Hon. Sheku A. F. Bangura, the Minister of Finance (Designate) of the Republic of Sierra Leone, brings 30 years of experience in economic and development management issues at national, regional, and international institutional levels.

He was Deputy Minister of Finance 1 and 2 from January 2020 to January 2023, Chairman, National COVID-19 Response (April 2021 – January 2022), and Deputy National Coordinator (Admin and Finance) COVID-19 Response for the Republic of Sierra Leone (May 2020 – April 2021).

He served as Senior Advisor on the Executive Board of the World Bank Group in Washington DC, USA for a decade (2007 – 2017), providing fiduciary and corporate-level advisory on economic development programs. He was also a Consultant on the development effectiveness of World Bank interventions in Sub-Saharan Africa at the Africa Region Vice Presidency for 2 years (August 2017 – December 2019). He was Principal Economist (2003 – 2006) and Senior Economist (July 2001 – December 2002) at the West African Monetary Institute, Accra, Ghana, from July 2001 to January 2006, providing regional surveillance and management advisory to the West Africa regional monetary integration program.

Mr Bangura has a track record in public finance management and economic governance at the national level, serving as Director of Fiscal Decentralisation in the Ministry of Finance in 2006-2007 and Economist managing public debt in the earlier part of his career in 1993 – 1999 at the Ministry of Finance, World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. Mr. Bangura interned at the International Monetary Fund with the Policy Development and Review Department in October 1998 and April 1999, working on external debt management and the HIPC Initiative.

Mr Bangura holds a Master of Economic Policy Management from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, a Master of Public Policy (Public Finance) from The American University in Washington DC, USA, and a Bachelor of Economic and Social Studies (Honours in Economics) from Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone. He is married with 3 children.