History

It was in Zurich in June 1979 at a UNIDO development bank conference that AADFI, ADFIAP and ALIDE, jointly with KfW of Germany signed an agreement to establish the World Federation of Development Financing Institutions (WFDFI). Its first governors were Willi F. L. Engel of KfW, Germany; René Amichia of AADFI, Ivory Coast; Tomás Pastoriza of ALIDE, Dominican Republic; and Vicente R. Jayme of ADFIAP, Philippines. By the end of 1979, the WFDFI opened its secretariat at the Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO) in Madrid, then headed by Rafael Bermejo Blanco.

José Elías Gallegos became its first secretary general. Since then there have been over eleven other secretaries general as shown below. The headquarters of WFDFI was in Madrid from 1979 until 1994, when a decision was taken to give WFDFI a rotating Secretariat by having the secretariat assumed by each regional association for a three-year period. The Secretariat has been with ADFIAP in Manila from 1995 to 1998 for three years and it then moved to ADFIMI in Istanbul in 1999 to 2002, with Orhan Sagci from Turkey serving as Secretary General. In May, 2002, Rommel Acevedo, Secretary General of ALIDE became the Secretary General of WFDFI until 2009. Octavio B. Peralta of ADFIAP was elected as the Secretary General of WFDFI in Istanbul in 2009 for a period of three years commencing 1 January 2010 to 2013 and Mr. Nuri Birtek, Secretary General of ADFIMI was elected at the BOG meeting in Tokyo on October 11, 2012. He served for three years from January 2013-2016..

In its Board of Governors (BoG) meeting held at the ALIDE Headquarters in Lima, Peru on October 7, 2015, the World Federation of Development Financing Institutions (WFDFI) designated ADFIAP as its Secretariat starting from January 2016, making it the second time since 2010 that ADFIAP was appointed as WFDFI Secretariat. Consequently, the ADFIAP Secretary General, Octavio B. Peralta, became the Secretary General of WFDFI for the second time in five years.

At its meeting held in October 23, 2018, at the Acapulco Resort and Convention Spa Hotel in Kyrenia, Northern Cyprus, the WFDFI BOG decided to pass over WFDFI’s Secretariat from ADFIAP to the Secretariat of AADFI with effect from January 1, 2019, for a tenure of three years. Accordingly, Mr. Joseph A. Amihere, Secretary General of AADFI, also became the Secretary General of WFDFI, until his retirement from the services of AADFI in February 28, 2020. From February 2020 to April 2022, Mr. Cyril A. Okoye, Secretary General of AADFI, was also the Secretary General of WFDFI. On April 4, 2022 was held the Board of Governors 2022, where ALIDE assumed the presidency and general secretariat for three years. Currently the general secretary of WFDFI is Edgardo Alvarez, general secretary of ALIDE since 2016.

WFDFI Chairmen

– Vicente R. Jayme , Philippines, 1979

– René Amichía , Côte d'Ivoire, 1980-1985

– Gustavo Petricioli , Mexico, 1986-1987
– Mohammed Aissaoui , Morocco, 1988-1989

– Suresh S. Nadkarni , India, 1990-1992
– Oscar Espinoza Villareal , Mexico, 1992-1993
– Hindemburgo C.Pereira-Dinitz , Brazil, 1993-1994
– Chang-Dal Kim , Korea, 1994-1996

– Aswin Kongsiri , Thailand, 1996-1998

– Saleh Ghazali , Malaysia, 1998

– Safa Ocak , Turkey, 1999

– Sudi Apak , Turkey, 1999-2000
– Orhan Güleç , Turkey, 2000-2001
– Md. Noor Yusoff, Malaysia, 2001-2002
– Gonzalo Rivas Gómez , Chile, 2002-2003
– William Hayden Quintero , Costa Rica, 2003-2004
– Mario Laborín , Mexico, 2004-2006
– Nicolla Angelucci , El Salvador, 2006-2008
– Luis Rebolledo , Peru. 2008-2009
– Roberto Smith , Brazil, 2009
– Nihal Fonseka , Sri Lanka, 2010-2012
– Datuk Wan Azhar , Malaysia, 2012
– M. Emin Özcan , Turkey, 2013-2015
– Sr. Arjun Fernando , Sri Lanka, 2015- 2018
– Sr. Thabo P. Thamane , Botswana, 2019-2022

– Carlos Linares , Peru, 2022

– Luis Antonio Ramírez , Mexico, 2023-present

Secretaries general of WFDFI

– José Elías Gallegos , Spain, 1979-1986

– Ramón Alvarez , Spain, 1986-1989
– Enríque Sanchez Blanco , Spain, 1989
– Pedro San Miguel , Spain, 1990
– José Ignacio de Ramón , Spain, 1990-1992
– José Arnaiz , Spain, 1992-1993
– Francisca Orosco , Spain, 1993-1994
– Orlando Peña , Philippines, 1995-1998
– Orhan Sagci , Turkey, 1999-2002
– Rommel Acevedo , Peru, 2002-2009
– Octavio B. Peralta , Philippines, 2010 -2012
– Nuri Birtek , 2013-2015
– Octavio B. Peralta , Philippines, 2015-2018
– Joseph A. Amihere , Côte d'Ivoire, 2019
– Cyril A. Okoye , Nigeria, 2019-2022

–  Edgardo Alvarez , Peru, 2022-present