Speakers
A pool of industry specialist speakers has been identified comprising of representatives from Africa’s key markets. The specialists include pension funds professionals, regulators, pensions associations, DFI’s, Sovereign wealth funds, family offices and high net-worth individuals, subject matter specialists in finance, investment, governance, asset and fund management, and other financial services intermediaries.
- Southern Africa
- East and Central Africa
- West/North Africa
- Indian Ocean Islands
Nicole Martens
UNPRI
In her role of Head of Africa & Middle East for the PRI, Nicole’s focus is on identifying and addressing the needs of African investors with respect to integrating ESG into investment processes in an effort to foster the maximisation of long-term sustainable financial returns across the continent. Prior to joining the PRI Nicole’s career as a development economist has focused on supporting local and international organisations across the public and private sector in the design and implementation of strategies aimed at achieving large-scale developmental impact in Africa
Simon Wafubwa
Enwealth Financial Services, Kenya
Mr. Simon Wafubwa is the founder and Managing Director of Enwealth Financial Services Limited, a company operating in Kenya, Uganda and Mauritius. Enwealth is the fastest growing, most innovative and customer centric pension administration and consulting services provider with an asset portfolio of above USD 700 Million in the last 10 years.
Semoli Mokhanoi
Mergence
Semoli started his career at Mergence in February 2017. He completed his MBA in Strategy in 2018 and holds a BCom Accounting degree. His career started with Momentum Actuaries and Consultants and was later promoted to an investment consultant. In 2006 he joined Metropolitan Asset Management as a business development manager. In 2008 he joined SYm|mETRY Multi Managers (now Old Mutual Multi Managers) as a business development executive. Semoli’s successes include setting up Old Mutual Life Assurance Company of South Africa (OMLACSA) in Lesotho, introducing a partnership between Old Mutual Kenya and the government of Uganda, and designing an administration strategy for the Government of Malawi through Old Mutual Malawi. Semoli serves on several boards as a non-executive director and continues to apply his entrepreneurial skills to penetrate the African market as Regional Investments Strategist for Mergence Investment Managers. In November 2019, he was also appointed as Director SADC and Head of Business Development.
Nicola Comninos
Johannesburg Stock Exchange
Nicola Comninos, Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) is currently the Group Chief Risk Officer of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). She is the chairman of the JSE Pension Fund Board and the JSE Group Model and New Products Committees. She participates in various industry committees, including the WFE (World Federation of Exchanges) Enterprise Risk Working Group, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) Financial Sector Contingency Forum (FSCF), the CFA South Africa Society Risk & Governance Committee and the IRMSA (Institute of Risk Management of South Africa) Risk Intelligence Committee.
With 15 years’ experience in financial markets, her previous roles include Managing Director of Nautilus Group, a Hedge Fund Platform, a wholly owned subsidiary of JSE Group; and heading various functions including Group Strategy, Sustainability, Key Account Management, Equities and Equity Derivatives and Business Intelligence. Previous roles outside the JSE include Investment Consulting and Life Investment Product Development.
Her qualifications include B.Com Honours and B.Com Investment Management degrees (both Cum Laude). She is the co-head of Women in ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) South Africa (WE SA) chapter; and is a member of IRMSA, CFA Institute, the CFA South Africa Society, and the Institute of Directors of SA (IoDSA). She is a mentor for GirlIgnite Africa Acadamy as well as the WE SA and EMPOWR mentorship programmes. She has two sons.
Hubert Danso
Africa investor (Ai)
AUDA Continental Business Network (CBN)
AiSWPFF
After completing his tenure as a public prosecutor and then magistrate, Henry joined the Legal Department of the Broker Services Division at Sanlam, where he later transferred to the Group Benefits Department in the role of Senior Legal Consultant. Henry closed his career at Sanlam as Senior Manager of the Negotiated Benefits Market.
In 1998, Henry joined the Alexander Forbes fold as Chief Executive Officer of the group’s Swaziland operation, Swaziland Employee Benefits. During his tenure, Henry additionally served on the Government’s Tax Advisory Committee and played an active role in writing Swaziland’s new Pension Funds Act.
On his return to South Africa, Henry joined the Momentum Group as Head of Employee Wealth in Momentum Wealth, where he oversaw the establishment of one of the first and most successful investment choice umbrella retirement funds in South Africa.
Henry has also held executive level positions with Standard Bank and at Tennant Benefit Consultants, where he was a Director and shareholder.
Over the course of his 30 years in the financial services industry, Henry has consulted for some of South Africa’s largest employer groups and international conglomerates.
Well-versed in working with Trade Unions and Trade Union Negotiated Provident Funds, Henry is regarded as an expert on retirement fund matters, in particular matters relating to fund governance, and participates regularly in industry forums addressing various aspects of retirement fund management best practice. Henry served as principal officer and independent trustee on several large funds, ranging in size from a couple of hundred members to more than 100 000 members and assets more than R 10 billion.
Lindiwe Mafavureh
LCM Capital, Botswana
Lindiwe Mafavuneh is a value driven entrepreneur with an insatiable drive to contribute impactful innovative solutions to the development of Botswana and the rest of the African region. She is the Founder & CEO of LCM Capital, an Alternative Investment Company in Botswana with primary focus on Impact Investing. She is an international Investment Specialist with 15+ years experience gained from Fortune 500 Companies in the USA and Ireland and Startup experience in Botswana. A passionate innovator and value creator who created Botswana’s first digital Impact Investing Magazine through LCM Capital Research & Analytics Unit and was recently listed on the Lioness of Africa Most Exciting Botswana Women Entrepreneurs Brand Builders List. She graduated with honours from Rider University in the USA with a BSBA in Actuarial Science and Finance. Also holds an MBA with a specialization in Finance.
She is a Fellow Chartered Certified Accountant (ACCA UK) and an Associate Member of Botswana Institute of Chartered Accountants. She currently sits on the Botswana Institute of Chartered Accountants Technical Committee.
Tresford Chiyavula
Pensions & Insurance Authority, Zambia
- Tresford Chiyavula is a social security expert with over 22 years of experience in the social security industry. He is currently the Deputy Registrar for pension supervision at the Pensions and Insurance Authority. He joined the Authority in 2018. His duties, includes, • Enforcement of provisions of Pension Scheme Regulation Act in order to ensure a stable and reliable Pension industry in Zambia.
- Formulation and enforcement of standards of conduct for Pension schemes business and Trusts in the country in order to ensure compliance with acceptable Pension administration practices and standards.
- Oversees the registration process of operators in the Pension industry in accordance with the provisions of the Pension Scheme Regulation Act, checking processed applications and accompanying documentations as well as statutory requirements are met.
- Drafts national policies for the pension industry in consultation with the industry to ensure that evolved national policies are based on expert opinion and experience of the Authority.
Before joining the Pensions and Insurance Authority, Tresford was the Head of Contributions and Benefits at the Local Authorities Superannuation Fund in Zambia for 13 years. He was responsible for the contribution functions of the Fund and the payments of benefits including setting up the systems. Prior to that, Tresford worked for the National Pension Scheme Authority as the Assistant Manager for Research and Actuarial Division for 7 years. His key role was to manage the research and actuarial functions to ensure financial sustainability of the Scheme and also to improve on the contingencies offered, extension of coverage and generally service delivery. Tresford is a member of the Technical Committee on the social security reforms in Zambia and was the Vice Chair for the Zambia Association of Pension Fund. He is a frequent speaker at Local and international fora such as the International Social Security Association on social security and regulatory matters. Married with children, Tresford stays in Lusaka, Zambia and is interested in farming, quantitative analysis, writing, reading, listening to music, social excursions. Tresford has a Masters in Business Administration Degree and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Zambia in Mathematics and Statistics.
Derrick Msibi
Stanlib Asset Management, SA
Derrick is currently Chief Executive Officer of STANLIB Asset Management and Executive for the Asset Management Cluster of Liberty Group Holdings Limited. He previously served as the managing director of Investment Solutions (now known as Alexander Forbes Investments) the investment services arm of the Alexander Forbes Group from 2009 to 2017. He was also joint head/leader of the Institutional Business Cluster of the Alexander Forbes Group. Derrick, a chartered accountant, serves on the boards and committees of entities forming the Asset Management Cluster of the Liberty Group. He is an independent investment committee member of Trinitas Private Equity Fund, a board member of TSIBA Education, a scholarship-only tertiary institution registered with the Department of Higher Education and a member of the Advisory Board for the University of Cape Town Accounting College.
Wayne Hiller Van Rensburg
Institute of retirement funds Africa
Wayne has extensive experience in the South African and African pension sector and has worked on projects and provided advice to a wide range of stakeholders from policy formulation for governments to benefits programmes for employers of various sizes.
He is committed to improving pensions outcomes for as many people as possible. This commitment has found a greater purpose in his participation in the Institute of Retirement Funds Africa where he is a director and was the chairperson and president until July 2019.
He believes in collaboration and knows that building strong networks and sharing knowledge is essential for the success of any project.
Qualifications: BA, LLB, Post Graduate Diploma in Financial Planning, Advanced Post Graduate Diploma in Financial Planning
Rosemary Hunter
Fasken Martineau
BA, LLB, LLM (Witwatersrand)
Attorney and partner / director of Fasken Martineau (incorporated in South Africa as Bell Dewar Inc)
Building 2, Inanda Greens, 54 Weirda Road West, Sandton
Senior lecturer (part-time), University of the Witwatersrand
Rosemary practised as an attorney specialising in pension and employee benefits law for approximately 16 years before she was appointed by the Minister of Finance as deputy registrar of pension funds, deputy registrar of friendly societies and deputy executive officer of the Financial Services for a period of three years from August 2013.
Following the expiry of her contract of employment she returned to legal practice as an attorney with Fasken Martineau (incorporated in South Africa as Bell Dewar Inc) in Sandton.
Rose was the editor and principal author of a text-book The Pension Funds Act: A Commentary which she co-wrote with her then colleagues Johan Esterhuizen, Tashia Jithoo and Sandile Khumalo and which was published by Hunter Law in 2010.
She is a visiting senior lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand for which she teaches pension law to LLM, PG Dip and Mandela Institute Certificate in Pension Law students.
Aakash Mishra
Financial Service Commission, Mauritius
Aakash Mishra holds the post of Assistant Director, Insurance and Pensions at the Financial Services
Commission, Mauritius.
The Financial Services Commission, Mauritius (the ‘FSC’) is the integrated regulator for the non-bank financial services sector and global business. Established in 2001, the FSC is mandated under the Financial Services Act 2007 and has as enabling legislations the Securities Act 2005, the Insurance Act 2005 and the Private Pension Schemes Act 2012 to license, regulate, monitor and supervise the conduct of business activities in these sectors.
Aakash reckons over 30 years of Insurance and Pensions experience. He has worked in senior management positions in Mauritius, Tanzania and India in leading insurance companies before opting to move to a regulatory role, for the last 2 years.
Aakash holds a Post Graduate degree in Sciences, from Delhi University and an MBA from Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi.
He is also a Fellow, Life Management Institute (FLMI) of LOMA and a Licentiate of Insurance Institute of India.
He has been a past President of Insurers Association of Mauritius from 2014 to 2016 where he chaired the digital policy project of FSC Mauritius, amongst others.
Aakash has presented paper at OESAI, Life Seminar, held in Tanzania in 2015. He has also been a panellist on Compliance seminar held in Mauritius in 2017, jointly organised by the Temple Group and Thomson Reuters.
Recently he presented the experience of Mauritius insurance during Covid times during the Insurance Roundtable by AFRITAC (AFS) of IMF
He recently moderated a session organized by Africa Pensions Supervisor Forum in September 2020.
Aakash has represented FSC in various international forums and conferences held under the aegis of IAIS and IOPS.
Tanya van Lil
Southern Africa Venture Capital & Private Equity Association
Tanya van Lill joined the Southern African Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (SAVCA) in March 2017 as CEO, after a rewarding 10-year career at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS). There, she fulfilled the roles of Director of Academic Programmes, and learning and development specialist, focusing on management and leadership development across a wide range of sectors. During her tenure, she served on the board of the Executive MBA Council (EMBAC), an international academic association that represents the executive MBA industry.
She holds a BCom Informatics and Honours in Business Management degree from UNISA as well as a post-graduate diploma and MBA from GIBS. Her thesis was dedicated to the methodology behind developing a global mindset. As a strategic and creative thinker, Tanya’s interests lie in both human and organisational development, with the aim of shaping the ongoing growth and success of Southern Africa’s private equity and venture capital sector. Tanya is also a South African Powerlifter as well as a motor and fitness enthusiast.
Saqib Nazir
Peoples Pension Trust / Fintech entrepreneur
Saqib Nazir is a FinTech entrepreneur who has extensive experience in developing and implementing solutions aimed at making technology locally relevant and using it to solve everyday problems.
In 2013, Saqib started Interpay, a payment processor that seeks to enable digital financial services across emerging markets with a focus on the three pillars of the new digital economy: e-commerce, financial inclusion and interoperability.
Emergent Payments, a payment facilitator that seeks to provide digital financial services to local and international merchants acquired Interpay with Saqib becoming the Managing Director of its operations in Africa.
Saqib, together with his team has developed numerous solutions, notable amongst them is supporting the National Health Insurance Authority in Ghana to digitize premium collections from health insurance subscribers and the entire healthcare delivery system nationwide.
He has together with his team also partnered with all the Telecommunication companies in Ghana to provide various forms of services to merchants and a typical example is the partnership with AirtelTigo to provide Bulk SMS services, E-Pin/E-Voucher resales and AirtelTigo Money services to Emergent Payments merchants.
He led his team to develop and launch a disruptive mobile money platform known as Maximus which is aimed at helping financially excluded groups have access to financial services.
Savings at the Frontier, a partnership between Oxford Policy Management and the Mastercard foundation is supporting Saqib and his team to connect Financial Services Providers (FSPs) with excluded groups in rural communities in Ghana.
The impact of his work in the Fintech space in Ghana, earned him the ‘Outstanding Contribution to Ghana’s Fintech & Telecom Sector’ award at the Ghana Information Technology & Telecom Awards (GITTA) in 2018 as well as the Ghana Fintech CEO of the year at the Ghana CEO Excellence Awards in 2019. In May 2020, Saqib was appointed the new Chief Executive Officer for People’s Pension Trust Limited-PPT. People’s Pension Trust is a pension company licensed by the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA), Ghana, to provide trustee services for the Ghanaian workforce, particularly, those in the informal sector.
Saqib has a Bachelors’ degree in Computer Science from the University of Ghana, Legon and a Masters’ degree in Information Systems Engineering from the University of Manchester, UK.
Kay Darbourn
FutureRisk Coaching & Consulting
Kay Darbourn is a Longevity Risk Consultant – she has combined her skills acquired over 45 years in the corporate world and now focuses her time on helping others to plan, learn and succeed www.futurerisk.co.za. As a Past President, Fellow and Life Member of the Institute of Risk Management SA (IRMSA), Kay maintains an industry presence writing reports and research papers for IRMSA and is a volunteer on the IRMSA Mentoring programme. Kay is a Registered Coach with the Coaching and Mentoring Association of SA (COMENSA). To share the research and information acquired around our future lives, Kay has developed Fifty Plus South Africa – a Communication and Information hub, Communicating, Collaborating and Connecting within South Africa and its Communities. www.fiftyplussa.co.za
Zamani Ngidi
Aon Cyber Solutions
Zamani is a Client Manager for Aon Cyber Solutions based in South Africa. He is responsible for delivering cyber quantification and programme design to commercial clients, operating within Africa.
He obtained his Qualification in Risk Management from UNISA, is a qualified ISO/IEC Information Security Lead Auditor and is an Associate Member of the Institute of Risk Management South Africa.
Sundeep K Raichura
Pension Fund Investment Consortium
Sundeep is a qualified actuary, CEO of the Zamara Group and Chairman of the Kenya Pension Fund Investment Consortium (‘KEPFIC’). He has over 30 years’ experience in actuarial, pensions and investment consultancy work gained both in the UK and in Kenya.
Sundeep has been at the forefront of the pensions debate in Kenya and East Africa and over the last two and a half decades has been involved in and contributed to all aspects of the pension conversation in Africa ranging from thought leadership, pension reform, regulatory and policy engagement, social security, product innovation, scheme re-engineering and pensions investment.
Sundeep championed the formation of KEPFIC, a group of 14 leading pension funds in Kenya with an asset base of over USD2.5bn who have come together with a common purpose of collaborating to make long term investments, including investments in non-traditional asset classes such as infrastructure and housing amongst others.
Sundeep is the Immediate Past Chairman of the Africa Committee of the International Actuarial Association and founding chairman of The Actuarial Society of Kenya. He has served as Chairman of the Association of Retirement Benefit Schemes in Kenya and was instrumental in its formation and has been a member of the Capital Markets Authority Advisory Committee.
Sundeep has extensive research interests and has written papers on several areas of actuarial and investment research. He is a regular speaker at conferences and seminars on pension and investment.
Rory Ord
27four Investment Managers
Rory has managed the impact minded, 27four Black Business Growth Fund Programme since 2017, focused on investing the South African private equity mid-market. The programme is a partnership with the Jobs Fund of South Africa’s National Treasury, as well as several pension fund investors, and backs black fund managers and has a mix of first time and more experienced GPs to achieve growth and impact through active investment. Prior to joining 27four he spent 10 years at RisCura, and 5 years at Deloitte before that in South Africa and London. In 2010 he initiated South African industry wide performance reporting in collaboration with SAVCA, and in 2012 he created the Bright Africa series of reports on the state of unlisted investments and deal-making across the African continent. He has also co-authored private equity research reports with AVCA and EAVCA.
Kabelo Moja
Ascension Private Equity Fund I
Kabelo Moja (“Kabelo”) is a seasoned deal maker, with significant experience in deal origination and execution. Kabelo is a qualified and admitted attorney of the High Court of the Republic of South Africa. His qualifications include an LLB and Postgraduate Diploma in Tax from the University of the Witwatersrand and a LLM from the University of Pretoria. In his prior position as a senior legal advisor to the Public Investment Corporation SOC Limited, Kabelo was principally involved in the structuring of commercial and private equity transactions, negotiating and preparation of transaction agreements, and the provision of legal advisory services within the unlisted and listed investments space across various asset classes.
Kabelo has worked at the Public Investment Corporation SOC Limited as a senior legal advisor and periodically held an acting executive head of legal role, National Treasury of South Africa as a legal commercial director, Absa bank Limited and at Routledge Modise Inc. trading as Hogan Lovells South Africa. He is currently an executive director with Ascension Capital Partners, a private equity fund management business that specializes in making equity investments in various unlisted companies.
He has extensive experience in corporate restructuring, mergers, corporate finance, a host of debt, equity and mezzanine funding and private equity across a diverse range of industries. Recent projects that Kabelo has been involved in include an equity and debt investment into several solar renewable energy power plants, syndicated debt funding for the construction and operation of a cement plant in Tanzania, the acquisition of a dry sanitation operation, a subscription for equity in a multinational paint manufacturer, a subscription into a multi-jurisdictional bank, a commitment of funding to several private equity funds, direct investments through an internal private equity fund and the provision of funding to a host of agri business operations
Dr. Evans Osano
Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) Africa
Evans is Director, Capital Markets at Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) Africa, where he leads capital markets development initiatives across Africa. He also sits on the board and investment committee of the African Local Currency Bond Fund (ALCBF) and chairs the donor committee of Frontclear’s Technical Assistance Facility.
Prior to joining FSD Africa, he worked with the IFC/World Bank as Head, Efficient Securities Markets Institutional Development (ESMID) Africa. Before joining the World Bank Group, he was Chief Investment Officer/Head of Investments at AIG Global Investment Group where he headed the investment team that built and was responsible for US$1 billion assets, including a pan-African total return fund that was a pioneer investor in debt and equity markets across Africa. At AIG he was instrumental in developing investment process capabilities in equities, fixed income and alternatives.
Evans holds a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) degree from the Maastricht School of Management, Netherlands and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). He has also been a visiting lecturer at the University of Cape Town.