NAIROBI, Kenya, January 27, 2022 - Makhtar Diop, Managing Director of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), will visit Kenya from January 31 to February 4 to highlight IFC's strong commitment to supporting Kenya's development agenda and the private sector's role in championing a more inclusive recovery from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
During his visit, Mr. Diop will hold talks with President Uhuru Kenyatta, as well as with key private sector representatives and prominent business leaders. Mr. Diop will discuss IFC's commitment to promote social inclusion, with support from the private sector, across health, agriculture, housing, and public-private partnerships in Kenya and the broader region.
While the COVID-19 pandemic hit Kenya's smaller businesses particularly hard, disrupted supply chains and reduced economic activity, the country is staging a positive economic recovery and is expected to post one of the stronger growth rebounds in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2022. The private sector has an instrumental role to play in supporting Kenya's continued recovery from the pandemic and in creating more productive jobs in the longer term.
IFC's investment and advisory portfolio in Kenya currently stands at $964 million. IFC works across a number of key sectors including manufacturing, agribusiness, financial services, infrastructure, and technology. IFC has supported Kenya throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, deploying $115 million of its COVID-19 fast-track global financing facility to several financial institutions in Kenya to support them to increase lending to small businesses vital to the country's economy.
WHO: Makhtar Diop, Managing Director, IFC | @Diop_IFC
WHEN: Monday, January 31, 2022 – Friday, February 4, 2022
WHERE: Nairobi, Kenya
For media requests, please contact: In Nairobi: Kristina Nwazota | knwazota@ifc.org | +254 (0) 793 263 740
About IFC
IFC—a member of the World Bank Group—is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. We work in more than 100 countries, using our capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities in developing countries. In fiscal year 2021, IFC committed a record $31.5 billion to private companies and financial institutions in developing countries, leveraging the power of the private sector to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity as economies grapple with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. For more information, visit www.ifc.org.
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Makhtar Diop
Makhtar Diop is IFC's Managing Director. He assumed this position on March 1, 2021. Prior to this appointment, he was the World Bank's Vice President for Infrastructure, where he led the Bank's global efforts to build sustainable infrastructure in developing and emerging economies. In this role, he oversaw the Bank's critical work in energy, transport, digital infrastructure, and public-private partnerships.
Prior to this, Mr. Diop served for six years as the World Bank's Vice President for Africa, where he oversaw the delivery of a record-breaking USD$70 billion to Sub-Saharan Africa to help tackle development challenges such as increasing access to energy; boosting women's and youth's economic empowerment; and promoting an enabling environment for more innovation and technology adoption. A passionate advocate for Africa's right to clean and affordable electricity, he also called for greater investment in renewable energy and pushed for stronger regional interconnectivity in the power and transport sectors. He previously served as World Bank Director for Finance, Private Sector & Infrastructure in the Latin America and the Caribbean Region; Country Director for Brazil, where he helped finance major infrastructure work; and Country Director for Kenya, Eritrea, and Somalia.
Mr. Diop brings to the post a deep level of experience and understanding of development challenges and a firm grasp of the public/private sector interface. His main priorities will be to mobilize investments in the poorest and most fragile countries and create the conditions for a resilient, inclusive, and sustainable recovery. In addition to his international organization experience, Mr. Diop, an economist by training who started his career in the banking industry before joining the IMF and later the World Bank, has extensive private sector experience. He has also held government positions, most notably as Minister of Economy and Finance of Senegal, where he played a key role in instituting structural reforms that helped build a strong foundation for Senegal's growth in the late 1980s.
A recognized opinion leader in the economic and social development field, Makhtar Diop has been named one of the 100 most influential Africans in the world. In 2015, he received the prestigious Regents' Lectureship Award from the University of California, Berkeley.
Mr. Diop holds degrees in economics from the Universities of Warwick and Nottingham in England.
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