The African Leadership Institute is delighted to announce the Associates who have been selected for the 2026 cohort of the Tutu Fellowship programme. It is a pleasure to be welcoming this group of exceptional African leaders, who emerged from hundreds of nominations received.
This year’s cohort includes associates from 15 countries spanning the continent. Their current endeavours span the domains of private business, public governance and civil society, and their areas of influence range from finance, technology, education to human rights, conflict resolution, health, sport, and social and other media.
This rich diversity of nationalities, professions and perspectives is a defining feature of the programme’s learning experience. These associates demonstrate the incredible wealth and breadth of Africa’s leadership talent and the programme is committed to strengthening their capacity as catalysts for positive, transformative impact across the continent.
The biographies of the 2026 programme participants follow.
Astrid Rosemary Ndagano Haas
Uganda
Feminist Urban Economist
Self-employed Consultant and Advisor
Astrid Rosemary Ndagano Haas is an independent feminist urban economist whose work spans research and practice, focusing on supporting cities with strategy and governance related to financing public infrastructure and services. Her work centres on how cities can unlock funding and financing for inclusive, equitable, and sustainable urban development.
She has advised multiple local and national governments across Africa and has presented her work to heads of state, ministers, and mayors across the globe. Her institutional collaborators have included the African Development Bank, United Nations agencies, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, bilateral partners, and city networks including the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, and the Commonwealth Local Government Forum, amongst others. Astrid has published extensively on urban finance and municipal governance.
Astrid currently serves as Chair of the Board of the Mawazo Institute.
Academic and professional credentials:
BSc in Economics from Brown University, USA (2013)
Association of Chartered Certified Accountants
Deus Valentine Rweyemamu
Tanzania
Chief Executive Officer
Center for Strategic Litigation
Deus Valentine Rweyemamu is chief executive officer of the Center for Strategic Litigation (CSL), an East African think-and-do tank he co-founded in 2019 to address a regional rule of law crisis. Previously, he consulted on human rights, governance and advocacy for various international organisations, including Global Affairs Canada, the EU, USAID, and the World Bank. He serves on the Research and Evaluation Advisory Group of Twaweza East Africa and the Board of Trustees of Educate the Children Trust, and was an independent reviewer for the Open Government Partnership.
Before CSL, Deus worked at the Open Society Foundations' Eastern Africa office, building the Tanzania portfolio. He helped establish key human rights and constitutional organisations like the Tanzania National Human Rights Defenders Coalition and the Tanzania Constitutional Forum. He also created CEMOT, a technology-powered election observation coalition. In 2014, the World Economic Forum recognised him to lead the Dar es Salaam Global Shapers community hub.
Academic and professional credentials:
MSc, Development Policy and Practice — University of Bradford (2013–2015)
BA, Economics — Loyola College, University of Madras (2008–2011)
Djimhotengar Djerassem
Chad
Executive Director, Chief Risk Officer
EquityBCDC
Djimhotengar (Edgard) Djerassem is the Chief Risk Officer of EquityBCDC since June 2024, responsible for the enterprise risk management of the Bank, which includes Operational Risks, Market Risks, BCP Risks, IT & Cyber Risks, Fraud Risks, and ESG Risks. He is the Chairman of the Bank's Defense Council.
He began his career as a central banker in 2006 at the Central Bank of Central African States (Cameroon, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, CAR, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea), where he spent 10 years in Risk Management, addressing various topics such as exchange reserves risk (Middle Office), internal rating, operational risks, financial stability, and banking supervision in a region with 52 commercial banks under the oversight of the central bank. During this period, he was frequently involved as a Basel technical referent at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) for banking risk topics, as well as at the Bank of France, Bank of New York Mellon, and the Public Bank of China.
In 2017, he joined the Development Bank of Central African States, for 7 years, where he was the Group Chief Risk Officer, managing the risks associated with a portfolio of loans financing large public infrastructures, corporate entities, SMEs, social investments, and PPPs across the six countries (Cameroon, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, CAR, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea). In this role, he served as a Board Member and head of the Board Risk Committee for the banks in which BDEAC is a shareholder: Commercial Bank of Chad and Banque Congolaise de l’Habitat.
Academic and professional credentials:
Harvard Business School, Executive Certificate, Risk Management for Corporate Leaders
Harvard Business School, Executive Certificate, CORe
MIT Executive Program, Artificial Intelligence: Implications for Business Strategy ;
LSE : Executive Certificate, MBA Essentials ;
Wharton School : Executive Certificate, Leadership & Management
M.Sc Financial Management, KEDGE Business School
Diploma of Senior Banker (ITB), French School of Banking Profession
Master in International Economics & Globalization, University of Grenoble 2
Diploma in Statistics, Institute of Statistics and Applied Economy (ISSEA)
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