joining Jeune Afrique Media Group in 2016 and launching Jeune Afrique Business+, Gaëlle Arenson was editor-in-chief at Indigo Publications, where she notably directed Africa Mining Intelligence and the Mining Insiders collection. She holds a B.A. Hons. in International Relations from the University of Kent (UK), a DESS from the University of Paris XIII in partnership with the Institute of International and Strategic Relations, and is a graduate of the Institut Pratique de Journalisme.