AECF Announces Leadership Change

Nairobi, Kenya – The Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF), a pan-African development institution providing catalytic funding to early and growth stage private sector companies in sub-Saharan Africa wishes to announce a leadership change.

“The Board of Directors, of The AECF, are pleased to announce the appointment of Mrs. Victoria Sabula as the Interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the organization,” said Lord Paul Boateng, Chairman, Board of Directors, The AECF.

“Mrs. Sabula brings a wealth of knowledge in development, access to finance, risk mitigation, compliance, taxation and corporate governance. The AECF board thanks her for taking up this role,” he added.

Prior to joining The AECF, Victoria served as AGRA’s General Counsel and Corporation Secretary providing strategic oversight on legal advisory, compliance, risk management and governance for AGRA’s programmatic activities across sub-Saharan Africa. During her time at AGRA she actively managed the transition of The AECF from a project within AGRA to an independent subsidiary. Due to her involvement in the transition she has intimate knowledge of the operations of The AECF. Starting her career with Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) Group, she has extensive experience structuring and negotiating corporate finance transactions, drafting and negotiation of complex contractual agreements and advising on governance and multi-country regulatory compliance matters. Victoria holds a Bachelor of Law (LL.B) Degree from Moi University, a post Graduate Diploma in Law from Kenya School of Law, a diploma in Human Resource Management from Kenya Institute of Management and a Masters in Business Administration from Nazarene University. In 2015 she was named in the Legal 500’s General Counsel Power List Africa, which recognizes the top 100 corporate counsels in Africa.

African economies offer tremendous opportunities, in agribusiness, renewable energy and climate change, with the rapid growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) an excellent investment opportunity exists. Despite this, SMEs are still facing challenges in mobilising capital, with Africa’s finance gap for SMEs standing at US $331 billion. The AECF is at the centre of bridging this gap by funding private sector in agribusiness, renewable energy and climate change in sub-Saharan Africa. “I am very excited and feel privileged to be part of this transformational journey,” said Mrs. Victoria Sabula, Interim CEO, the AECF.

“The AECF will continue to pursue the most innovative ways to promote more inclusive economies through innovative financing,” she added.

The AECF has completed two years in the delivery of an ambitious new strategy to support African companies to innovate, create jobs, and leverage investment and markets that will create resilience and sustainable incomes for rural communities across Africa. In that period, AECF increased its fund size from US $256 million to US $356 million and improved the lives of 3.2 million households in 2018 alone.

Mrs. Sabula’s appointment comes at a time of scaling impact at The AECF as well as consolidating the work that has been done over the past two years. She will work with partners to unlock opportunities for Africa’s rural and marginalised communities.

For media inquiries contact:

Linda Odhiambo Aissata Sidibe
Mobile: +254.722 81 62 96 Mobile: +225 05 18 18 08
Email: lodhiambo@aecfafrica.org Email: asidibe@aecfafrica.org

About The Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF)

The AECF is a multi-donor funded development institution that strives to reduce poverty in sub-Saharan Africa by unlocking the power of the private sector to impact rural and marginalised communities. We achieve this by providing financial and technical support to businesses in agriculture/agribusiness, renewable energy and climate change working on Africa, through competitive market-based approach also known as a challenge fund approach that invests in businesses, that are “risky” and struggle to meet traditional risk-return standards for commercial investors but offer significant impact. AECF’s work has been funded by various government and development institutions including Australia, Canada, Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom, Consultative Group to Assist the Poor and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)