Hassatou Diop N’Sele is transforming AfDB’s financial power through innovation, climate finance, and strategic capital market leadership across Africa.
Since October 2022, Senegalese finance executive Hassatou Diop N’Sele has served as Vice-President for Finance and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the African Development Bank Group (AFDB), where she oversees one of the most complex and influential financial portfolios on the continent. She manages a borrowing portfolio exceeding $33 billion and supervises the investment of over $25 billion in multi-currency liquidity assets. Her responsibilities include financial reporting, risk management, fundraising, capital markets, and overseeing syndications and client solutions for the Bank’s operations.
N’Sele joined the AfDB in 1999 as a Senior Treasury Officer after eight years in Senegal’s private sector, where she worked as Finance Director at Tiger Denrées and later as Manager of Financial Institutions at Citibank Senegal. At the Bank, she progressed through several key positions, including Principal and Chief Treasury Officer, Manager of Capital Markets and Financial Operations, and Treasurer of the AfDB Group from 2015 to 2022. As Treasurer, she provided strategic leadership in global fundraising, investments, hedging, and expanding the Bank’s capital markets footprint. She also served as interim CFO at various times between 2017 and 2021 before her permanent appointment.
Major financial innovations have marked her tenure. She led AfDB’s entry into green and social bond markets, launching the landmark $3 billion Fight Covid-19 social bond in 2020, which made AfDB the largest multilateral development bank issuer of social bonds. She also oversaw the launch of a $750 million hybrid climate bond that attracted $6 billion in subscriptions and introduced synthetic securitisation and hybrid capital instruments into AfDB’s financing toolkit. She signed onto the Global Green Bond Initiative and directed the Bank’s transition from LIBOR, demonstrating a strong focus on both innovation and risk mitigation.
Between 2015 and 2024, under her leadership, the AfDB’s capital base increased from $93 billion to $318 billion. She designed the Bank’s long-term financial sustainability framework and led efforts such as the special temporary callable capital increase and balance sheet optimisation, which reinforced the institution’s financial foundation. Her financial strategy directly supports the Bank’s development goals, including connecting 28 million people to electricity over the past decade and aiming to reach 300 million more by 2030. She also supports sectors like agriculture, technical education, and healthcare by mobilising private and public investments.
N’Sele holds an MBA in Finance and a BBA in International Business from George Washington University in the United States. In addition to her work at AfDB, she serves on the board of the International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm), which mobilises finance for global health initiatives.
In recognition of her impact, she was named one of the 100 Most Influential Africans of 2024 by New African Magazine, one of TIME’s top 100 Climate Catalysts, and one of Forbes Africa’s 50 Most Inspiring Women in 2025. Through her efforts, she continues to position the AfDB as a global leader in sustainable finance and a key driver for Africa’s economic transformation.
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