(AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK) – The African development bank appointed Omar Sefiani as Acting Director of the Treasury Department, effective November 1, 2022.
Of Moroccan nationality, Omar Sefiani is an expert in finance. He has over 17 years of experience in international financial markets. He currently heads the bank’s Investments and Treasury Operations Division. In this capacity, Mr. Sefiani oversees the management of the Bank Group’s treasury investment portfolios (which includes the African Development Bank, African Development Fund, Trust Funds and Special Funds), with over $27 billion in assets under management.
Omar Sefiani joined the African Development Bank in 2012 as a senior investment officer in the Investments and Operations Division, where he managed the bank’s and funds’ euro investment portfolios. He was subsequently appointed Chief Investment Officer in 2015 and Head of Division in 2018. During this period, he led several key projects, including the preparation of the Bank Group for the inclusion of the Renminbi in the basket of special drawing rights and the establishment of the bank’s US commercial paper program. He is also vice-chairman of the operational committee in charge of preparing the Bank Group for the transition away from Libor and chairman of the working group on financial projection.
In 2014, Mr. Sefiani received a VP Finance Achievement Award for achieving the highest score on an International Capital Markets Association (ICMA) exam.
Prior to joining the African Development Bank, Mr. Sefiani worked in several leading financial institutions. He was notably a quantitative interest rate analyst at Citigroup London, where he developed credit and debit value adjustment (CVA/DVA) models for interest rate and inflation products. He worked at Morgan Stanley London as a hybrid office strategist on complex transactions between assets (interest rates, commodities and equities) and at Crédit Agricole as a credit structurer designing structured credit products for clients in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He was responsible for the execution of several large public transactions (up to 1 billion US dollars) and the first short-term loan of an undertaking for collective investment in transferable securities (UCITS fund).
Speaking regarding his appointment, Mr Sefiani said: “I am grateful to Mr. Adesina, President of the African Development Bank, for his confidence in me and for the opportunity given to me to lead the Treasury Department and its talented staff during this interim period. Treasury will continue to play a pivotal role in shaping some of the Bank’s key initiatives and I am honored to have the opportunity to help deliver them. The mandate and ambitions of the Bank Group are important and I look forward to contributing to them. »
The President of the African Development Bank Group, Akinwumi A. Adesina, said: “I am pleased to appoint Mr. Omar Sefiani as Acting Director of the Treasury Department. Omar is a seasoned and respected professional with extensive experience and the leadership skills necessary to drive the financing strategy of the African Development Bank Group. He will also ensure the stability and continuity of the leadership of the bank’s treasury team, following the appointment of the former Director of the Treasury Department, Ms. Hassatou N’sele, as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the Bank Group. »
