Board of Directors

Composition

Institutional oversight for credit enhancement

Daraja Guarantee PLC is a Mauritius-domiciled credit guarantee institution mobilizing blended capital for SMEs, infrastructure, trade, and strategic industries across East and Southern Africa. The Board provides fiduciary oversight of the credit enhancement mandate, risk appetite, and stakeholder interests.

Gunnar Adolf Aanesland

Board Director

Non-Executive Director

Industrial wood enterprise · Nordic & European board networks · Multigenerational governance

Third-generation leader of a Norwegian industrial enterprise founded in 1945, with more than thirty years of international market expansion of Annesland Industries’ industrial wood enterprise into several resource streams. Gunnar’s particular strengths lie in board-level networks across Norway, Scandinavia, and Europe. He brings multigenerational governance discipline and institutional credibility with European co-investors and partners to the Board’s oversight of Daraja Guarantee’s partnership enhancement mandate.

• Annesland Industries stewardship
• Scandinavian & European networks
• Board oversight
• Enterprise governance

Executive

Peter Chemuigut

Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director

Executive Director (Founder)

Infrastructure · Development finance · Credit enhancement

Infrastructure developer and development finance executive with a track record structuring energy, industrial, housing, and PPP projects across East Africa. As Founder and CEO, he leads Daraja Guarantee’s strategy to administer technology-enabled guarantees that connect development capital with MFI and SME lending capacity.

• Guarantee systems
• Project finance
• PPPs
• Institutional partnerships

Daniel Gudere

Board Director

Non-Executive Director (Co-Founder)

UN & NGO programme leadership · Consortium building · Nordic–Africa partnerships

Founder and CEO of GEFCO Invest (Norway), linking African development initiatives with Northern European investors and technology partners. Brings over thirty years of international NGO and UN-funded programme leadership, in addition to cross-border consortium structuring, to Daraja Guarantee’s fundraising and partnership strategy.

• UN programme leadership
• International NGOs
• Consortium structuring
• Capital mobilization
• Nordic partnerships

Pending board confirmation

Nathalie Ndongo-Seh Kane

Independent Director (nominee)

Independent Non-Executive Director — pending board confirmation

International governance · Diplomacy · Multilateral affairs

International diplomat, attorney, and senior United Nations executive with more than two decades in political affairs and institutional governance. Director of Political Affairs for the Western Africa Division at UN DPPA/DPO, with prior service as UN Resident Coordinator and Chief of Staff at MONUSCO and UNOAU.

• Corporate governance
• Multilateral relations
• ESG
• Political risk

Anantha Krishnan

Independent Director

Independent Non-Executive Director

Development finance · Sustainable infrastructure · Urban policy

International development professional with thirty-six years in public policy, urban development, and multilateral cooperation. Secretary General of the Urban Economy Forum; former senior leader at UNEP and UN-Habitat (Nairobi); adviser to the World Bank, UN agencies, and Nordic governments on blended and climate finance.

• Blended finance
• Climate finance
• Urban development
• ESG strategy

Rick Groothuizen

Independent Director

Independent Non-Executive Director

Fintech · Digital payments · SME lending · East Africa financial infrastructure

Co-founder, Managing Director, and CEO of ClickPesa, an East African fintech and software company based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Also Director of the ClickPesa Debt Fund, providing private credit and financing to African SMEs and women-owned businesses. Leads digital invoicing, CRM, payment processing, and lending solutions for MFIs and SMEs — with a focus on financial inclusion, digital transformation, and blockchain-enabled cross-border rails in East Africa.

• Digital payments
• MFI & SME lending
• Financial inclusion
• Blockchain & cross-border rails

Ambassador Godson Workar

Independent Director

Independent Non-Executive Director

West Africa · SME development · Agricultural finance

Liberian entrepreneur and Co-Founder of Startups Resource, supporting early-stage ventures and private-sector development. Brings policy advocacy and community engagement experience across West African entrepreneurship, agricultural finance, and youth enterprise — aligned with Daraja Guarantee’s Liberia pilot and regional expansion.

• SME development
• Agricultural finance
• Startup ecosystems
• West Africa markets