The African Development Bank Group appointed Themba Bhebhe as Country Manager, South Sudan Country Office with effective from 1 October 2021.
The African Development Bank Group commenced lending operations in South Sudan in 2012. Since then, the Bank’s cumulative approvals to South Sudan have amounted to $136.79 million. The sector interventions are agriculture ($45 million), power ($38.9 million), multi-sector ($45.9 million), and water and sanitation ($7 million). Currently, there are seven active operations in the African Development Bank’s portfolio for South Sudan, with commitments amounting to $108.8 million. The agriculture sector has the largest allocation at 41%, the power sector 35.6%, multi-sector 16.5%, and water supply and sanitation 6.5%.
As Country Manager, Mr. BHEBHE leads the Bank’s business development and delivery for sovereign, non-sovereign investment and provide advisory services in South Sudan. He support Bank’s teams in executing transactions, managing and expanding portfolios, and lead in executing projects and relevant work-programs, inclusive of the Bank’s High 5 priority areas, among other things.
Mr. BHEBHE, who is a Zimbabwean national, joined the Bank in 2002. He brings to this role 30 years’ extensive experience (21 years with the Bank) predominantly in country programming, project design, portfolio management, economic policy formulation and analysis, and multilateral institutions’ operations review and approval business processes.
Since joining the Bank, he served as Advisor to the Executive Director covering five Southern Countries, (Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe); Senior Country Economist and Principal Country Program Officer covering Zambia; Chief Operations Officer in the Operations Committee and Quality Assurance Department. He also served as Officer In Charge for opening and operationalisation of the Zambia Country Office (2006 – 2007).
Prior to his career in the Bank, he served in the Government of Zimbabwe in the Ministry of Finance as an Economist, in the Public Sector Investment Program, rising to Senior, Principal & Chief Economist, after which he became an Advisor to the Minister.
Mr. BHEBHE hold a Masters Degree in Development Economics from the Center for Development Economics at Williams College in the United States of America.