Beninese Serge Ekué, a banking and finance expert, was appointed chairman of BOAD by the institution's Council of Ministers on August 18, 2020. He succeeds his compatriot, Christian Adovelande, who has headed the Bank since 2011.

BOAD has just appointed a new president to succeed the Beninese Christian Adovelande. It is another Beninese, Serge Ekué (photo), who will lead the Bank for the next six years, we learn from a press release published by the institution.

The decision taken on Tuesday, August 18, 2020 by the Council of Ministers of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) comes at the end of the second term of Christian Adovelande, who has accumulated nine years at the head of BOAD. Under his presidency, between 2011 and 2019, the Bank approved a total of more than 3950 billion FCFA ($7.1 billion) of projects with a large share allocated to the infrastructure sector.

According to figures published by BOAD, it also obtained the highest average of financing and disbursements since the creation of the institution, i.e. 433.5 billion FCFA ($786 million) for financing and 333.8 billion FCFA (605 $.7 million) for disbursements over the period from 2014 to 2019.

Former head of Natixis' corporate and investment banking (BFI) activities for the United Kingdom in London, Serge Ekué, who has been President Adovelande's special adviser since May 2020, will therefore have the difficult task of doing better than his predecessor and to bring the activities of BOAD to a higher level.

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