Samira Mensah is Managing Director Research & Analytics Africa and Country Head – South Africa. She is responsible for S&P Global Ratings’ thought leadership and market outreach strategy across the continent.

She has been with S&P Global for 17 years and is based in Johannesburg. Most recently, she was a director and lead analyst in the Financial Services Ratings team and covered financial institutions, multilateral lending institutions, sovereign ratings and Islamic Finance in Africa. 

Samira’s risk management experience started at the Montreal Exchange (TMX Group) where she was a market and credit risk analyst for several years. She then joined S&P Global Ratings in London in 2008. There, she covered asset managers, stock exchanges and clearing houses across Europe, after which she focused on financial services, including insurance credit ratings in the Middle East and Africa. 

As a specialist of emerging credit markets and Islamic Finance, she has published credit research and speaks regularly at conferences on related topics.