Stuart Kufeni is the Chief Executive Officer of the Southern African Development Community –
Development Finance Resource Centre (SADC-DFRC). The DFRC is the secretariat of the SADC
Network of Development Finance Institutions is a regional institution mandated to provide technical
and capacity-building support, advisory services, policy research, and advocacy on development finance
in the region. The SADC DFI Network has a current membership of 40 national DFIs spanning across
all 15 countries constituting the SADC regional economic community.
His career spans over thirty years during which he has acquired extensive experience in
macroeconomic policy formulation and management having worked in central banking at senior levels
as Director of Research and Director of Financial Markets at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. His
experience with the SADC-DFRC of almost twelve years, coupled with responsibilities as a board
member for regional organisations and a trade and development bank, among others, has deepened
his knowledge of development finance and regional development challenges, particularly within SADC.
In his present position as chief Executive Officer of the SADC-DFRC, Mr. Kufeni oversees the
development and implementation of best practice policy, regulatory and governance frameworks for
DFIs as well as the development of training programmes to address their requisite skills gaps. These
are important to capacitate DFIs individually and as a collective/network within SADC to effectively
mobilise resources for investment in key growth-generating sectors such as infrastructure, SMEs,
agriculture, ICT, and social infrastructure, including housing and hospitals, critical for the attainment of
the SADC goals of sustainable economic development and regional integration.
In this respect, Mr. Kufeni works closely with governments, financial organisations, RECs such as the
Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and international cooperating partners,
among these, JICA; regional and multilateral financial institutions, including the World Bank, the
International Monetary Fund, the African Development Bank, and COMESA/PTA Bank. This has seen
he participates and presents papers at various fora within SADC and other regions on key development
finance issues and participate in the establishment of new institutions in the region, among these, the
SADC Project Preparation and Development Facility, the SADC Regional Development Fund, and the
SADC Public–Private Partnership Network under the SADC-DFRC.
Mr. Kufeni is a holder of an MA (Economics) Degree, the University of Manchester, (UK); and a BSc. (Hons)
Economics Degree, University of Zimbabwe