AfDB appoints Fal director general, president’s cabinet office

Fal’s new role will see her oversee the administrative and operational work and activities of the cabinet office as part of her duties, the statement explained, adding that primarily, she will provide oversight of all units and departments directly reporting to the bank’s president. Also, she is expected to ensure enhanced delivery efficiency and effectiveness for all presidential initiatives and the bank operations as well as oversee the work of senior staff to improve overall coordination and engagement of the president and chairman with the board.

The incoming director-general is described as a seasoned and results-oriented business development and service delivery professional with over 20 years of experience in banking, legal and procurement fields.

Fal, a Senegalese citizen, holds a masters degree in law from the University of Dakar, where she specialised in corporate and tax law, and a postgraduate degree in international law from the University of Paris X.

According to the statement, she joined the African Development Bank as a principal legal counsel in the procurement unit from 1998 to 2007 and subsequently served as manager in charge of the reform implementation team in the office of the president between 2007 and 2008.

She was appointed officer in charge of the procurement and fiduciary services department, 2010-2011; and served as manager of the procurement services division from 2008 to 2013. She thereafter served as the resident representative of the bank’s Morocco office from 2014 to 2017.

In 2016,  Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank appointed Fal as the deputy director-general of the North Africa business development and service delivery office.

Commenting on the appointment, Adesina described Fal as a highly capable manager who brings vast knowledge and experience of the bank’s legal, procurement, human resources, processes, systems, and operations to her new position.

He also expressed confidence that Fal possesses the capability to lead a restructured cabinet office that will comprehensively support the delivery of his vision and mandate to strengthen the bank and accelerate Africa’s development.

On her part, Fal stated she was greatly honoured by the confidence reposed in her by President Adesina to support him in ensuring the successful implementation of his bold vision for the AfDB and the continent.

She further expressed her enthusiasm to leading teams in the president’s cabinet office to provide managerial, administrative and operational bandwidth and to assure the success of the president’s vision and mandate following his historic re-election with 100 per cent vote of the bank’s shareholders.