Danielle Ciribassi 2026 Speakers

“Danielle Ciribassi is the Founder and Managing Director of Niofar Capital, a Pan-African investment readiness and financial advisory firm focused on advancing Africa’s industrialization by helping credible industrial projects become investment-ready, access capital, and successfully move into execution.

Danielle brings more than 17 years of on-the-ground experience across African markets. Earlier in her career, she served as President of the US–Africa Chamber of Commerce in Washington, DC, working to strengthen trade and investment engagement between U.S. and African stakeholders.

Danielle founded Niofar Capital around a conviction that Africa’s long-term economic transformation requires more than investment flows: it requires investment into productive capacity. Manufacturing, local processing, energy, logistics, infrastructure and value-added agribusiness can create jobs, strengthen domestic and regional value chains, reduce dependence on imported finished goods, and allow more value generated from African resources to remain within African economies.

Through Niofar Capital, Danielle works with project sponsors to identify and screen credible opportunities, strengthen investment readiness, develop financing strategies, and facilitate engagement with investors, lenders, EPC partners and other strategic counterparties. Niofar currently manages a curated pipeline of more than US$2 billion in opportunities across 15+ African markets, with a strong concentration in industrial and productive sectors.

Importantly, Niofar’s role is designed not to end at financial close. The firm remains involved through post-close financial coordination, helping sponsors and financing partners navigate the movement and deployment of capital during project execution, including payment and foreign-exchange coordination where required.

Danielle’s work ultimately sits at the intersection of African industrial development and international capital. Fluent in English, French and Wolof, she operates across linguistic and cultural environments to identify strong opportunities on the ground, prepare them to meet investor expectations, connect them with appropriate financing, and help ensure that capital translates into operating businesses and productive assets.”