Stewarding an Institution’s Memory: TDB Group at 40
In development finance, institutions are judged not only by the capital they deploy, but by the clarity with which they document reform, governance, and impact over time. Few moments reveal this more clearly than how an institution chooses to tell its own story.
When the Trade and Development Bank Group marked its 40th anniversary in Kampala in December 2025, the unveiling of its 40th Anniversary Coffee Table Book emerged as such a moment not as a commemorative gesture, but as a statement of institutional maturity and confidence.
The high-level commemorative cocktail reception, held at the Kampala Serena Hotel, brought together senior government officials, captains of industry, development partners, and private-sector leaders to reflect on four decades of advancing trade, regional integration, and sustainable development across Africa.
An Institutional Narrative Anchored in Reform Leadership
The Coffee Table Book documents TDB Group’s evolution since its establishment in 1985 by the Member States of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), tracing its transformation from a regional trade finance institution into a specialised African development finance group with a footprint spanning every African sub-region.
More than a historical record, the publication captures the governance reforms, strategic repositioning, and disciplined institutional choices that have shaped the Group’s 40-year journey, including the reform momentum of the past decade that has elevated TDB Group into a diversified development finance institution with a balance sheet exceeding USD 10 billion.
This reform era has unfolded under the leadership of Admassu Tadesse, Group President and Managing Director. His tenure has been defined by strengthened governance architecture, balance-sheet growth, membership expansion, and strategic repositioning that have elevated TDB’s standing in global development finance circles.
The Coffee Table Book reflects this leadership philosophy with unusual candour; offering stakeholders not only outcomes, but the institutional logic behind them. In doing so, it reinforces a central truth of development finance: credibility is cumulative, earned through consistency, transparency, and disciplined execution.
Stewardship from Within:
At the centre of the Coffee Table Book’s unveiling was Ms. Mary Kamari, Executive Director of the Trade and Development Fund and a senior executive within TDB Group, who led the presentation as a steward of the institution’s reform narrative and institutional memory.
“In a fast-moving operating environment, and an often distracting digital world, TDB Group has remained a strategic communicator,” Ms Kamari observed.
“Our 40th Anniversary Coffee Table Book allows us to tell our journey of impact with depth and purpose from our humble beginnings, through reforms undertaken across a 40-year institutional journey that has transformed TDB Group into a diversified development finance institution with a balance sheet exceeding USD 10 billion,” Ms Kamari said.
Her remarks underscored a core development-finance insight: growth alone does not confer legitimacy, which is built through governance discipline, institutional memory, and the ability to demonstrate impact over time.
Leadership within a Pan-African System- Mary Kamari
Rwandan by heritage and born in Uganda, Kamari reflects the region’s deeply interconnected identity. Her leadership sensibility mirrors TDB Group’s Pan-African mandate, balancing strong local grounding with continental ambition. Further studies undertaken in the United States, professional experience in the US, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya and extensive engagement across Africa while carrying out her responsibilities have shaped a broad institutional lens; one informed by mobility, diversity, and a deep understanding of how development finance operates across varied political, economic, and regional contexts.
Her academic training spans Makerere University (Bachelor of Business Administration), California State University (MBA), and INSEAD Business School (Certificate in Strategic Management in Banking), providing a blend of local grounding and global executive exposure.
Before joining TDB Group in 2012, she built her career across global and regional institutions, including the World Bank, the United Nations, and the Development Bank of Southern Africa, where she developed deep expertise in resource mobilisation, programme management, and institutional partnerships.
Her 2024 appointment as Executive Director of the Trade and Development Fund marked a strategic evolution, placing her at the centre of initiatives advancing trade, regional integration, and inclusive development finance across Africa.
Uganda’s Place in the Institutional Story
For Uganda, one of TDB Group’s founding member states, the 40th anniversary carries particular resonance. Since its inception, TDB Group has injected close to USD 1 billion into Uganda across priority sectors, including energy, agribusiness, manufacturing, infrastructure, banking and financial services, and health, translating mandate into measurable national impact.
Delivering the keynote address, Prof. Ramathan Ggoobi, Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Treasury at Uganda’s Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, described the milestone as more than a celebration.
“This milestone is not merely a commemoration; it is a moment to reflect on TDB Group’s institutional evolution and enduring commitment to Africa’s development,” he noted, referencing the Bank’s transformation from PTA Bank into a world-class development finance institution central to regional integration.
A Marker of Institutional Maturity
Held under the theme “Innovating Solutions to Accelerate Sustainable Development,” TDB Group’s ruby anniversary signals its ambition as it enters its fifth decade: to deepen its role as a catalyst for development financing, regional economic integration, and sustainable growth across Africa.
In this context, the Coffee Table Book stands as more than a commemorative publication. It is an institutional instrument, linking leadership to stewardship, reform to credibility, and ambition to discipline.
As Africa’s development finance institutions face rising expectations around transparency, resilience, and long-term relevance, TDB Group’s decision to document its 40-year journey so deliberately affirms a future in which institutional memory is treated not as history, but as strategy.