Alex Rugamba has worked in the infrastructure sector for close to 30 years, of which 20 years have been with the African Development Bank, the continent’s premier development finance institution. His areas of focus include infrastructure in Africa with a special focus on promoting public private partnerships and projects that promote regional integration. He is a highly respected infrastructure specialist with an important regional perspective and extensive practical experience around the African continent. He retired from the bank as Senior Advisor to the Vice President on the Power, Energy and Green Growth Complex. In this position he supported the operationalisation of the Energy Strategy including the recruitment and mentoring of the new management team. For the period 2013 to 2017, Mr. Rugamba served as Director of the Energy, Environment and Climate Change Department at the Bank, leading a team of 50 professionals and overseeing a portfolio of USD 8 billion. During that period, lending to the sector grew from an annual amount of USD500 million to USD1.7 billion covering power generation, national transmission and distribution, regional power grid interconnections, enabling environment activities, and project preparation activities. During this time, he also led the preparation of the Bank’s new strategy known as the New Deal on Energy for Africa that has an aspirational goal of attaining universal access to energy by 2025. Mr. Rugamba held other positions at the Bank, including: Director for Regional Integration and Trade, Coordinator of the Infrastructure Consortium for Africa, Sector Manager for Transport in West and Central Africa and he was also resident representative in Mozambique. Mr. Rugamba provided leadership for the Bank’s support for the preparation of the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA). The PIDA Priority Action Plan (PIDA-PAP) that was approved by the African Union Summit in January 2012 is being realized over a 10-year period, comprising an investment portfolio of USD 68 billion in the transport, energy, water and ICT sub-sectors. Mr. Rugamba holds a BSc. in Civil Engineering from Makerere University and a Masters of Science degree in Highway Engineering from the University of Birmingham in the UK. He is managing partner of Gahinga Infrastructure Partners.
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