Rwandan President Paul Kagame has tapped Jean-Guy Afrika, a fellow Rwandan seasoned economist who spent over a decade at the African Development Bank, to lead the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) as the new Chief Executive Officer.
RDB is a government institution, under the supervision of the Office of the President, mandated to accelerate Rwanda’s economic development by enabling private sector growth.
Before his appointment as new CEO of RDB, Jean-Guy worked as the Director of the Regional Integration Coordination Office at the African Development Bank Group, with a special advisory role to the senior management on regional integration and resource allocation, especially regarding the design, structuring, and financing of large-scale regional infrastructure projects.
He’s been reporting on the performance of the Bank’s $14 billion regional integration portfolio and has played a pivotal role in strengthening partnerships with major continental and regional institutions, including the African Union, the Regional Economic Communities, and the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Afrika, a citizen of Rwanda, has extensive experience in public policy, regional integration, infrastructure finance, and project management.
Afrika holds a Master of Arts degree in International Commerce and Policy from George Mason University. He is an alumnus of executive programs in trade, leadership, and negotiations from the Harvard Kennedy School, Oxford University, and the Graduate Institute of Geneva. Before this appointment, he was Officer-in-Charge of the Regional Integration Coordination Office.
As Officer-in-Charge of the Regional Integration Coordination Office, Afrika was responsible for the day-to-day management of the department and reported on the strategic performance of the Bank’s regional integration portfolio, currently valued at $13 billion.
During this time, he sharpened the operational mandate of the department, streamlined coordination mechanisms, and deepened partnerships with the African Union, Regional Economic Communities, and the AfCFTA Secretariat.
Irene Mwoyogwona: Beyond the Numbers – How Pride Bank's Award-Winning CFO Combines Profitability and Social ImpactWorking closely with regional and country offices, Mr. Afrika helped increase the pipeline of regional operations from the Bank’s concessional window (15th replenishment of the African Development Fund) by more than $1 billion.
He advised on and helped structure one of the largest regional operations in the Bank’s history, the recently approved $555 million Central Africa Republic-Congo (Brazzaville) Multimodal Transport Project, co-financed with the Development Bank of Central African States.
Since joining the Bank in 2010, Afrika worked in various capacities and roles in the Agriculture and Rural Infrastructure Department, the NEPAD Regional Integration and Trade Department, and the Industrialization and Trade Development Department.
During this period, he contributed to the design, appraisal, or implementation of more than 35 projects, spanning sectors such as trade facilitation, transport, energy, agriculture, and private sector development.
In collaboration with the African Union, he also spearheaded the design of Africa’s flagship regional integration knowledge products such as the Africa Regional Integration Index and the Africa Visa Openness Index.
Before joining the Bank, Afrika worked as Senior Policy Expert with the East African Community, and Director of Export Promotion at the Rwanda Investment & Export Promotion Agency, where he supported several policy and institutional reforms to improve Rwanda’s business environment and sustain export growth. At the East African Community, he supported the adoption and implementation by partner states of protocols, policies, and regulations that deepened regional integration.
