Cheick Kanté, is the World Bank Country Director for Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Central African Republic, and Equatorial Guinea since June 1^st, 2023.

He previously was Operations Manager for Côte d'Ivoire, Benin, Guinea, and Togo, coordinating a portfolio of over 60 projects and programs. Mr. Kanté also was the Country Manager for Guinea from 2012-2016 and for Burkina Faso from 2016-2022.

While based in Johannesburg, South Africa, Mr. Kanté led a regional program of the World Bank Group's International Finance Corporation (IFC).

Mr. Kanté has an extensive experience in the financial sector and in the development of small and medium-sized enterprises and microfinance. He began his career in pioneering the use of information and communication technologies in education. He also led the preparation of several country partnership framework documents between the World Bank Group and Guinea, Burkina Faso, and Côte d'Ivoire.

A Malian national, Cheick Kanté holds a master’s in business administration (MBA) from the University of Arizona, United States and a Diploma from the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Bamako, Mali. His managerial skills have been acknowledged through two awards for Excellence in Leadership (2016 and 2019) by the World Bank Group Staff Association.