AFRICAN Risk Capacity Limited (ARC Ltd) chief executive officer, Lesley Ndlovu has been named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential Climate Leaders in Business for 2024.
Ndlovu, born in Filabusi, Matabeleland South in Zimbabwe, is an international financial services executive with experience in corporate finance, investment management and insurance and has worked in Bermuda, Singapore, France, United Kingdom and South Africa.
“The recognition is the culmination of the tremendous work that has been undertaken by the African Risk Capacity,” Ndlovu told businessdigest this week.
“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.
He commended ARC for its work in providing risk coverage across Africa.
“We have expanded the number of perils insured from one in 2020 crop drought to five crop-drought, livestock-drought, tropical cyclone, flood, 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 programmes such as the World Food Programme, START Network, the United Nations 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.”
ARC says it 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.
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“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.
Founded in 2014, ARC is a hybrid mutual insurer and financial affiliate of the African Risk Capacity Group.
It provides parametric insurance services to AU Member States and farmer organisations, employing innovative financing mechanisms to pool disaster-related risk across Africa and transferring it to international risk markets.
In a statement, ARC expressed delight at Ndlovu’s recognition.
“This prestigious acknowledgment underscores his unwavering commitment to enhancing Africa’s resilience against climate change,” the statement said.
“This innovative approach ensures rapid pay-outs to communities affected by droughts, floods, and cyclones, enabling timely and effective responses without the delays of traditional damage assessments,” ARC 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.
“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 will stir others to do the same,” it notes.
