The African Development Bank is pleased to announce the appointment of Hélène N'Garnim-Ganga as General Counsel of the African Development Bank Group with effect from 19th September 2016. She will join the Senior Management Team of the Bank.
Hélène N'Garnim-Ganga, a national of Chad, is currently the Resident Representative for the African Development Bank in Mali.
She holds Master's degree in Law from Harvard University Law School, USA, and a Master's degree in International Law from University of Sorbonne, Paris I, France. She also holds a Masters of Advanced Studies (Diplome d'etude Approfondies, DEA) from Assas University, Paris II, France.
She is an accredited lawyer, who passed both New York and Paris Bar examinations, and brings into this role 25 years of leadership experience in legal corporate governance as well as managing strategic projects and operational programs.
She started her career as a lawyer in international private practice where she worked in New York and Paris as a Senior Counsel. Her responsibilities included several project finance and mining projects as well as privatization. As a senior lawyer, she worked on the first privatization done in Algeria in the steel sector, handled the drafting of legislations like the Chad telecommunication law which she successfully presented to the parliament.
She later moved to the development sector as Head of Legal of the Agence Francaise de Development Group where she pioneered work on innovative instruments in order to allow countries flexibility in terms of repayments in the event of exogenous shocks.
She joined the African Development Bank in the Office of the Vice President Corporate Services where she supervised the implementation of the complex reforms before being appointed to head the Legal Operational and Policy Division in the General Counsel's Office. While in the Bank's Legal Department, she played a leading role in setting up of the Zim-Fund to support Zimbabwe's development, establishment of the Anti-Corruption department, including the set up of a guarantee facility in Seychelles allowing the country to renegotiate its private debt with its multiple private creditors.
In her current role in Mali, she has been deeply involved in partnering with the donor community to drive policy dialogue with government officials and stakeholders at the highest level, notably on issues relating to economy, finance and infrastructure. She also led on behalf of the African Development Bank the assessment process of Northern Mali provided for in the Malian Peace Accord and was recognized by the Government and other stakeholders for her noteworthy contributions.
Helene is passionate about the Bank's strategy for Africa's transformation. In Mali she was successful in enhancing the Bank's relevance and visibility by increasing its resource mobilization and developing its private sector portfolio.
Hélène N'Garnim-Ganga said of her appointment, "I appreciate the confidence reposed in me by President Adesina. I look forward to providing leadership for the Bank's legal department to support accelerated business and developmental impacts of the Bank's work in Africa".
The President of the African Development Bank, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina said of the appointment, "I am delighted with the appointment of Hélène N'Garnim-Ganga as General Counsel. Hélène brings extensive legal experience of the Bank's legal operations, combined with management of Bank projects and business operations in a fragile state, where she is respected for building strong engagement with the government and development partners. Hélène's expertise in law and operations, and passion for development, gives her a unique perspective to provide leadership as General Counsel as the Bank rolls out its new development and business delivery model and builds its operations across Africa".
