Stella Kilonzo, who is no stranger at the high table, has been appointed the senior director of Africa Investment Forum at the African Development Bank (AfDB). Kilonzo has been at the bank since late 2013 and has previously held the position of division manager at the capital markets division of the bank.
Starting her new role, she brings with her 17 years of experience and expertise in the financial sector. She has a good track record in matters concerning capital markets, risk management, development finance, investments structuring, corporate finance advisory and accounting.
Her brilliance in the finance sector is evident from her achievement record in previous roles. While she was the division manager, she led AfDB’s first ever partial credit guarantee to cover the exchange rate risk on foreign currency borrowing for Cameroon in its first-ever Eurobond issuance to finance infrastructure.
Additionally, to boost liquidity and depth of Africa’s capital markets and regional finance, she led the bank’s formal engagement with the Africa stock exchange association. She also directed the bank’s conceptualization and co-funding of the Africa Exchanges Linkages, a project that led to a roadmap study recommending modalities of securities exchange linkages in regional sub-markets.
Prior to joining the AfDB, she held various important roles in the finance sector. For example, she worked at the Capital Markets Authority of Kenya for eight years where she held the position of manager in the department of compliance and market operations. Afterwards, she was promoted to the position of chief executive officer. Before this, she also worked in the US as a senior compliance auditor at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Chicago.
Ms Kilonzo holds a Bachelor of Commerce, Accounting degree, from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Nairobi. She also holds a Master of Business Administration in corporate finance from the Loyola University Chicago Graduate School of Business, Illinois, United States of America. In addition, she is also a Chartered Public Accountant of the United States.
Despite her level of expertise, experience and knowledge alongside a committed and loyal staff, only time will tell whether she will be able to weather the storm or not.
