‘W/Bank appoints two Vice Presidents for African region’

The World Bank’s Sub-Saharan Africa Regional portfolio will now be managed by two vice presidents covering Western and Central and Eastern and Southern Africa.

The new arrangement takes effect from July 1, 2020. The institution announced the change early this year but only took effect yesterday.

The region has been led since 2018 by Hafez Ghanem, who today takes on the role of Vice President for Eastern and Southern Africa.

Based on the announcement, Ousmane Diagana becomes Vice President for Western and Central Africa.

“The creation of an additional Vice Presidency Unit is part of the World Bank Group’s continuous efforts to align resources with priorities. This will help drive the reforms and policies needed to achieve sustained and broadbased growth, alleviate poverty and raise living standards for people on the continent,” the bank stated.

It had earlier announced that this year it will lend about $50bn to 48 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa - significantly more than any other region and making up about onethird of the World Bank’s entire portfolio.

“Our commitment to Africa gets stronger every day, and I am thrilled to work alongside Ousmane Diagana to deliver even more resources to the people who need them the most,” said Hafez Ghanem, World Bank Vice President for Eastern and Southern Africa.

“We are two vice presidents, but we see Africa as one, and will continue sharing lessons, expertise, and ideas across the continent,” he added.