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Speaker

Zakhele Mayisa is Senior Consultant, Private Sector Engagement and Business Development at the African Development Bank. He has over two decades of experience in leading complex public and private sector financing initiatives across Africa. His career spans senior roles at major institutions including Nedbank Corporate and Investment Bank, the New Development Bank (NDB), the African Development Bank (AfDB), and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA). He brings deep expertise in project finance, PPPs, credit structuring, and regional development, with a strong track record in delivering transformative energy, transport, water, and socio-economic infrastructure projects.

At NDB, he played a pivotal role in contributing to the establishment and operationalising the Africa Regional Centre in Johannesburg and led the development of a diversified project pipeline across sovereign, non-sovereign, and financial intermediary operations. He spearheaded NDB’s first financing operation in a non-member country—the Lesotho Highlands Water Project Phase 2—co-financed with the African Development Bank, and contributed to the drafting of the Bank’s first Country Partnership Strategy for South Africa.

He originated and structured significant regional infrastructure programs at AfDB, where led priority Projects for Infrastructure Development for Africa ( PIDA) such as the Abidjan–Lagos Corridor upgrades and the Mozambique–Zambia transmission line. While at DBSA, he directed South Africa Operations, overseeing a multidisciplinary team and facilitating infrastructure transactions across municipalities, utilities, and state-owned enterprises.

He holds an MBA from Henley Business School (UK), an MSc in Development Economics a Postgraduate Diploma in Property Development and Management (University of Witwatersrand, South Africa) and qualifications in Project Finance/PPPs, Credit Risk, and Loan Structuring. He is a member of the Institute of Project Finance (UK) where he received Certification in Project Finance Analysis.