Vera SONGWE

About Vera SONGWE

Vera Songwe is a leading Cameroonian economist whose career has been built at the intersection of public policy, development finance, and economic governance. She served as Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), at the rank of Under-Secretary-General, and became the first woman to lead the institution in its 60-year history. Before that appointment in 2017, she was Regional Director for West and Central Africa at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) from 2015. Her long tenure within the World Bank Group also included serving as Country Director for Senegal, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and Mauritania, as well as Adviser to the Managing Director for Africa, Europe, Central Asia, and South Asia. Earlier in her career, she worked as Senior Economist and Lead Country Sector Coordinator in the Philippines, after joining the World Bank as a Young Professional. Songwe’s expertise spans macroeconomic stability, development finance, private-sector growth, taxation, infrastructure, governance, and digital transformation. At the ECA, she promoted a reform agenda focused on “ideas for a prosperous Africa,” with particular emphasis on competitiveness, trade, poverty reduction, jobs, and mobilizing financing for African development. She also became a prominent voice on African integration and the African Continental Free Trade Area. Her career reflects a rare combination of policy depth, institutional leadership, and execution in complex multinational environments. In corporate governance terms, her connection with Teleperformance fits that profile: she brings international perspective, strategic discipline, and experience with large-scale organizations to the oversight of a listed global company.