A Senegalese national, Dr. Ndiamé Diop has officially taken up his new role as the World Bank’s Country Director for Nigeria, succeeding Shubbam Chaudhuri, who recently completed his term. This appointment was announced by the World Bank in a statement released on July 8, 2024.

Prior to his new position, Dr. Diop served as the World Bank Country Director for Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand, operating out of Manila. During his tenure, he significantly increased the Bank’s financing to the Philippines, more than tripling the support to advance critical economic reforms and bridge disparities in sectors such as nutrition, stunting, healthcare, social protection delivery, education, agriculture, and digital connectivity.

In his new role, Dr. Diop is expected to leverage his extensive experience to foster development and economic growth in Nigeria, building on the efforts of his predecessor.

An accomplished economist, he has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and books, focusing on fiscal policy and growth, monetary policy and inflation, macroeconomic policies, resilience to sudden stops in capital inflows, natural resource abundance, Dutch disease, and economic diversification.

During his tenure in Malaysia, he supervised a significant Malaysia-funded knowledge program aimed at transitioning the country to a high-income economy through advanced economic analyses and technical assistance. He also played a pivotal role in engaging the Thai government to resume World Bank investment lending after a two-decade hiatus.