(Ecofin Agency) - Beninese Serge Ekué (pictured) was appointed the new president of the West African Development Bank (BOAD) for the next 6 years, to replace his compatriot Christian Adovelande. The decision was announced today August 18 by the Council of Ministers of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU).

Under Christian Adovelande's chairmanship, between 2011 and 2019, the Bank approved more than CFA3,950 billion ($7.1 billion) for development projects, most of which targeted the infrastructure sector.

According to official figures, the institution also obtained the highest average amount of financing and disbursements since its inception in 2011-19. This is CFA433.5 billion ($786 million) for financing and CFA333.8 billion ($605.7 million) for disbursements over the period from 2014 to 2019.

The former head of Natixis' corporate and investment banking (CIB) activities for the United Kingdom in London, Serge Ekué, who since May 2020 had been the special advisor to President Adovelande, will, therefore, have the heavy task of doing better than his predecessor and taking the BOAD's activities to a higher level.

One of the first crises that the banking and finance expert will have to face is that of the coronavirus, which profoundly affects the economic activities of West African countries like the rest of the world. According to a BCEAO report, the pandemic is expected to cause growth in the WAEMU to drop to 2.6% in 2020 against an initial forecast of 6.6%.

Moutiou Adjibi Nourou