The Interview Editors
The Africa Private Sector Summit (APSS) has announced the appointment of Prof. Kingsley Moghalu, as the new Chairman of its Board of Directors.
Mr. Judson Addy, the otgoing Chairperson and Founder, APSS LBG, disclosed this in a statement made available to newsmen on Thursday in Lagos.
APSS is a Pan-African private sector-led non-profit organisation that promotes trade and investment in Africa and is headquartered in Accra, Ghana.
The Liberian-born Addy, who is a retired International Business Entrepreneur and Pan Africanist, said: “The Africa Private Sector Summit is delighted to welcome Kingsley Moghalu as its new Board Chair.
“His international leadership experience, credibility, and networks will help advance the goals of APSS, as we proceed with the roll out of the draft Charter on Private Sector Development, Rights and Protection Environment in Africa [Private Sector Bill of Rights], across all of Africa’s five geographic regions plus diaspora.
“The objective is to strengthen the private sector in African countries, attract increased business investment to the continent.
“It is to make strong contributions to enable the private sector actively drive implementation of the Regional Economic Communities (RECs] and the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) protocols in collaboration with the Pan Africa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PACCI), the Africa Busines Council (AfBC) and other stakeholders.”
Speaking further, Addy said that the APSS is leading the continent’s private sector and other stakeholders via an ecosystem-based approach, leveraging the African philosophy of Ubuntu, to develop a Private Sector Bill of Rights, for an enabling business environment in Africa.
He said that the APSS was also collaborating closely with another organisation, the African Education Trust Fund (AETF) headed by Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, a former Minister of Trade and Industry and Minister of Education in Ghana.
Addy said: “The APSS was instrumental to the establishment of the AETF.
“The goal of the AETF is to overhaul Africa’s education systems to produce the skill sets needed for the economic transformation of the continent in the 21st century.
“The APSS approved structure in the medium term, is to have a 13-member APSS Advisory Board and the a 17-member Executive Board, made up of distinguished personalities from Africa’s 5+1 regional blocks – East Africa, Central Africa, North Africa, West Africa, and Southern Africa, and the African Diaspora.
“To fill these positions, APSS recently announced its invitation of nominations of candidates into its Advisory and Executive Boards.”
According to him, part of the restructuring arrangement for the new phase of APSS ahead of the roll-out includes transition of the co- founders of APSS into the Advisory Board and Executive Board’s members respectively.
He said that the restructuring also made him the Founder and outgoing Chair, become a member of the Advisory Board and Chair Emeritus.
“To strenthen its executive capacity, APSS also recently appointed a CEO, transitioned one of the co-founders into an Executive Director and created three Director positions,” he added.
Addy said that Moghalu would serve as the Chairperson of both the Advisory Board and the Executive Board.
Responding, Moghalu, expressed excitement with the appointment, and promised to work to advance the APSS.
He said, “I am honoured to have been invited to Chair the Board of APSS.
“In collaboration with board colleagues and the executive leadership team, I will work hard with African companies, and other stakeholders including governments and international organisations.
“This is to advance the critical role of the private sector in the structural transformation of African economies in the context of Africa’s economic integration and African Union’s Agenda 2063, our collective journey to the Africa we want.”
Moghalu one of Africa’s eminent political economists and development practitioners, served as Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria from 2009 to 2014.
He subsequently served as Professor of Practice in International Business and Public Policy at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Massachusetts, USA.
Moghalu is the CEO of Sogato Strategies LLC,a macroeconomic, investment and geopolitical risk consultancy, and the President of the Institute for Governance and Economic Transformation (IGET), a public policy think tank.
He had previously worked in United Nations System for 17 years, rising to the rank of Director.
Moghalu is the author of several books including Emerging Africa: How The Global Economy’s Last Frontier Can Proper and Matter.
