By Chisom Nwatu
Board chairman of Leadway Pensure PFA, Olusegun Aganga, has joined the Board of Directors of TechnoServe, a US-based non-profit organisation with presence in over 30 countries.
TechnoServe is an international nonprofit that promotes business solutions to poverty in the developing world by linking people to information, capital and markets. It is a registered 501 based in Washington, D.C., with over 1,540 employees across 29 countries worldwide.
Aganga, who was previously managing director at Goldman Sachs in London before going into the public sector, is a global expert in the finance and business community and an astute technocrat whose experience spans blue-chip private sector corporates and the public sector both in the United Kingdom and Nigeria.
He currently serves on a number of Boards, including the advisory board of the Queens Commonwealth Trust in the United Kingdom and as chairman of the Board of Directors of Leadway Pensure PFA Limited. He is also an industry advisor to Time Partners UK, and to governments and businesses in the United States, United Kingdom, and Nigeria.
“We are delighted to welcome someone of Segun’s stature and reputation to our board of directors. Not only does he bring a wealth of experience and expertise in supporting economic development in Africa and beyond, but he also shares TechnoServe’s vision of a sustainable world where all people in low-income communities have the opportunity to prosper,” Rachel Hines and Michael Bush, Board co-chairs at TechnoServe, said.
Commenting on his appointment, Aganga said he was delighted to join the Board of Technoserve, whose vision of building a world committed to sustainable and progressive prosperity for low-income communities aligns with his ethos and convictions.
He said Technoserve is rated No. 1 globally in its sector where it deploys business solutions and private sector discipline to break the cycle of poverty.
“We must always remember that overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice, the protection of a fundamental human right to dignity and decent life. While poverty persists, there is no true freedom. All hands must be on the deck,” he said.
Aganga previously served as Nigeria’s minister of finance and chairman of the Economic Management Team, where he established Nigeria’s Sovereign Wealth Fund. He also served as minister of industry, trade and investment.
He chaired the World Bank and International Monetary Fund and the 8th WTO Ministerial Conference, the highest decision-making body of the World Trade Organization. (He is the only African that has chaired these two organisations).
In recognition of these contributions, he was awarded the Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON), one of the country’s national honours.
