Cameroonian, Christian Ebeke, new IMF Resident boss in Nigeria.

He is expected to take office in October. Before his recent appointment, Dr Ebeke was Deputy Division Chief for Macroeconomic Policies in the IMF’s Strategy Department. 

He had been in that position since June 2022, until his new appointment to serve in Africa’s most populous nation.

In reaction to his appointment, Dr Ebeke, in a post on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter, wrote: “A new adventure, new heavy responsibilities and lessons that I will draw for my beautiful country, Cameroon”.

The 40-year-old expert in macroeconomics and development, joined the IMF in 2011. He held several positions, among them that of Deputy Director of the IMF for Europe, Economist in charge of the Euro Zone as well as working at the fiscal sector in Poland, reviewing programme countries in the strategy and policy review department among others.

He has received several awards, including that of Poland-Baltics Unit’s Spot Award in 2015. In 2010, Dr Ebeke was winner of the Global Medals for Research on Development-Global Development Network. 

The former student of the University of Yaounde II, Soa, had before his meteoric rise in the international institution, delivered key presentations on global economic trends at several world conferences. 

His works have touched on migration, Europe’s ageing population, remittances and voter turnout in Sub-Saharan Africa. Between 2011 and 2013, he reviewed the economic situation of several African countries-Burkina Faso, Somalia, Mauritania, Uganda, Rwanda, Senegal and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

With his wealth of experience, the newly promoted official, is thus expected to strengthen the presence of this Bretton Woods institution, in Nigeria, which is expected to hit a Gross Domestic Product, GDP growth of 3.3%, between the last quarter of 2023 and 2024. According to the African Development Bank, AfDB, Nigeria’s inflation rate currently stands at 19.6%.

He has published several researched pieces on a good number of topics, among which include structural reforms, macroeconomics stability, international finance, fiscal policy, governance and international migration. Dr Ekebe holds a PhD from the University of Auvergne in France.