At the beginning of the year, Euromoney went on the hunt for Africa’s rising stars: outstanding individuals who are driving the continent’s financial and economic transformation, and setting a standard for those to follow in their wake. Here are profiles of the top 20 rising stars.

Nationality: Nigerian

Nationality: Nigerian/Ghanaian

Nationality: Nigerian

Nationality: Nigerian

Nationality: Ghanaian, based in UK

Africans are reclaiming their future and flocking back to a continent that many left in search of a better life. Home is where the heart is, but now it’s also where the opportunity is. Euromoney’s rising stars are grabbing the opportunities Africa has to offer and setting the standards for others to follow.

Nationality: Kenyan

Nationality: Ghanaian

Nationality: South African

In an interview with Euromoney, the group treasurer of South Africa-based explosives and chemicals group, AECI, shares his views on managing the company’s treasury operations, planning for international expansion, banking relationships and the prospect of adding international banks to its roster.

In a wide-ranging interview, Ann Cairns, MasterCard’s president of international markets and resident statistics buff, talks to Euromoney about tech-sector valuations, the digital revolution, acquisitions, regulation, and a yacht called…

The country has new wealth thanks to some big natural resource discoveries. They spell opportunity for both foreign and local institutions. How does such a small economy cope with such big demands?

Why would three businesses that are focused on the continent base themselves in a north European city? The answer is access.

Fears that African states have over-indulged in sovereign issuance are exaggerated.

Will the opportunity at home be enough for Africa’s talented diaspora?

Engaging with the new Libya is no straightforward task for a foreign visitor.

This year, Euromoney went on the hunt for Africa’s rising stars: A new generation of financiers driving the continent’s economic, financial and capital markets development and taking the region to the next level. See what you think of our choices.

AbdulMagid Breish, the chairman and acting CEO of the LIA – the man who launched litigation against some of the biggest names in global banking – reveals the sovereign wealth fund’s plans for the future and the battle to move on from Gaddafi-era investments.

Last month Goldman Sachs filed papers in the UK courts seeking to have a case for mis-selling brought by the Libyan Investment Authority summarily dismissed. This is not the first attempt by the bank to end the problems caused by its engagement with Gaddafi-era Libya. In a 2010 memo, Goldman proposed a complex structure that would have involved a $52 million payment in exchange for unwinding trades that had cost the Libyan fund almost $1.3 billion. While the US investigates, LIA chairman Abdulmagid Breish is making plans for the sovereign wealth fund’s future – and he wants his country’s money back.

Ratings pressure continues to hurt banks; Central bank pushes for culture change

In an interview with Euromoney, MTN Nigeria’s general manager, corporate treasury, talks about managing the business, banking relationships and how he hopes regulation blocking telecoms firms from offering mobile payments in Nigeria will change.

The shine of the Bric nations has dulled, so investors such as The Carlyle Group are setting their sights towards burgeoning African countries for better returns on their investments through private equity.

Nigerian oil and gas company Seplat successfully listed on the London and Lagos stock exchanges on Monday. Its aggressive acquisition ambitions might force the company to sell more equity and debt in the years ahead.

The case against African sovereign bond issuance – from a moral and debt-servicing perspective – is too bearish but local FX depreciation represents a risk.

The rise in global risk witnessed in 2013 continued during the first quarter of this year as experts taking part in Euromoney’s Country Risk Survey reassessed the investment prospects of EMs versus their developed-country counterparts.

More non-financial companies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) have had their credit ratings upgraded than downgraded by Moody’s Investors Service in the first quarter of the year – the first time this has happened since 2008.

Electronic-payments revenue in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) could reach up to $16 billion annually in the next few years if the growth of mobile payments in Kenya is repeated across the continent, according to a recent study by McKinsey and the Gates Foundation.

Ghana’s president admits that only structural changes will solve deep-rooted difficulties in the economy. One way to do this would be to diversify, lessening dependence on commodity exports. But can this be successful in a country still finding its feet?

The previously expansionist bank needs to take a more modest, consolidating stance.