EBRD appoints first MD for sub-Saharan Africa
EBRD appoints first MD for sub-Saharan Africa
The EBRD has appointed Heike Harmgart as its first managing director for sub-Saharan Africa.
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The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has appointed Heike Harmgart as its first managing director for sub-Saharan Africa.
Harmgart, who is currently the EBRD’s managing director for the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean (SEMED) region, will take up her new position on 1 September. She will continue to oversee the SEMED region and will remain based in Cairo until the new managing director for SEMED has been appointed and the bank has decided on the location of its regional hub for sub-Saharan Africa.
A German national, Harmgart will head up the EBRD’s banking operations in the bank’s sub-Saharan Africa region, which will comprise Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Senegal.
The move follows the Governors’ approval – at the EBRD’s 2023 Annual Meeting in Samarkand – of amendments to the bank’s statutes to enable the limited and incremental expansion of its operations to sub-Saharan Africa and Iraq.
Harmgart said: “I am thrilled to be leading the EBRD’s expansion on the ground in this important new region for the bank and calling on our successful experience from SEMED as I do so. I look forward to setting up our offices and to launching operations in the six countries, for the benefit of the people who live there.”
Harmgart joined the EBRD in 2006 as an economist. She was appointed managing director for the southern and eastern Mediterranean region at the end of 2019 and, under her leadership, the region has recorded record levels of private investment annually.
She previously worked for the Economist Intelligence Unit and the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Harmgart holds a PhD in economics from University College London.
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