The World Bank announced Thursday that it has chosen former Senegalese Finance Minister Mokhtar Diop to head the agency responsible for financing the private sector at a critical time in the global recovery.
He will be the first African to lead the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which provides financing to support private companies in developing countries.
The announcement comes a few days after the World Trade Organization selected former Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as its new CEO, the first African woman and the first woman to hold the position.
Referring to his “deep experience in development and finance,” World Bank President David Malpass said, “Diop’s skills at CFI will help the World Bank Group continue our rapid response to the global crisis and help build a resilient, inclusive ecological recovery.”
Diop, the current World Bank Vice President for Infrastructure and a former Vice President for Africa, will take up his new position at the International Finance Corporation on March 1.
The World Bank said that Diop’s appointment “also aims to expand the IFC’s influence in the poorest and most vulnerable countries, with the goal of tripling the IFC’s annual investment at its own expense.”
Diop, an economist who studied in the United Kingdom, worked in finance before joining the Senegalese government.
He was appointed Minister of Economy and Finance in April 2000, a position he held for just over a year.
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