Zubairu becomes AFC’s third president

Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), has announced the appointment of Samaila D. Zubairu as the Corporation’s third President and Chief Executive Officer, succeeding Andrew Alli who comes to the end of his tenor, having successfully served in the position since 2008.

Zubairu is a distinguished Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and an accomplished Infrastructure development finance specialist with over 29 years of professional experience.

He is the Chief Executive Officer of Africapital Management Limited, in which position he established a joint venture with Old Mutual’s African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM) to develop the Nigerian Infrastructure Investment Fund1 (NIIF1) for infrastructure private equity across West Africa.

He also recently coordinated the US$300 million acquisition of Eko Electricity Distribution Plc.

He was the pioneer CFO for Dangote Cement Plc, during which he launched Africa’s largest syndicated project finance facility for a local corporate to actualize the Obajana Cement project and managed the watershed unbundling of Dangote Industries Limited to listed subsidiaries on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
He has led finance transactions for over US$3 billion covering: green-field project finance facilities, acquisitions, corporate transformation initiatives, privatisation and equity capital market transactions.

Samaila is an Eisenhower Fellow and sits on the Eisenhower Fellowship’s Global Network Council as well as the President’s Advisory Council.

He is also an Advisory Board member for KSE Africa a leading Operations and Management provider of captive power plants in the mining sector of Botswana and Nigeria and is the Chairman of MDSA Nigeria limited, a fintech company providing micro loans across sub-Saharan Africa.

Samaila is the Independent Director and Chairman Statutory Audit Committee as well as a member of Finance and General-Purpose and Establishment and Governance Committees of Aiico Insurance Plc. He also serves as an Independent Director and Chairman of the Finance Committee for New Nigeria Commodity Marketing Company.