Farai Mabeza
HARARE – The chief executive officer of African Risk Capacity Limited (ARC Ltd), Lesley Ndlovu, a Zimbabwean, has been selected as one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential Climate Leaders in Business for 2024.
ARC Ltd is a hybrid mutual insurer and financial affiliate of the African Risk Capacity Group. In a statement, the organisation expressed delight at the recognition.
“This prestigious acknowledgement underscores his unwavering commitment to enhancing Africa’s resilience against climate change.
“Under Ndlovu’s visionary leadership, ARC Ltd has pioneered the use of parametric insurance to provide swift financial support to African Union Member States facing climate-induced disasters.
“This innovative approach ensures rapid payouts to communities affected by droughts, floods, and cyclones, enabling timely and effective responses without the delays of traditional damage assessments,” ARC Ltd said.
Born in Filabusi, Matabeleland South, Ndlovu is an international financial services executive with experience in corporate finance, investment management, and insurance and has worked in Bermuda, Singapore, France, the United Kingdom, and South Africa.
“The recognition is the culmination of the tremendous work that has been undertaken by the African Risk Capacity. Although it has been awarded to me personally, I view it as the recognition of an outstanding team effort,” Ndlovu, who was also selected into the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders Class of 2022, said.
“We have expanded the number of perils insured from one in 2020 to five crop drought, livestock drought, tropical cyclone, flood, and outbreaks and epidemics in 2023.
“We have increased the number of African countries taking up insurance from six to 17, (and together with) humanitarian agencies using insurance via the Replica Programme such as the World Food Programme, START Network, UN High Commission for Refugees and, local insurance company partners—we now cover about 50 million vulnerable Africans through our insurance programmes, which is by far the largest in Africa.”
According to Ndlovu, ARC Ltd has raised over US$250 million from donors to create a fund with the African Development Fund (ADRIFI) to subsidise insurance programmes and expand access to insurance coverage.
“We have successfully positioned ARC as the leading institution on climate finance in Africa through the African Union, the Ministers of Finance Africa Caucus, and the V20/Climate Vulnerable Forum,” he said.
Time Magazine described finance as the climate story of 2024.
“It’s a theme that has proved inescapable in our TIME100 Climate list of influential climate leaders in business this year. Around the world, decision makers, executives, researchers, and innovators are working to help unlock the necessary funding and resources needed to drive successful and equitable climate action,” Time said in a note.
“We valued measurable, scalable achievements over commitments and announcements. We favoured more recent action. The result is our second annual TIME100 Climate list, which represents multitudes of individuals making significant progress in influencing the business of climate change. We asked them to talk about it, hoping their words would stir others to do the same.”
Ndlovu also sits on the Mutapa Investment Fund board.
