Africa Business Conference
2101 HBS Student Mail Center
Boston, MA 02163

© 2008 ICG Link, Inc.

Business and Politics

Moderator: Catherine Duggan
Coordinator: Julia Mensah, Yaw Agyenim-Boateng

	N. Justin Chinyanta Founder and Chairman, Loita Holdings Corporation Chinyanta’s Mauritius based holding company for Loita Capital Partners International, a pan-African investment banking firm; Fintech International, a financial IT firm, and Loita Transaction Services, specializes in African bank switching and electronic transfer operations. A former vice President at Citibank and HSBC’s Africa Regional offices, Justin is a barrister with a LLB from the University of Zambia, and is currently on sabbatical pursuing his Masters in International Law at the Fletcher School (Tufts University). He is a Fellow of Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs (2009), Executive Vice President (Southern Africa) for the Africa Business Roundtable and one of the first members of the Initiative for Global Development’s Frontier 100 CEOs. He also sits on the world-wide boards of Junior Achievers International and Orphan Support Africa. Justin is a Zambian national residing in Johannesburg South Africa.

	Nasir El-Rufai Former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja Nasir El-Rufai is the former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja from 2003-2007. During his tenure he also served as Cabinet Minister and member of the Presidential Economic Team that successfully negotiated Nigeria’s exit from London and Paris Club debts of over US $32 billion. Mallam El-Rufai was the minister in charge of the Public Service Reform Program of the Federal Government which reduced nominal roll by about 35,000 (20 per cent). At various times, he was designated by the President of Nigeria to oversee the Federal Ministries of Commerce, Industry and Interior. He supervised the 2006 National Census, the National ID Card System, and Electric Power Supply Improvement Programs. A lawyer, quantity surveyor, and businessman, he advocated for Nigeria’s privatization and public enterprise reform programs. He implemented the sale of several state-owned enterprises, and the opening up of several sectors to competition, including listing on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Mr. El-Rufai is a Chartered Quantity Surveyor and holds a Masters in Business Administration from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, a Masters in Public Policy & Administration from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) degree from the University of London, and a Bachelors degree in Quantity Surveying from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Mr. El-Rufai was conferred a D.Sc (Honoris Causa) by the University of Abuja in 2005. In 2001, Mr. El-Rufai was given the national award of Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) of Nigeria.

	Zemedeneh Negatu Managing Partner, Ernst & Young Ethiopia Zemedeneh Negatu, CPA (U.S.), is the Managing Partner of Ernst & Young Ethiopia. A globally experienced finance and business advisory professional, Zemedeneh has worked with clients in several African countries including Nigeria, Ghana, Mozambique, Togo, Ethiopia and Egypt. He is currently advising a multi-billion dollar investment group from one of the oil rich Middle East emirates on a $500 million real estate and hotel investment project. Zemedeneh is also heading a corporate finance team which is working on a $200 million financing advisory mandate for a West Africa based transportation sector client. Furthermore, Zemedeneh had successful led the advisory team which repositioned Ethiopian Airlines which has now become the second largest airline in sub-Sahara Africa by generating a billion dollars annual revenue, from three hundred fifty million dollars, only four years ago. Prior to moving back to Africa, Zemedeneh, who is an Ethiopian-American, had lived and worked in the U.S., Brazil, Argentina and the Middle East and had advised clients ranging from Fortune 100 companies to medium sized Latin American firms to the U.S. government. Zemedeneh is frequently invited to speak at international business gatherings including Wharton Business School’s 16th Annual Africa Business Forum, the Africa IPO and Capital markets summit in Johannesburg, South Africa and the US-Africa Transport Summit in Miami. At Ernst & Young Zemedeneh had served on the Africa board and as a member of the firm’s Global Partner Council (GPC) for five years. Zemedeneh has a degree in business administration from Howard University, had attended Concordia University, in Montreal, Canada and received his CPA from Washington D.C.

	Catherine Duggan - Moderator Assistant Professor, Harvard Business School Catherine Duggan is Assistant Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, where she teaches the Business, Government, and the International Economy (BGIE) course in the required curriculum. Her research examines financial-sector regulation, microfinance, and contract enforcement in developing markets. Her current book project examines the historical evolution of credit market regulation. She argues that government incentives for group-based supervision have provided an effective, low-cost regulatory option in markets as diverse as medieval England, colonial Uganda, and both England and the United States in the early 20th century. A related project extends these insights to the regulation of modern microfinance, drawing on nearly two years of fieldwork in Uganda and more than 400 interviews with microfinance borrowers, loan officers, government officials, and other stakeholders. A Chicago native, Professor Duggan received her Ph.D. in Political Science from Stanford University, where she was the G.J. Lieberman Fellow for the Social Sciences. Prior to attending Stanford, she was an industry analyst for the telecommunications group at the law firm of Mayer, Brown & Platt (now Mayer Brown LLP), and received a B.A. with highest honors in Political Science from Brown University.