The African Development Bank Group has appointed Dr Kapil Kapoor as Director General, Southern Africa Regional Development and Business Delivery Office, effective September 1, 2018.
Dr Kapoor, a citizen of India, has been the Director for Strategy and Operational Policies since February 2012, when he joined the African Development Bank. He has an established track record of effectively engaging national governments in high level policy dialogue, catalyzing policy change in a variety of difficult economic and political settings and supporting development initiatives through innovative project finance. He had earlier worked as a manager and development economist with the World Bank, where he managed an annual portfolio of projects in excess of $1 billion.
He has led numerous development initiatives in diverse country settings, ranging from fragile states like Afghanistan and Somalia, to small island economies like Mauritius and Sri Lanka, to large and fast growing economies like Bangladesh and India.
In his capacity as Director of Strategy and Operational Policies, he helped to lead the preparation of several strategies for the Bank Group, including the Bank’s Ten Year Strategy and Private Sector Development Strategy. As Acting Vice President for Sector Operations, he provided leadership for the preparation of the Feed Africa and Jobs for Youth strategies of the Bank. He led the process for amending the Bank’s Credit Policy to enable eligible African Development Fund countries to get access to the African Development Bank resources, a move that has enabled the Bank to significantly scale up its support to Africa’s least developed economies. More recently, he guided the preparation for the Bank’s new Results Based Lending Policy.
As the Bank’s Sherpa for the Heads of Multilateral Development Banks group, he routinely organized high level exchanges with leaders of multilateral finance institutions to shape thinking on issues impacting international financial architecture. As the Bank’s representative to the G20, he played a central role in the development and implementation of the Compact with Africa initiative. As a member of the Senior Management Coordinating Committee and the Bank’s Operations Committee, a key aspect of his role in recent years has been to build strong relationships across the Bank, to help complexes succeed in the work that they are doing and to promote a “one-Bank” culture.
Dr. Kapoor holds a PhD degree in Economics from the George Washington University, USA. Prior to joining the African Development Bank Group in 2012, he held a series of senior positions with the World Bank Group, including the World Bank’s Representative for Uganda and Zambia and the World Bank’s Sector Manager for its poverty reduction, economic management and governance programme in Asia.
Commenting on his appointment, Dr.. Kapoor said: “I am excited and truly honoured to be appointed as the Director General for Southern Africa. I look forward to leveraging my diverse experience from within and outside the African Development Bank to build a healthy, high impact sustainable business in the Southern Africa region through an engaged skilled workforce across the region.”
The President of the African Development Bank Group, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina said of the appointment “Dr. Kapoor brings wide experience and a deep knowledge of the operations of the Bank. He has provided rich strategic thought leadership for the Bank’s Strategy formulation and understands well the New Business Delivery Model of the Bank. Kapil’s depth of experience in high level policy dialogue, stakeholder engagement and his deep knowledge and experience in the Southern Africa region will further help in our drive for accelerated delivery and greater impacts for the Bank’s investments in the Southern Africa Region”.
President Adesina added: “I wish to thank Dr Josephine Ngure, who has been acting as the Director General for the past one year, for having stepped up and delivered outstanding work, providing leadership, direction and support for the Bank’s staff and operations in the region. I wish her continued success in her substantive role as Deputy Director General. I am confident that Kapil and Josephine will together help to drive the business of the Bank effectively”.