The African Development Bank Group is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Samuel Mugoya Higenyi as the Director, Syndication and Client Solutions, effective 1st August 2020.
Higenyi, a Ugandan national, brings to the Bank over thirty years of pan-African commercial banking, development finance and oil and gas industry experience.
He joined the Eastern and Southern Trade and Development Bank ("TDB") in February 2017 as an Executive to establish a syndications and agency operations function. Over the last three years, Higenyi has implemented TDB's syndicated lending strategy, targeted at financing infrastructure needs of sovereign member states. He also led on medium-to-long term capital funding requirements of corporate clients, by arranging and closing over $5 billion in syndicated loans. These include notably, $3.2 billion in syndicated loans arranged for the Government of Kenya (2017-2019), and a $1 billion syndicated facility extended to the Government of Tanzania in 2019, securing TDB the no.3 Africa mandated lead arranger, no.4 Africa bookrunner and no.7 Africa agent rankings in the Bloomberg Africa capital markets league tables for the year 2019.
Prior to that (2007-2017), Samuel set up the syndications and specialized finance department at the African Export-Bank ("Afreximbank"), where he implemented global standard systems and processes, arranged and executed over $7 billion in syndicated loans over the period. Top transactions included the $1.9 billion Kenya airways aircraft re-fleeting facility (2012), $362 million Econet Wireless Global Limited multi-creditor facility (2012), $320 million Société Ivoirienne de Raffinage SA revolving crude import facility (2011), and $550 million Seplat Petroleum Development re-financing and field development facility (2011), amongst others.
Higenyi started his banking career with Uganda Commercial Bank retail operations and management information systems in 1989 and briefly worked as a bank liquidation consultant with KPMG Uganda in 1999, before joining Royal Dutch Shell Group in 2000, to set up the contracting and procurement department at Shell Uganda. He moved to Shell East Africa as regional contracting & procurement manager retail operations in 2002, and later as strategy and portfolio analyst with Shell Oil Products Africa (SOPAF) mergers, acquisitions & divestments group, in 2003.
Mugoya presently serves as a director on the board of Beyond Capital Fund, an impact investment fund that invests in seed-stage, for-profit social enterprises serving impoverished communities throughout India and East Africa.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Political Science from Makerere University (Uganda) and an MBA from Nyenrode Business Universiteit (The Netherlands).
Commenting on the appointment, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank said: "Samuel is an experienced negotiator with a proven track record in structuring and closing complex debt transactions, and demonstrable success in establishing new functions, processes, and systems. I am delighted to have him on board".