Lagos, Nigeria, May 31, 2024 —Makhtar Diop, Managing Director of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), will visit Nigeria from June 3rd to 6th to meet with senior government officials and private sector leaders to highlight IFC's commitment to support sustainable private sector growth and job creation in the country.
Mr. Diop's visit to Nigeria will take place at a critical time when private sector support is increasingly pivotal in revitalizing the country's economy. His engagements will focus on enabling private sector-led expansion in Nigeria's manufacturing, energy, agribusiness, industrial, technology and creative sectors and how IFC can deepen its support for the country's growth strategy.
In Abuja, Mr. Diop will meet with His Excellency, President of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu; Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy of Nigeria, Wale Edun; and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Olayemi Cardoso; and other senior government officials.
In Lagos, Mr. Diop will hold strategic engagements with the private sector, including with business leaders across various sectors and women entrepreneurs, on fostering partnerships, unlocking opportunities, and scaling initiatives that support inclusive growth, job creation, and innovation.
IFC has been engaging in Nigeria for more than 30 years and is scaling up its support for private sector development in the country — which is among IFC's top 10 portfolios globally and IFC's second largest portfolio in Africa, after South Africa. IFC has an active investment portfolio of $2.13 billion in key sectors in Nigeria, including manufacturing, agribusiness, energy, digital technology, infrastructure, and financial markets.
WHO: Makhtar Diop, Managing Director, IFC - @Diop_IFC
WHEN: Monday, 3 - 6 June, 2024.
WHERE: Lagos and Abuja, Nigeria
For media requests, please contact:
Anurika Azubuike | aazubuike@ifc.org | +234 906 291 0357
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 2023, IFC committed a record $43.7 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 global compounding crises. For more information, visit www.ifc.org.
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Makhtar Diop
IFC's Managing Director
Makhtar Diop is IFC's Managing Director. He assumed this position on March 1st, 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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