World Bank Appoints New Country Director for Nigeria

The World Bank has announced the appointment of Shubham Chaudhuri, as the new Country Director for Nigeria, succeeding Rachid Benmessaoud who has just completed his term.

Shubham, a United States national who grew up in India, joined the World Bank in 2004 and has held several leadership positions at the Bank, with his most recent position being Country Director for Afghanistan.

In his new position, Shubham Chaudhuri’s top priorities will be to lead the strategic dialogue with government, development partners, and other key stakeholders; develop and implement the new Country Partnership Framework, and provide customised solutions and policy advice to Nigeria.

“It is an honor to be in Nigeria and have the opportunity to help our government partners, at the Federal and state levels, realize Nigeria’s full and considerable potential, by transforming the economy, catalyzing private investment and job creation, investing in Nigeria’s children, and creating opportunities for Nigeria’s youth and women, ,” Shubham Chaudhurisaid.

 “The World Bank Group has a long-standing partnership with Nigeria and I look forward to deepening our engagement with government partners, with Nigeria’s very vibrant civil society and private sector, and with international development partners to help lift millions of Nigerians out of poverty”.

Prior to his appointment, Shubham Chaudhuri was Practice Manager in the Macroeconomics and Fiscal Management Global Practice for the South Asia Region. He also held the position of Manager of the World Bank’s Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Department for East Asia and the Pacific, and Lead Economist for Indonesia.

As Lead Economist for Indonesia, Shubham was responsible for leading the overall economic policy dialogue, advisory and development policy lending work in Indonesia. He managed the Jakarta-based economics team, which works closely with partners in government and in the development community to further Indonesia’s development agenda. Prior to relocating to Jakarta in early 2008, Shubham worked primarily on China and on East Asia regional policy issues.

Before joining the Bank, Shubham spent a decade as an economics professor and Director of the Programme in Economic and Political Development at Columbia University in New York. His research, published in journals such as the American Economic Review, Review of Economic Studies, Econometrica, Journal of Public Economics and Journal of International Economics, spanned topics such as poverty and vulnerability, trade and investment climate, participatory budgeting and fiscal decentralization. Chaudhuri obtained his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and his Ph.D. from Princeton University, both in economics.

 

Onyinye Nwachukwu, Abuja