L'État de l'Afrique : Comment créer des emplois en Afrique

Anna Bjerde oversees the World Bank’s operations across developing and emerging markets with the goal of stepping up the World Bank Group’s impact by creating more and better jobs as a pathway out of poverty. Under her leadership, the World Bank Group has achieved record levels of financing in 2025 and launched bold new initiatives, including Mission 300 to bring electricity to 300 million people in Africa by 2030.

Andrew Dabalen is the World Bank’s Africa Region Chief Economist since July 1, 2022. The Chief Economist is responsible for providing guidance on strategic priorities and the technical quality of economic analysis in the region, as well as for developing major regional economic studies, among other roles.

Mr. Esayas W. HAILU is currently CEO of Asky Airlines operating in West, Central and South Africa, from its base in Lomé, Togo, since May 2022. In his capacity as CEO, he identifies, develop, and implements strategic goals and objectives of ASKY and fulfill its governance function. He provides direction and leadership toward the achievement of the organization's mission and strategy. He maintains and develops policies and procedures, organizational culture, values and reputation within the industry and with all staff, customers, suppliers, partners and regulatory bodies. He ensures the sustainable management of Human Resources, Operations, Product/Network, Finances, Safety/Security, Brand, Communications, Controls, and overall Performances. 

Denis Karema is the Co-Founder and CEO of SokoFresh Agri Innovations East Africa, a pioneering agritech enterprise delivering solar-powered cold chain solutions to smallholder farmers. Under his leadership, SokoFresh has drastically reduced post-harvest losses to under 5%, provided markets for 10,000+ smallholder farmers, whilst implementing several variants of the business model to make cold storage accessible across multiple regions, supply chains, and farmer profiles. The work of SokoFresh at the first mile is also a catalyst for jobs in rural Kenya, and the company provides 1,000+ direct gig and full-time jobs annually. Denis’ work has been recognized with the 2022 Ashden Award for Energising Agriculture and showcased at global platforms such as Fruit Logistica.

Ethiopis Tafara is IFC’s regional Vice President for Africa. In this capacity, he oversees all investment and advisory operations in a region with a committed portfolio of $17 billion and nearly 800 staff working to expand the private sector’s role in addressing urgent development challenges in the financial, manufacturing, agribusiness and services, and infrastructure industries. Previously, Mr. Tafara served as the Vice President, Chief Risk, Legal & Sustainability Officer and Partnerships for the World Bank Group’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), where he was responsible for the supervision and oversight of MIGA’s Finance and Risk Management Group, the Economics & Sustainability Group, and the Legal Affairs & Claims Group, in addition to overseeing MIGA Partnerships.

Nozipho Mbanjwa-Tshabalala is the CEO of the Conversation Strategists, where she moderates global conversations that are designed to have measurable outcomes. She is known as the go-to moderator for presidential and high-level panel conversations globally. She has moderated conversations for global bodies including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the International Labour Organisation, the United Nations, the African Union, governments and multinationals around the world.