Who is Antoinette Sayeh, the Liberian number two of the IMF?

Text by: Olivier Rogez Follow

The former Liberian Minister of Finance, Antoinette Sayeh takes office on Monday, March 16, at the head of the IMF. She is the first African woman to hold the position of Deputy Director General. IMF CEO Kristalina Georgieva is surrounded by four DGAs. Antoinette Sayeh will be in charge of African files.

Publicity

In the words of Kristalina Georgieva , the patron of the IMF, Antoinette Sayeh represents a “ rare combination of institutional leadership , analytical skills and commitment to equity ”. The respect that surrounds the Liberian woman goes back to her time at the World Bank, where she worked for seventeen years. In 2006, the President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, entrusted him with the country's Ministry of Finance. Antoinette Sayeh succeeds in clearing arrears of debts and obtaining support programs from the IMF. She holds the rudder without shaking in bad weather, and her composure is noticed.

She then entered FMi to take care between 2008 and 2016 of the Africa department. Those who thought they would find a complacent interlocutor are at their expense. Antoinette Sayeh does not hesitate to suspend IMF aid to Mozambique after the Maputo hidden debt scandal.

Principles and understanding

She is also the one who bangs her fist on the table in Central Africa, reproaching the countries of the Cemac zone, their macroeconomic mismanagement following the oil crisis of 2014. No feelings at Antoinette Sayeh, but principles and understanding , as with the Ebola-stricken countries, which then receive IMF support.

Guardian of financial orthodoxy, she will again take care of African countries. With the credo , this maxim in vogue at the IMF: sustainable growth is based on sound management.

► Antoinette Sayeh, former Minister of Finance of Liberia, soon to be number 2 of the IMF

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• IMF
• Liberia
• Finance