International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, has announced that Cheikh Oumar Seydi has assumed the role IFC’s Regional Director for the entire Sub-Saharan Africa region effective July 1, expanding his leadership role for IFC.
In order to further strengthen regional leadership IFC will add two Associate Director positions to support the delivery of the IFC strategy in Africa, which is central to the implementation of the global IFC 3.0 strategy.
An Associate Director will soon be appointed for West and Central Africa, based in Dakar, and another will cover East and Southern Africa, based in Nairobi, reporting to the Regional Director.
“Africa is a priority for IFC, and Oumar’s leadership will help us play a growing role to catalyze private investment in the continent,” said IFC CEO Philippe Le Houérou, “Our goal is to work with the private sector and with governments to create markets throughout Africa, including in fragile situations, to provide more opportunities and more jobs for people.”
IFC supports its priorities and development impact through projects and programs that expand capital markets, encourage empowerment of women, mitigate climate change, improve the investment climate, and deepen partnerships.
“IFC has a strong franchise in Africa and we have the opportunity to increase our impact by ensuring that private investment plays a much larger role in the continent’s development,” said Seydi.
IFC invested nearly $19 billion globally in fiscal 2016, including about $8 billion mobilized from other investors. In Sub-Saharan Africa, IFC provided $2.4 billion new long term investments and mobilizations and $1.5 billion in short term investments.
Mr. Seydi has held various positions at IFC, including Director of Human Resources for more than four years. He was previously Senior Manager for the Central Africa sub-region, responsible for overall management of IFC’s investment and advisory operations in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo Republic, Chad, DRC, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.
Seydi holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.
