Cameroonian statistician and economist engineer Jules Ngankam is the new boss of the African Guarantee Fund (AGF), presented as the first pan-African guarantee fund dedicated to SMEs, created by the African Development Bank (AfDB).
Before his appointment by the AGF, the Cameroonian economist had held the post of Deputy Director-General of the financial institution since 2017. “This change comes after a nine-year term for the Ivorian Félix Bikpo as head of the African Guarantee Fund. Managing Director since its creation, he decided to retire from his post.”
The Cameroonian did not hide his satisfaction from the announcement of his appointment. “I am pleased to participate in reducing the barriers faced by SMEs and in supporting financial institutions to overcome the challenges they face in finding them. AGF remains committed to continuing to provide quality service to its partners, especially during these difficult times, ”he said.
About his career, Jules Ngankam has “more than 15 years of experience in the field of banking and financial services within leading financial institutions”, writes our colleague. Before joining the group, “he worked for eight years at Barclays Capital, the investment bank of the Barclays PLC Group, where he held various positions as portfolio manager of derivative products and Pice President within the ‘group treasury management team’.
The new acting Director-General of AGF is, among others, a graduate in statistics and economics from ENSAE Paris and in management from ESSEC Business School in Paris. He joined the African Guarantee Fund in 2013 as Chief financial and administrative officer, a position he still held, before being recently promoted to the position of Deputy Managing Director.
Based in Nairobi, Kenya, the AGF, in four years of activity, guarantees that have made it possible to unlock financing in 38 African countries, through 85 financial institutions. This funding has benefited, we are told, to more than 5,000 SMEs on the continent. In 2013, this pan-African guarantee fund signed with the Inter-employer group of Cameroon (Gicam) and a banking pool (SGBC, BICEC, Afriland First Bank, Ecobank, BGFI), a memorandum of understanding of $ 100 million ( around 60 billion CFA francs), aimed at setting up a pilot project intended to finance and support local SMEs.
Designed and founded by the African Development Bank (AfDB), the AGF has in its shareholder portfolio, the French Development Agency (AFD). There is also the Nordic Development Fund (NDF), which is the joint development finance institution for the five Nordic countries; or the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation.
