Cheick Oumar Sylla serves as IFC’s Regional Director for North Africa and Horn of Africa based in Cairo,
Egypt. He covers Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Sudan, South Sudan, Djibouti, and Eritrea.

Before joining IFC in Dakar in May 2017 as Principal Investment Officer- Africa Infrastructure and Natural
Resources, Cheick-Oumar held leadership positions in a range of different industries in Africa and Europe
including the pharmaceutical, real estate, banking, and energy sectors, and was instrumental in creating
a number of successful business ventures. Most recently, he served as Executive Vice President, Business
Development Africa at ContourGlobal.

Prior joining ContourGlobal, Cheick-Oumar was Director of the Investment & Financing Department at
ICD, the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector, a member of the Islamic
Development Bank (IDB) based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Cheick-Oumar also served as general manager of
Pharmafinance (Ubipharm Group), one of the leading pharmaceutical distribution companies in Africa,
and also as Chief Business Development Officer at Teylioum Group in Geneva, Switzerland.

In July 2019, Cheick-Oumar became IFC’s Country Manager for the Horn of Africa covering Ethiopia,
Eritrea, Djibouti, Sudan and South Sudan. He was based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In this last position and
despite the challenges, Cheick-Oumar succeeded in increasing IFC’s footprint and growing IFC’s pipeline
in the region.

Cheick-Oumar is a graduate of École des Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC) in Montréal, Canada. He is
also a member of the Institute of Directors (IoD).