JOHANNESBURG, Former South African finance minister Nhlanhla Nene has been appointed to the supervisory board of newly-formed Cape Town-based investment firm, Arise, and will assume the position of chairman of Arise from June 1.

Nene said it gave him great pleasure to serve on the Arise board and to be a part of their business journey. “With the support of its shareholders, Norfund, Rabobank and FMO, Arise is uniquely placed to advance the financial services sector on the African continent and I look forward to contributing to their success,” Nene said.

Nene was fired as finance minister by President Jacob Zuma in December 2015 with a promise of a position at the BRICS Bank which never materialised. He subsequently resigned as an African National Congress (ANC) member of Parliament after his sacking and has since taken various private sector jobs.

Arise, set up by a leading South African bank, Rabobank, the Norwegian government’s investment agency, Norfund, and Dutch Development bank FMO, came into being in February this year with combined assets of 637 million US dollars, with its maiden deal, an acquisition of a 27.7 per cent% stake in CAL Bank in Ghana, concluded the same month.

Arise chief executive Deepak Malik said Arise’s mandate was to invest long-term in local banks in Africa in order to make banking more accessible to people and to grow the financial services sector. He said in a statement that Arise was excited to have someone of Nene’s calibre on their board, and were grateful that he had chosen to accept the appointment.

“We are looking forward to Mr Nene’s strategic contribution to the board and we trust that this role will enable him to make the contribution that we believe he is capable of making, whilst at the same time advancing his own professional aspirations,” Malik said. �

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK