Mr. Sheku Sambadeen Sesay was selected in November 2023 as the Independent Co-chair for IDA’s twenty-first (IDA21) replenishment negotiation meetings. In this role, he champions stronger policy and financial support for IDA21 at political and other stakeholder levels across IDA donor and borrower countries.
Mr Sesay is a retired international development expert with over 30 years working experience. During his career, he served for 23 years (1984-2007) at the African Development Bank at professional and managerial levels with responsibilities covering country representation (Tanzania and Zanzibar), economic analysis, project cycle activities, country operations, policy dialogue, planning and research, and corporate secretariat services to the Boards of Directors and Governors of the Bank. He acted as Secretary General of the AfDB providing support and guidance to the President and Board members of the Bank regarding relationships with member countries. Before joining AfDB he worked at the National Development Bank and as part-time lecturer on the History of Economic Thought; and Advanced Money and Banking at the University of Sierra Leone.
After his service at AfDB, he returned to his country Sierra Leone in 2007 where he became the technical and professional head of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development for two years. He then moved to be the Governor of the Central Bank of Sierra Leone, a position he held for five years till 2014. Mr Sesay is familiar with IDA replenishment processes having served as an IDA Borrower Representative for the IDA14 and IDA15 replenishments. While serving as an IDA Borrower Representative, he co-chaired a committee on development effectiveness linked to replenishment discussions.
Mr. Sesay is an economist who holds a Master’s and a Bachelor’s degree in economics both from Howard University in the United States. He is fluent in English and French.
