On July 8, the World Bank announced the appointment of Senegalese Ndiamé Diop as Country Director for Nigeria. Based in Abudja, he took up his new position on July 1, 2024. In his new role, he will lead the World Bank team in Nigeria and deepen policy dialogue and partnership with the Nigerian government and key stakeholders. In addition, he will oversee the provision and implementation of lending and other support to Nigeria.
Prior to his appointment, Dr. Ndiamé Diop was the World Bank’s Country Director for Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand, based in Manila.
Dr. Ndiamé Diop said, “I am very excited to be leading the World Bank’s program in Nigeria, especially at this critical time when Nigeria has a significant opportunity to make progress towards improving its economy and delivering development results for its citizens. I look forward to deepening our partnership with the Government of Nigeria at both the federal and state levels by providing quality technical and financial support that will help accelerate progress on Nigeria’s development priorities, a vibrant and dynamic country that is important to the entire sub-region.
The World Bank Group is committed to working with the government, development partners and citizens to achieve a prosperous economy where jobs and economic opportunities are created, and millions of Nigerians are lifted out of poverty.”
Several notable achievements
In his previous post, says the World Bank, Dr. Ndiamé Diop had a number of notable achievements to his credit. Indeed, says the institution, he more than tripled World Bank funding to the Philippines to increase the Bank’s support for key economic reforms (policy-driven budget support programs) and the Philippines’ efforts to address its gaps in nutrition/stunting, health, social protection provision, education, agriculture and digital connectivity. In Malaysia, explains the World Bank, Dr. Ndiamé Diop oversaw the implementation of an extensive knowledge program funded by Malaysia and aimed at helping the country become a high-income economy through cutting-edge economic analysis and technical assistance. In Thailand, he encouraged the government to resume World Bank investment lending after a 20-year pause.
From 2016 to 2020, the World Bank reports, Ndiamé Diop headed the World Bank’s Macroeconomics, Trade and Investment Unit for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, based in Jakarta and Bangkok. In this role, he supervised the bank’s 40 or so national economists working in East Asia and the Pacific region, and provided advice and technical support to high-level officials on key macroeconomic, fiscal, trade and growth-enhancing reforms.
From 2012 to 2016, Ndiamé Diop held the position of Chief Economist for Indonesia. In this capacity, the bank reports, he worked closely with Indonesian government reformers as a technical advisor, led the World Bank’s general economic policy dialogue and supported his team in implementing development policy advisory and lending operations in Indonesia.
Senior Economist in Jordan and Lebanon
Before being appointed World Bank Chief Economist for Indonesia in 2012, Dr. Ndiamé Diop held positions as Senior Economist in Jordan and Lebanon, Country Economist in the Middle East and North Africa, and was World Bank Resident Representative in Tunisia from 2007 to 2010.
Dr. Ndiamé Diop joined the World Bank in Washington DC in 2000 as a young professional.
As an economist, he has published articles in specialized journals and books on fiscal policy and growth, monetary policy and inflation, macroeconomic policies and resilience to sudden stops in capital inflows, natural resource abundance, Dutch disease and economic diversification.
